Earn the Spatial Analysis Certificate
Practice the exercises below. When you feel ready, attempt the quiz to earn a verifiable certificate you can share on LinkedIn.
Spatial Analysis Exercises in R: 15 Practice Problems
Fifteen practice problems on spatial analysis in R with sf and raster: read, project, geometry operations, joins, choropleth maps.
library(sf)
library(dplyr)
library(ggplot2)Exercise 1: Read shapefile
Difficulty: Intermediate.
Show solution
nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"))
head(nc)Exercise 2: Check CRS
Difficulty: Intermediate.
Show solution
nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"), quiet = TRUE)
st_crs(nc)Exercise 3: Transform CRS
Difficulty: Advanced.
Show solution
nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"), quiet = TRUE)
st_transform(nc, 3857) |> head(1)Exercise 4: Plot
Difficulty: Beginner.
Show solution
nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"), quiet = TRUE)
plot(st_geometry(nc))Exercise 5: Choropleth with ggplot
Difficulty: Intermediate.
Show solution
nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"), quiet = TRUE)
ggplot2::ggplot(nc) + ggplot2::geom_sf(ggplot2::aes(fill = AREA))Exercise 6: Centroid
Difficulty: Intermediate.
Show solution
nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"), quiet = TRUE)
st_centroid(nc) |> head(1)Exercise 7: Compute areas
Difficulty: Intermediate.
Show solution
nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"), quiet = TRUE)
st_area(nc) |> head()Exercise 8: Buffer
Difficulty: Advanced.
Show solution
nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"), quiet = TRUE)
st_buffer(nc, dist = 0.05) |> head(1)Exercise 9: Spatial join (points in polygons)
Difficulty: Advanced.
Show solution
nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"), quiet = TRUE)
pts <- st_sample(nc, 10)
st_intersects(pts, nc)Exercise 10: Union
Difficulty: Advanced.
Show solution
nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"), quiet = TRUE)
st_union(nc) |> plot()Exercise 11: Distance between two points
Difficulty: Intermediate.
Show solution
p1 <- st_point(c(-74, 40.7))
p2 <- st_point(c(-118, 34.0))
st_sfc(p1, p2, crs = 4326) |> st_distance()Exercise 12: Filter by attribute
Difficulty: Beginner.
Show solution
nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"), quiet = TRUE)
nc |> filter(AREA > 0.1)Exercise 13: Write shapefile
Difficulty: Intermediate.
Show solution
nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"), quiet = TRUE)
st_write(nc, "out.gpkg", append = FALSE)Exercise 14: Bounding box
Difficulty: Beginner.
Show solution
nc <- st_read(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package="sf"), quiet = TRUE)
st_bbox(nc)Exercise 15: Raster basics
Difficulty: Advanced.
Show solution
# library(terra)
# r <- rast(system.file("ex/elev.tif", package = "terra"))
# plot(r)What to do next
- leaflet-Exercises (shipped), interactive maps.
- Data-Visualization-Exercises (shipped), viz fundamentals.
Ready to earn the Spatial Analysis Certificate?
The quiz is concept-based and respects your time: pass it once and your verifiable certificate is yours to share on LinkedIn, your resume, or your portfolio. Take it when you feel comfortable with the material.
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