Spatial data analysis (SDA) tools to efficiently handle and explore spatial data have become readily available. Although these SDA tools have their own strengths and purposes, they suffer from limited support in terms of a development environment offering easy customization and high extensibility, a strength of open source software.

This is a stand-alone software package for SDA in a geographic information systems (GIS) environment, called Spatial Analysis using ArcGIS Engine and R (SAAR), which provides an integrated GIS and SDA environment. A set of SDA tools in SAAR utilize functions in R using R.NET, while other tools were developed in .NET independent of R.

SAAR provides an efficient working environment for both general and advanced GIS users. For general GIS users with limited programming skills, SAAR furnishes advanced SDA tools in a popular ArcGIS environment with graphical user interfaces. For advanced GIS users, SAAR offers an extensible GIS platform to help them customize and implement SDA functions with relatively little development effort.

You can find an installation file, a user tutorial and a sample dataset from the below:

• SAAR webpage
• Developer's personal homepage
• Download the current version of SAAR installation file (1.0.7)

The reference for SAAR appears in Koo et al. (2018).

• Koo, H., Chun, Y., and Griffith, D. A. (2018). Integrating spatial data analysis functionalities in a GIS environment: Spatial Analysis using ArcGIS Engine and R (SAAR). Transactions in GIS, 22(3), 721-736.