Dear all,
Please find below information about an e-workshop on spatial
statistics and data analysis with R organised by Prof. Dave Unwin and
that is due to happen in the spring term of 2009. It is free but
you will need to register by contacting him (Prof. Dave Unwin,
[log in to unmask]).
Best wishes,
Virgilio Gomez-Rubio
Research Associate
Epidemiology and Public Health
Imperial College London
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e-Workshop
Spatial analysis in ‘R’
Spring term 2009
INTRODUCTION
Although some GIS include functionality for spatial analysis, many workers in
the field are unhappy with these implementations, which do not provide an
environment in which innovative new approaches can be developed. Although
several systems have been developed, in the research community many now use the
R environment. Initially, work at Lancaster used the commercial S+ system,
which was then coupled to ArcINFO, but this has subsequently been replaced by
use of the public domain R environment. In turn this has been coupled to
several GIS, particularly GRASS, and a number of libraries have been developed
to facilitate analysis. In addition R is used as a major computing vehicle in
many departments of statistics and is taught in at least three UK Masters
courses in Geography and GIS. In short, R has become the research environment
of choice for advanced spatial statistical analysis. Moreover, through the R
community other disciplines are being introduced to GISc ‘objects’ and how they
can be handled, so it forms a useful means of spreading the good word. In
collaboration with the Quantitative Methods Research Group of the Royal
Geographical Society (with IBG), the WUN Global GISc Academy will use its
Marratech™ desk top collaborative environment to deliver six workshop sessions
that collectively will provide a course in the use of R for spatial problems.
For an introduction to R, see Verzani, John (2005) Using R for Introductory
Statistics. Chapman & Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, FL, ISBN 1-584-88450-9., a version
of which is free at http://cran.r-project.org/doc/contrib/Verzani-SimpleR.pdf.
The same site has numerous other R-related resources.
A text dedicated to spatial work is due out in August 2008: Bivand, Roger S.,
Pebesma, Edzer J., Gómez-Rubio, Virgilio (2008) Applied Spatial Data Analysis
with R Approx. 410 p., Softcover, ISBN: 978-0-387-781709, (£34.00) and all the
code and data used to make the book will be at http://www.asdar-book.org
TARGET AUDIENCE
The workshop has been designed to meet the needs of:
*) Faculty wishing to learn about spatial R;
*) Beginning PhD and research Masters students who anticipate a need to program
spatial analysis in a GIS environment;
*) Students on MSc in GIS courses, taking the series as an adjunct to
their work;
*) Faculty familiar with R wishing to engage with spatial applications.
PRE-REQUISITES
In each case familiarity with standard computing environments will be assumed
as will a willingness to work between sessions and familiarity with basic
statistical analysis of spatial data. Familiarity with basic concepts of
programming will be an advantage, as will an up-to-date knowledge of methods of
spatial statistical analysis. Although the workshop is a collaborative venture
between WUN and the Quantitative Methods Research Group of the RGS (with IBG),
both are agreed that membership of one or the other isn’t a necessary condition
for attendance. If you are interested and intend to follow the workshop, then
please email to let Dave Unwin know and reserve a place ([log in to unmask]).
OBJECTIVES
After completing the workshop, you will be able to
*) Drive basic statistical analysis using R commands;
*) Use contributed R packages to run more complex spatial analyses;
*) Visualize geographic data using appropriate tools;
*) Develop R code to perform your own analysis as necessary.
WORKSHOP ENVIRONMENT
The workshop is freely open to all who have an interest and can be accessed
from the desk top (time zone permitting) from anywhere in the World. Would-be
participants are strongly advised to download the rather ‘thick’ Marratech™
client and familiarize themselves with its use well ahead of the first session.
A web-cam isn’t essential and to conserve bandwidth we will ask participants
other than the presenter not to use the video channel. We also strongly advise
use of a quality noise canceling headset for audio communication. There is a
guide to the Marratech™ environment to be used at
http://www.wun.ac.uk/ggisa/documents/pdfs/Seminar_user_guide.pdf
TIMING & SCHEDULE
The sessions will be every two weeks, all at 1700GMT as:
Date (2009) Presenter Topic
Jan 14th Rich Harris (Bristol) Why R? Using R for
geographical research
Jan 28th Nick Tate (Leicester) Basic statistics in R
Feb 11th Roger Bivand (Bergen) Handling spatial data in R
Feb 25th Edzer Pebesma (Munster) Spatial statistical
analysis in R
March 11th Chris Brunsdon (Leicester) Visualization in R and
OpenGL
March 25th Virgilio Spatial epidemiology and
Gomez-Rubio (Imperial, London) disease mapping in R
Dave Unwin WUN Global GIS Academy Coordinator
