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Download data from Natural Earth and (optionally) read into R

Source: R/ne_download.R
ne_download.Rd

returns downloaded data as a spatial object or the filename if load=FALSE. if destdir is specified the data can be reloaded in a later R session using ne_load with the same arguments.

Usage

ne_download(
  scale = 110L,
  type = "countries",
  category = c("cultural", "physical", "raster"),
  destdir = tempdir(),
  load = TRUE,
  returnclass = c("sf", "sv")
)

Arguments

scale

The scale of map to return, one of `110`, `50`, `10` or `small`, `medium`, `large`.

type

type of natural earth file to download one of 'countries', 'map_units', 'map_subunits', 'sovereignty', 'states' OR the portion of any natural earth vector url after the scale and before the . e.g. for 'ne_50m_urban_areas.zip' this would be 'urban_areas'. See Details. OR the raster filename e.g. for 'MSR_50M.zip' this would be 'MSR_50M'

category

one of natural earth categories : 'cultural', 'physical', 'raster'

destdir

where to save files, defaults to tempdir(), getwd() is also possible.

load

`TRUE` to load the spatial object into R, `FALSE` to return the filename of the downloaded object. If the requested object is a vector, it will be saved as a GPKG file. If a raster is requested, it will be saved as a GeoTIFF file.

returnclass

A string determining the spatial object to return. Either "sf" for for simple feature (from `sf`, the default) or "sv" for a `SpatVector` (from `terra`).

Value

An object of class `sf` for simple feature (from `sf`, the default) or `SpatVector` (from `terra`).

Details

Note that the filename of the requested object will be returned if `load = FALSE`.

If the data is to be loaded into memory (`load = TRUE`), the download will be handled using the GDAL virtual file system, allowing direct access to the data without writing it to disk.

See also

ne_load, pre-downloaded data are available using ne_countries, ne_states. Other geographic data are available in the raster package : getData.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
spdf_world <- ne_download(scale = 110, type = "countries")

plot(spdf_world)
plot(ne_download(type = "populated_places"))

# reloading from the saved file in the same session with same arguments

spdf_world2 <- ne_load(scale = 110, type = "countries")

# download followed by load from specified directory will work across sessions
spdf_world <- ne_download(scale = 110, type = "countries", destdir = getwd())
spdf_world2 <- ne_load(scale = 110, type = "countries", destdir = getwd())

# for raster, here an example with Manual Shaded Relief (MSR) download & load

rst <- ne_download(scale = 50, type = "MSR_50M", category = "raster", destdir = getwd())

# load after having downloaded
rst <- ne_load(
  scale = 50, type = "MSR_50M", category = "raster", destdir = getwd()
)

# plot
library(terra)
terra::plot(rst)
# end dontrun
} # }