MazamaSpatialUtils (version 0.6.4)

convertSimpleCountries: Convert (Simple) World Borders Shapefile

Description

Returns a SpatialPolygonsDataFrame for a simple world divisions

Usage

convertSimpleCountries(nameOnly = FALSE)

Arguments

nameOnly

logical specifying whether to only return the name without creating the file

Value

Name of the dataset being created.

Details

A world borders shapefile is downloaded and converted to a SpatialPolygonsDataFrame with additional columns of data. The resulting file will be created in the package SpatialDataDir which is set with setSpatialDataDir().

This shapefile is a greatly simplified version of the TMWorldBorders shapefile and is especially suited for spatial searches. This is the default dataset used in getCountry() and getCountryCode(). Users may wish to use a higher resolution dataset when plotting.

References

http://thematicmapping.org/downloads/

See Also

setSpatialDataDir

getCountry, getCountryCode