ne_download function

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

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.

ne_download(
  scale = 110,
  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 load the spatial object into R, FALSE return the filename of the downloaded object.
• 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).

Returns

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.

Examples

## Not run:

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
## End(Not run)

See Also

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