R for GIS and Remote Sensing Tutorials

Welcome to GIS and Remote Sensing with R Tutorials — a collection of step‑by‑step guides for learning spatial data analysis, map making, and remote sensing using the R programming language.

What you’ll find here

  • Getting Started: Install R, RStudio, and essential spatial packages.
  • Vector Data Analysis: Work with points, lines, polygons, and perform spatial operations.
  • Raster Data Analysis: Handle raster data, generate products from elevation data, and extract raster values.
  • Cartography - Map Making: Create static and interactive maps with ggplot2, tmap, and leaflet.
  • Remote Sensing: Compute spectral indices, land cover classification, and change detection workflows.
  • Google Earth Engine: Connect R to GEE with rgee for large‑scale cloud analysis.
  • Case Studies: Apply your skills to real‑world problems.

Who is this for?

These tutorials are designed for:

  • Students learning GIS and remote sensing.
  • Researchers analyzing spatial data to solve real-world problems.
  • Professionals who want to add R to their geospatial toolkit.

Basic GIS and Remote Sensing knowledge is required, prior R or computer programming experience is not a requirement.If you are new to GIS go through this and Remote Sensing, start from here

How to use this site

  • Each tutorial is self‑contained and includes code snippets, explanations, and screenshots.
  • Tutorials are grouped by category so you can jump directly to the topic you need.
  • Follow along interactively in RStudio or VS Code for the best learning experience.

Tutorials data

The dataset used for these tutorials can be dowlnoalded from here

Start learning

👉 Begin with the Introduction to understand the basics, or dive straight into the Getting started tutorials.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Under this license, you are allowed to use, share or modify the document in any way you seem fit and even make commercial use of it. You only need to give appropriate credit to the author for the original work.

About the author

These tutorials are written and maintained by Dickson Mbeya.