Course Description

Many R programmers need to create custom data maps in R. By "custom maps" I don't mean changing the colors of the map, or other cosmetic tweaks. Instead, I mean mapping a custom geography such as voting districts, neighborhoods and so on. These maps are often distributed as shapefiles. Shapefiles often confuse and frustrate even veteran R programmers.

The good news is this: shapefiles don't have to be confusing or hard to work with. Even better, when you become comfortable with them, it opens up countless doors in data analysis for you.

This course centers around a single example: mapping noise complaints in San Francisco. San Francisco is divided into "Supervisor Districts", and together we will create a choropleth map of this data:


There are several steps involved in creating this map, and I carefully walk you through each one of them. 

Satisfaction Guaranteed: If you buy the course, watch the videos, and don't feel like you learned something useful, I will give you a full refund.

Instructor

Ari Lamstein

Ari Lamstein is a software engineer and data analyst in San Francisco, California. He is the author of several popular R packages, including Choroplethr. He has spoken internationally on mapping demographic statistics in R.

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Introduction

    • Welcome

    • Project Overview

    • Getting the Shapefile

    • Links and Shapefile
  • 2

    Shapefiles in QGIS

    • Getting QGIS

    • Download the Links

    • Opening Shapefiles and Identifying Regions

    • Zooming and Navigating

    • Deleting Regions: Part 1

    • Deleting Regions: Part 2

    • GIS: Conclusion
  • 3

    Shapefiles in R

    • Installing the Packages

    • Download the Code

    • Importing and Plotting the Shapefile

    • Plotting the Shapefile with ggplot2

    • Zooming In

    • Tweaking the Map

    • Projections
  • 4

    Choropleth Maps with ggplot2

    • Data and Code

    • Reading in Data

    • Making the Map: Part 1

    • Making the Map: Part 2
  • 5

    Choropleth Map with Choroplethr

    • Code

    • Creating the Choroplethr Object

    • Creating the Map

    • Changing Colors

    • Adding a Reference Map

    • How to Zoom

    • Encapsulation
  • 6

    Conclusion

    • Conclusion

Reviews

5 star rating

Thank you Ari

Adriano Longo

Hi Ari, I just finished your course and very much enjoyed it. Your tone and delivery is easy and pleasant to follow. The technical explanations were ...

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Hi Ari, I just finished your course and very much enjoyed it. Your tone and delivery is easy and pleasant to follow. The technical explanations were clear and comprehensive. I'm most excited about the render_with_reference_map() function. I'm very grateful for you taking the time to compile this course; I have learnt a lot from it and can't wait to plot my own data/maps. Kind regards, Adriano Longo

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5 star rating

Robert Kahne

Robert Kahne

I have some experience working with choroplethr and with choropleth maps in ggplot 2. This course really did help to get me started with making my OWN maps ...

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I have some experience working with choroplethr and with choropleth maps in ggplot 2. This course really did help to get me started with making my OWN maps out of my OWN shapefiles. I hope to use this knowledge as a part of the Civic Data Alliance (the Code for America chapter in Louisville, KY) to do some projects with political data. I don't know if the course was worth $99, but I have gotten far more than $99 of use out of choroplethr and therefore did not mind the price.

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4 star rating

Everything you want to know about shapefiles in bite-size...

John Beltrami

Ari Lamstein gently leads us through the process of using shapefiles with a series of short but pithy videos. None of the bite-sized pieces is hard to swallo...

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Ari Lamstein gently leads us through the process of using shapefiles with a series of short but pithy videos. None of the bite-sized pieces is hard to swallow. The ideas are laid out in clear, logical fashion and the videos are just long enough to cover the topic at hand without confusing the viewer with unrelated or extraneous material. It was a pleasure to watch Ari build a series of maps from the same base data, adding new features and pointing out various pitfalls or extra options along the way. I took in the big picture in one pass through the course and I look forward to replaying individual sections for reinforcement when I tackle new projects.

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