How to create a GIS basemap in R? I am an expert GIS user moving towards R more and more.  I have been using R for some basic regressions and such, but I would like to begin to use and manipulate GIS data in R.
How can I create a basemap graphic similar to the one in this post:
Showing spatial and temporal correlation on maps
Again, I am a beginner in R and haven't found any other related thread here.
 A: R by itself does not handle GIS type of work but with different add-ons it can be a quite potent GIS device. You'd need to understand the idea of "package" (user-contributed scripts) and how to use install.packages("whateverPackage") command to install them.
I don't use R in GIS enough to show you the whole topography (pun totally intended), but the most commonly used packages I have seen are map, ggmap, ggplot2, RgoogleMaps, and plotGoogleMap.
Also, check out some sites and tutorials about this topic: 1, 2, 3, and 4. These got me started and within a day I could make some silly maps.
Lastly, this pdf probably contains some codes pertinent to the map you wish to create. Its $\LaTeX$ format is a bit off, but you can still get some general functionality and key commands.
Good luck!
A: You should read through the Spatial and possibly SpatialTemporal Taskviews on CRAN.  Those will give you an idea of what packages are available and gives brief descriptions of what they do and how they compare.
