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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

rnaturalearth 1.1.0

New features

  • Data is now downloaded using the GDAL Virtual File System, allowing ne_download() to read data directly from the zip file without requiring extraction.

  • We are transitioning to the GeoPackage format when load = FALSE is used in ne_download(). This modern format is more efficient and flexible than the traditional shapefile format.

  • Similarly, raster data (GeoTIFF) is now read directly from the zip file and written to the specified directory. For example, the following code downloads the 50m raster dataset and saves it to the working directory:

    ne_download(
  scale = 50,
  type = "MSR_50M",
  category = "raster",
  load = FALSE,
  destdir = getwd()
)

Bug fixes and general improvements

  • Updated the base URL for downloading data to https://naciscdn.org/naturalearth, replacing the previous https://naturalearth.s3.amazonaws.com/ url. This change aligns with the Natural Earth website’s source.

  • Improved package loading time by removing unnecessary imports and implementing lazy loading of dependencies (#119). Thanks to @heavywatal.

  • Using the cli package for better messages.

  • Correctly downloading parks and protected areas (#114)

ne_download(
  scale = 10,
  type = "parks_and_protected_lands_line",
  category = "cultural"
)

ne_download(
  scale = 10,
  type = "parks_and_protected_lands_point",
  category = "cultural"
)

ne_download(
  scale = 10,
  type = "parks_and_protected_lands_scale_rank",
  category = "cultural"
)

  • rnaturalearth now requires rnaturalearthdata (>= 1.0.0) and rnaturalearthhires (>= 1.0.0).

  • Correctly returning the file name in ne_download() when setting load = FALSE

ne_download(
  type = "MSR_50M",
  category = "raster",
  scale = 50,
  load = FALSE
)

rnaturalearth 1.0.1

CRAN release: 2023-12-15

  • Do not test functions who rely on rnaturalearthhires because it is not available on CRAN.

rnaturalearth 1.0.0

CRAN release: 2023-12-12

Breaking changes

This is a breaking changes release that ends support to sp object in favour of more modern interfaces (sf and terra). Although that sp is still available on CRAN, it is no longer being actively developed (https://geocompx.org/post/2023/rgdal-retirement/). This is the main reason that motivated the choice to transition toward sf (the default) and terra.

Users can choose either get an sf or SpatVector using the returnclass argument:

ne_countries(returnclass = "sf")
ne_countries(returnclass = "sv")

Affected functions are ne_countries(), ne_coastline(), ne_states(), ne_load() and ne_download().

If changing the return type to sf creates too many problems to your existing code, you can still convert it back to sp :

countries <- ne_countries(returnclass = "sf")

# option 1
sf::as_Spatial(countries)


# option 2
as(countries, "Spatial")

More information about the retirement of rgdal, rgeos and maptools: https://r-spatial.org/r/2022/04/12/evolution.html

Bugfix

  • Correctly downloading and reading raster object (#96, closes #52).

rnaturalearth 0.3.4

CRAN release: 2023-08-21

  • This is a maintenance release that document/use the new special sentinel “_PACKAGE”.

rnaturalearth 0.3.3

CRAN release: 2023-06-06

  • Using lifecycle to indicate that support of sp object will be eventually dropped. Users should now use ne_download(returnclass = "sf"), instead of ne_download(returnclass = "sp").

  • terra is now included in the Imports section.

rnaturalearth 0.3.2

CRAN release: 2023-01-23

rnaturalearth 0.3.0 2021-10-11

  • fix rnaturalearthhires installation #47 thank you Ian Taylor for #43

rnaturalearth 0.2.0

  • add to river options in ne_download() by adding to data_list_physical.csv fixing #23
  • update data to new version Natural Earth v4.1 released May 2018.

rnaturalearth 0.1.0 CRAN

CRAN release: 2017-03-21

  • Initial release
  • sf support