Chapter 4 Variations of Thematic Mapping
In this chapter we are going to discuss some additional features around thematic maps. Specifically, we will address some of the problems we confront when we are trying to use choropleth maps, as well as some alternatives to point-based maps. We will also briefly introduce the modifiable area unit problem.
The main objectives for this chapter are that by the end you will have:
-
Explored binning as an alternative to point maps.
-
Been introduced to alternative visualisations of polygon-level data such as:
-
cartograms, and
-
bi-variate thematic maps.
-
-
Gained an insight into the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem.
In this chapter, we will be making use of the following libraries:
# Packages for reading data and data carpentry
library(readr)
library(dplyr)
library(tidyr)
# Packages for handling spatial data and for geospatial carpentry
library(sf)
# Packages for mapping and visualisation
library(ggplot2)
library(ggspatial)
library(hexbin)
library(cowplot)
library(cartogram)
