Power Mapping!

"In my spare time I've started teaching my self R".

Whenever I tell people this I get an odd look, like there is something wrong with a guy who spends spare time learning to program rather than sipping latte's while discussing the latest prime minister.

A curse of the passionately curious I guess.

For those of you not in the know R is a free open source software package designed primarily for statistical analysis ill write more about R in a future post simply because it is so amazing. But for now lets talk about maps.

Dead useful things maps.  Especially if you want to go somewhere. but they can also be an incredibly powerful visualization tools  if you overlay location data over the top.

In the picture I have sourced a data set containing details of every car accident in  Tasmania from 2009 to 2013 (all 170,000 of them), and created a heat-map of high accident zones around the Hobart CBD. I have like a plain street view but satellite view is just as easy.

From this it becomes apparent that most accidents occur in high traffic intersections such as Argyle St as people leave the multistory car park, or at the intersection of Sandy Bay road and Davey st.

That's really nothing that common sense isn't already telling us. More cars maneuvering and merging in a tight space? of course there will be more accidents.

But this same technique can be used for many purposes. eg

• Mapping the presence and location of pests, and evaluating the location of the nest
• pH mapping of a field,
• Mapping of moisture flows through a paddock
• Tracking social behaviors such as crime, voting, ice cream consumption etc

All you need is a data set and a location, the rest is easy with a little R.