Linked Micromap Plots using the micromapST R Package

Music City Center 

Linked micromap plots display geospatial data on small maps linked by color to statistical graphics, enabling the user to explore and to communicate the underlying patterns in the data. Sorting by a statistical column can reveal geospatial clusters of similar values or correlations between the columns.

Carr et al. added small maps to row-labeled plots to show the spatial context of the data. Implementations of the plots were first in S-plus, then JAVA and then an R package, micromapST, first released in 2013. We designed the R package to produce publishable quality output with minimal user input. By using mostly basic R functions, iterative applications for exploratory spatial data analysis run quickly.

Although the first version only displayed U.S. maps at the state level, subsequent versions can display data for other geographic units. The new version allows users to supply their own geographic boundary file so that linked micromaps can be produced for virtually any geospatial structure. Also, new types of glyphs and user options have been added.

We will describe linked micromap plots and demonstrate how to use the latest version of micromapST to produce them

Data visualization

Micromaps

Geospatial data

Exploratory Data Analysis