RPostgreSQL and schemas

The database PostgreSQL can have different schemas. These work like a window for users, where they get to see specific things within a database, e.g. tables. In this post we’ll look at how… Continue reading →

R with GRASS GIS – easiest Munros

I’ve been having a more sustained play with R and GRASS together. I’ve previously used them, in tandem, for processing satellite images, but haven’t been much further. In this post I’ll look at… Continue reading →

R – iteratively changing column classes

When you write an ESRI Shapefile from R, writeOGR assumes your numeric fields are real numbers and so you get a lot of redundant zeros appended. This is misleading and distracting when you… Continue reading →

R – Change columns names in a spatial dataframe

Ordnance Survey have a great OpenRoads dataset, but unfortunately it contains a column called ‘primary’, which is a keyword in SQL. This makes it challenging/impossible to import the OpenRoads dataset into a SQL… Continue reading →

Converting (British) National Grid references

I was supplied spatial point data this summer where the locations were detailed in Ordnance Survey’s National Grid (NGR) format. If you’re not familiar with it, rather than using eastings and northings (in… Continue reading →

EARL 2016 talk

I spoke on 14th September at the EARL (Effective Applications of the R Language) conference in London. This is event is concerned exclusively with the R programming language and it was the first… Continue reading →

PhD corrections accepted!

My PhD has been a long road, but there’s only one hurdle left: submitting a hard bound copy of my thesis. I got word today that my thesis corrections have been accepted. In… Continue reading →

Collaborative writing in the 21st century

Every now and then we have to play with others. It doesn’t seem to matter how often our parents told us to share, we can still find it difficult. I’m spending a lot… Continue reading →

Hydrological uncertainty – Manning’s equation

John Yagecic put out a great little blog post with accompanying app this week. He looked at the uncertainty from using vague parameters in Manning’s equation to estimate river flow. He made the… Continue reading →

Mapping from GPS files

I’m just back from a 7 day cycle tour of Arran, Islay, Bute and the bits in between. I wanted to create a map of the route from the GPS log files of… Continue reading →