This is an excellent introduction in how to import and manipulate data from ESRI shapefiles (GIS vector data) within R.  It utilises the R packages rgdal and maptools and addresses how to read shapefiles into R and how to manage projection systems.

This How to guide was kindly contibuted by Els Duhceyne at Euro-AeGIS and Avia-GIS. A member of the EDENext Data Management Team.

Please view our R-Project Sample Scripts page for other R snippets that may be of use to you and your research.