Creating Maps in R (Case Study: National Park “Fruška Gora”)

This paper aims to present the possibilities for creating maps in the programming language R. Even though R is primarily developed as a statistical program, its application in the area of mapping and spatial statistics is becoming frequent and highly relevant. Many R packages make the mapping process easier and user-friendly, and this paper presents the most commonly used ones: “leaflet”, “ggplot2” and “ggmap”. The selection of the R package depends on the user’s proficiency in R programming but also depends on the visual quality of the map the user wants to gain. Based on the questionnaire conducted in this research, the paper recommends application of the “leaflet” package for the beginners, the “ggplot2” package for medium proficient users, and the “ggmap” package for the most advanced R users. After creating maps in R it is possible to conduct additional analysis related to processing of the spatial data contained within, and this would be a recommendation for future research. In this paper, the mapping process is demonstrated on the case study of the National Park “Fruška gora” in Serbia, and different types of maps are presented.