Title Card: Creator: Parisa Setayesh | Level: Beginner–Intermediate | Category: Tools: Building Maps

Why this matters
GCDI’s Quick and easy mapping with R frames R as a versatile tool widely used by academics, which makes it a particularly strong pathway for researchers who already work in a coding environment. On the R side, the tmap package describes itself as a flexible, layer-based, easy-to-use system for thematic maps such as choropleths and bubble maps, while ggplot2’s geom_sf() and coord_sf() provide native support for visualizing simple feature objects.

Key ideas

• R supports reproducible mapmaking.
• Scripted workflows are useful when maps need to be updated or repeated.
• Thematic maps work especially well in R.
• Coding can reduce repetitive clicking.

Lesson
This lesson should introduce R not as a replacement for every other tool, but as an especially useful environment for people who want maps to be part of a broader analytical workflow. If your data cleaning, modeling, and visualization already happen in R, then making the map there can save time and increase reproducibility. It is especially good for thematic maps, repeated outputs, and research workflows that will evolve.

This is also a good place to demystify coding a little. The point is not to turn every beginner into a programmer overnight. It is to show that code-based mapping can sometimes be the simpler option when you need consistency, versioning, or automation.

Example Project or GCDI resource
Use Quick and easy mapping with R as the GCDI anchor. It already frames R as an accessible and worthwhile mapping tool for academic users, which fits your intended audience very well.

Open reading / resource
Use the CRAN documentation for tmap together with the ggplot2 reference for geom_sf(). That pair gives you a nice contrast between a mapping-first package and a general graphics system with strong spatial support.

Reflection / mini activity
Write 4–5 sentences on this question: when would you rather make a map in R than in a GUI tool like QGIS or StoryMaps?