Ecological Connectivity Analysis in Delta Cities

A Case Study in Rotterdam and Guangzhou

Group A — MSc Geomatics, TU Delft

This repository contains the reproducible research report for the Applied Spatial Analytics 2026 course. The report analyses ecological connectivity in the delta cities Rotterdam and Guangzhou, and proposes targeted Nature-based Solutions based on the findings.

https://applied-spatial-analytics.github.io/create-your-report-group-a/

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Repository Structure

create-your-report-group-a/

├── .github/ # GitHub Classroom configuration and feedback

├── data/ # Input data files (GeoPackages for clustering)

│ ├── gz_grid_clustering.gpkg # Guangzhou grid with clustering variables

│ └── rt_grid_clustering.gpkg # Rotterdam grid with clustering variables

├── docs/ # Rendered site published via GitHub Pages

├── images/ # Source figures and maps used in the report

├── .gitignore # Files excluded from version control

├── .nojekyll # Disables Jekyll processing on GitHub Pages

├── README.md # This file

├── _quarto.yml # Quarto project configuration

├── asa2025-report.Rproj # RStudio project file

└── report.qmd # Main Quarto report file (source)

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Main Files and Folders

report.qmd — The main source file of the report, written in Quarto. It combines prose, R code chunks, and figures into a single reproducible document. All analyses, clustering, and tables are generated directly from this file.

report.html — The rendered HTML output. Open this in a browser to view the full report without needing to render it yourself.

docs/ — The rendered site published via GitHub Pages.

data/ — Contains the GeoPackage files for Rotterdam and Guangzhou, which store the spatial grid with betweenness centrality, patch count, patch capacity, and LCZ values used for the k-means clustering analysis.

images/ — Contains all maps and figures referenced in the report, including MSPA outputs, ecological connectivity maps, ecological resistance layers, and zoom-in maps for both cities.

report_files/ — Supporting files automatically generated by Quarto when rendering the report. Do not edit manually.

asa2025-report.Rproj — The RStudio project file. Open this to start working on the report in RStudio.

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How to Render the Report

1. Clone the repository in RStudio via File → New Project → Version Control → Git and paste the repository URL.

2. Open asa2025-report.Rproj to open the project in RStudio.

3. Make sure the following R packages are installed:

install.packages(c("sf", "dplyr", "tidyr", "knitr"))

4. Open report.qmd and click the Render button in RStudio, or run the following in the terminal:

quarto render report.qmd

5. The rendered output will appear as report.html in the root folder. Open it in a browser to view the full report.

6. After making changes, follow the standard Git workflow: stage → commit → push

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com/sdgis-edu-tud/asa2025/discussions).