Introduction to geomatics for statisticians: some innovative concepts and tools for storing, processing and disseminating spatial information

This document is intended as a simple presentation for statisticians of recent geomatics tools, which allow the storage, processing and dissemination of spatial information. Softwares like R or Python now integrate directly geographical characteristics making their processing more accessible. However, the proliferation of technologies, the possibilities offered by the web, web technologies, are all obstacles to overcome for those wishing to produce powerful thematic maps. This document offers a unified presentation of geomatics concepts, with code snippets in R, Python and PostGIS. It focuses on vector data and describes the classic treatments and manipulations to know to build a spatial statistic. It also addresses the tools and flows allowing dynamic dissemination (interactive maps) of spatial information. Finally, it discusses the role of spatialization in the representation of statistical data.