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MazamaSpatialPlots

A suite of convenience functions for generating thematic maps using datasets
from the MazamaSpatialUtils package.

Background

Maps colored by state and county (aka "chloropleth maps") are among the most common data graphics and are used to convey everything from vote totals to economic and health statistics. Well designed maps involve a careful choice of map projections and colors for both the state/county fill and boundary lines. Unfortunately, creating beautiful maps in R is still somewhat involved.

The MazamaSpatialPlots package provides plotting functionality to make it as easy as possible to produce beautiful US state and county level maps. It builds on the excellent tmap package and harnesses datasaets from the MazamaSpatialUtils package. High-level plotting functions make it easy for users to create beautiful chloropleth maps. The underlying code uses ggplot2 so users familiar with ggplot2 can easily enhance the returned plot objects to create highly customized plots.

This project is supported by Mazama Science.