Spatial Data Fundamentals in R

July 17, 2025
Andy Lyons

https://ucanr-igis.github.io/SpatialDataFundamentals_Jul25/

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About Me…

IGIS Team

Some of My R Work

degday

Compute degree days in R
https://ucanr-igis.github.io/degday/

uasimg

Data management utilities for drone mapping
https://ucanr-igis.github.io/uasimg/

caladaptR

Bring climate data from Cal-Adapt into R using the API
https://ucanr-igis.github.io/caladaptr/

T-Locoh

Homerange and spatial-temporal pattern analysis for wildlife tracking data
http://tlocoh.r-forge.r-project.org/

Shiny Apps

Chill Portions Under Climate Change Calculator
https://ucanr-igis.shinyapps.io/chill/

Drone Mission Planner for Reforestation Monitoring Protocol
https://ucanr-igis.shinyapps.io/uav_stocking_survey/

Stock Pond Volume Calculator
https://ucanr-igis.shinyapps.io/PondCalc/

Pistachio Nut Growth Calculator
https://ucanr-igis.shinyapps.io/pist_gdd/

About You…

I’m already good at GIS.
Why should I learn R?

R - GIS Integration

GIS is no longer one thing!

‘Either-or’ is not the best way to to think about your options

A better question:

How to combine R with desktop GIS and cloud GIS?

Roles that R can play

R as a replacement for (some) GIS tasks
especially where data is concerned
Automating workflows
example: Preparing Reference GIS Layers for a Web Map with R
R for Spatial Analysis
example: Forest Tools
Accessing resources with R
API clients often come out fast and first in Open Source
R as a command and control center

Where R shines

R as a development platform
Spatial stats
Sharing code and data as packages
Out-of-the-box operations
new spatial and statistic techniques
Generating new data from scratch
Reporting
Shiny apps

Integrating R and GIS

R ↔︎ ArcGIS
R-ArcGIS Bridge
arcgislayers
R ↔︎ QGIS
Processing R Provider plugin
R ↔︎ Cloud data and services
API packages
httr

R and Python

R and Python actually play very well together:

Importing and Plotting Vector Data

https://ajlyons.github.io/rspatial_bgs24/slides/importing-vector.html

Why do I need to learn this?
Can’t ChatGPT write my code for me?

Learning R with GenAI

https://www.tidyverse.org/blog/2025/04/learn-tidyverse-ai/

Highlights

ChatGPT will give you code.
It may or may not work.
It may or may not be good code (probably not).
You should always cross check it with the documentation.

Suggestions for Using ChatGPT to Learn R

“Use code completion tools sparingly if you’re a new user.”
ChatGPT is good for getting starter code, discovering functions, arguments, solving a simple, well-defined problem, etc.
Break a task into smaller steps.
Don’t depend on ChatGPT to create a workflow or chain
Be wary of code you don’t understand.
R has great documentation & tutorials online - take advantage of it.

Other Tips

Claude is good at code
Give models the ability to read R package documentation using the Model Context Protocol (source)
Some people like the GenAI code-completion features in IDEs

What are your best practices?

Additional Resources

Geocomputation with R: https://r.geocompx.org/

see also: https://py.geocompx.org/

Many others: https://ajlyons.github.io/rspatial_bgs24/resources.html

Spatial Data Fundamentals in R

Start Recording

About Me…

IGIS Team

Some of My R Work

degday

uasimg

caladaptR

T-Locoh

Shiny Apps

About You…

I’m already good at GIS.
Why should I learn R?

R - GIS Integration

GIS is no longer one thing!

‘Either-or’ is not the best way to to think about your options

A better question:

Roles that R can play

Where R shines

Integrating R and GIS

R and Python

Importing and Plotting Vector Data

Why do I need to learn this?
Can’t ChatGPT write my code for me?

Learning R with GenAI

What are your best practices?

Additional Resources

Part 2

Part 3

Spatial Data Fundamentals in R

Start Recording

About Me…

IGIS Team

Some of My R Work

degday

uasimg

caladaptR

T-Locoh

Shiny Apps

About You…

I’m already good at GIS.Why should I learn R?

R - GIS Integration

GIS is no longer one thing!

‘Either-or’ is not the best way to to think about your options

A better question:

Roles that R can play

Where R shines

Integrating R and GIS

R and Python

Importing and Plotting Vector Data

Why do I need to learn this?Can’t ChatGPT write my code for me?

Learning R with GenAI

What are your best practices?

Additional Resources

Part 2

Part 3

I’m already good at GIS.
Why should I learn R?

Why do I need to learn this?
Can’t ChatGPT write my code for me?