| r. | rechts |
| R | Range; Release; Ruin |
| R&A OSS | Research and Analysis Branch, Office of Strategic Services (U.S.) |
| RAC | Related Accreditation Commission (ABET) |
| RAD | Rapid development application |
| RADAR | Radio Detecting and Ranging |
| RADEF | Road Administration Data Exchange Format |
| RAID | Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks |
| RAIM | Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (GPS) |
| RALI | Resource and Land Information; Resource and Land Investigations (program LIA) |
| RALS | Random access logical subfiles |
| RAM | Random access memory |
| RAP | Regional applications program |
| RAPID | Rapid Application Planning Implementation and Deployment (GeoData Solutions, Inc.) |
| RAS | Remote Analysis Systems |
| RASC | Royal Australian Survey Corps |
| RASVY | Royal Australian Survey Corps |
| RATP | Regie autonome des transports parisiens |
| RBDS | Radio broadcast data system |
| RBE | Rule-Base Engine |
| RBI | River Basin Investigation |
| RBMS | Relational Database Management System |
| RBV | Return Beam Vidicon |
| RCA | Radio Corporation of America |
| RCC | Regional census center |
| RCH | Reach |
| RCIC | Regional Coastal Information Center |
| RCID | Record ID (Identification) |
| RCRA | Resource Conservation and Recovery Act |
| RCS | Research Camera System |
| RCSSMRS | Regional Centre for Services in Surveying and Mapping and Remote Sensing (Nairobi) |
| RCWD | Rancho California Water District |
| R&D | Research and development |
| RDBMS | Relational database management system |
| RDGE | Ridge |
| RDI | Resource Data International Inc. |
| RDS | Radio data system |
| RDTS | Research and Development Tracking System (BLM) |
| RE | Royal Engineers (U.K.) |
| REA | Rural Electrification Administration (U.S.) |
| REAP | Regional Environmental Applications Program (N. Dakota) |
| REC | Recompile(d) |
| RE COMP | Recompile |
| RECOMP | Recompilation |
| RECON | Retrospective conversion |
| REDI | Real Estate Data Inc. |
| REGIS | Regional Geographic Information System (Kent County, Mich.) |
| Reichsb | Reichsbahn = National railroad |
| Reichsbf | Reichsbahnhof = National railroad station |
| RELOS | Regional Locator System |
| RepCode | Representation Code |
| RESCU | Remote Emergency Satellite Cellular Unit |
| RESTEC | Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan |
| RET | Rotterdamsche Electrische Tram |
| RETSAM | Review, Editing and Tagging Software for Automated Mapping |
| REU | Resources Evaluation Unit (USFS) |
| Rev | Revised |
| REVPG | Revision and Product Generation System |
| RF | Representative fraction; Reef; Radio frequency |
| RfC | Reference concentration |
| RFPMG | Radar Fixed Point Minigraphic |
| RGB | Red-green-blue |
| Rgbf | Rangierbahnhof = Shunting station |
| RGD | Rijks Geologische Dienst (Netherlands) |
| RGS | Royal Geographical Society (U.K.) |
| RH | Regional hydrologist; Relative humidity |
| RI | Rhode Island |
| R.I. | Rhode Island |
| RIAI | Royal Inst. of Architects of Ireland |
| RICS | Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (U.K.) |
| RIG | RETSAM/Intergraph/Giant |
| RIJP | Rijksdienst voor de IJsselmeerpolders (Netherlands) |
| RIN | Realty Information Network |
| RINEX | Receiver Independent Exchange (GPS data format) |
| RIP | Raster Image Processing; Raster Image Processor; Road Inventory Program |
| RIPS | Remote Image Processing System; Remote Information Processing System |
| RIRT | Russian Inst. of Radionavigation and Time |
| RIS | Rapid Imaging Software; Retroreflector in Space |
| RISC | Reduced Instruction Set Computer |
| RKSW | Rocks in water |
| RKW | Rock in water |
| RL | Rannsoknastofnun Landbunadarins (Iceland) |
| RLE | Run-length encoded |
| RM | Replacement mapping |
| RMA | Reliability, Maintainability and Availability |
| RMCA | Road Map Collectors of America |
| RMK | R.M. Keddal & Associates, Inc. |
| RMM | Rocky Mountain Mapping Center (USGS) |
| RMSE | Root mean squared error |
| RMSI | Risk Management Solutions Inc. |
| RMT | Remotely measured target |
| RNRC | Renewable Natural Resources Center |
| RNRF | Renewable Natural Resources Foundation |
| RO | Range only |
| RODOBRAS | Comiss~ao Especial construc~ao da Rodovia Belem-Brasilia |
| ROM | Read-Only Memory |
| ROMANSE | Road Management System for Europe |
| ROMP | Regional Observation Monitoring (well) Program |
| ROP | Raster operations processor |
| R-O-W | Right-of-Way |
| RP | Reference point |
| RPDS | Rapids |
| RPE | Regional political ecology |
| RPF | Raster product format |
| RPID | Representation module ID |
| RPIE | Replacement Photographic Image Equipment |
| RPMIS | Real Property Management Information System |
| RPP | RBV Preprocessor |
| RPU | Remote positioning unit |
| RQA | River Quality Assessment |
| RRDS | Reduced Resolution Data Set |
| RRH | Regional Research Hydrologist |
| R/S | Remote sensing |
| RSAL | Remote Sensing Applications Laboratory (Univ. of Washington) |
| RSC/TAMU | Remote Sensing Center/Texas A&M Univ. |
| RSI | Remotely Sensed Imagery; RADARSAT International Remote Sensing Institute (S.Dakota State Univ.) |
| RSIP | Remote Sensing and Image Processing |
| RSRP | Remote Sensing Research Program (Univ. of Calif., Berkeley) |
| RSRT | Resort |
| RSSC | Remote Sensing Science Council |
| RST | Representation Style Table |
| RSTF | Remote Sensing Task Force |
| RSTN | Railroad station |
| RSV | Reservoir |
| RSVP | Resource reservation protocol |
| RT | Radio tower; Real time; Remote terminal |
| RTA | Regional Transport Authority (Illinois) |
| RTCM | Radio Technical Commission for Maritime (format) |
| RTF | Rich Text Format |
| RT-GPS | Real-time Differential GPS |
| RTK | Real-time kinematic; Right-to-Know Network |
| RTP | Real Time Positioning |
| R&TS | Research & Technical Standards |
| RTSD | Royal Thai Survey Dept. |
| RTSI | Routing Technology Software Inc. |
| RTTK | Real Time TurboKinematic (Allen Obsobne Associates) |
| RTV | Raster to vector |
| RUIN | Ruins |
| RUIS | San Diego Regional Urban Information System |
| RUS | Rest of the U.S. |
| RV | Reise- und Verkehrsverlag |
| R-VIS | Reality Visualization |
| RVP | Raster-to-vector processor; Radar Verification Programme |