Creating Hexbin Maps in R
Objective
The objective of this tutorial is to create a hexbin choropleth map of U.S. education costs in RStudio. Users will learn how to create a hexbin map from a geospatial object and plot thematic openly available data.This tutorial will additionally demonstrate how to add cartographic elements including symbolization and labelling. Through this tutorial, users will have the opportunity to explore the spatial capabilities of the software and learn more about advanced cartographic design.
This tutorial contributes to the collection of Open Source GIS tutorials created by Carleton University students.
'Note: This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of the R programming language. This version of the tutorial was created using a Windows platform with R version.'
Why Hexagons?
Getting Started
Downloading the Software
The first step of this tutorial is downloading R and RStudio if they are not already installed on your device. R version 4.1.2 is the latest version of the software released in 2021.
R is a widely used open-source software environment used for data manipulation and analysis (statistics, graphics, etc.). R is easily customizable and is executed line by line in a console. For the purposes of this tutorial, R will be accessed through an integrated development environment (IDE) called RStudio.