Get global composite files (CGAZ) from geoBoundaries

Attribution is required for all uses of this dataset.

This function returns global composite files for the required administrative level, clipped to international boundaries, with gaps filled between borders.

Usage

gb_get_world(
  country = "all",
  adm_lvl = "adm0",
  quiet = TRUE,
  overwrite = FALSE,
  cache_dir = NULL
)

Source

geoBoundaries API service https://www.geoboundaries.org/api.html.

Arguments

country: A character vector of country codes. It can be either "all" (which returns the data for all countries), a vector of country names or ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country codes. See also countrycode::countrycode().
adm_lvl: Type of boundary. Accepted values are administrative levels 0, 1 and 2 ("adm0" is the country boundary, "adm1" is the first level of subnational boundaries, "adm2" is the second level and so on). Upper-case versions ("ADM1") and the number of the level (0, 1, 2) are also accepted.
quiet: Logical. If TRUE, suppress informational messages.
overwrite: Logical. If TRUE, force a fresh download of the source .zip file.
cache_dir: A path to a cache directory. If not set (the default NULL), the data will be stored in the default cache directory (see gb_set_cache_dir()). If no cache directory has been set, files will be stored in the temporary directory. See base::tempdir() and caching strategies in gb_set_cache_dir().

Value

A sf object.

Details

Comprehensive Global Administrative Zones (CGAZ) are global composites for administrative boundaries. Compared with individual country files, the global product uses extensive simplification so file sizes are small enough for most desktop software, removes disputed areas and replaces them with polygons following US Department of State definitions, and fills gaps between borders.

References

Runfola, D. et al. (2020) geoBoundaries: A global database of political administrative boundaries. PLOS ONE 15(4), 1-9. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0231866 .

Examples

# This download may take some time.
# \dontrun{
world <- gb_get_world()

library(ggplot2)

ggplot(world) +
  geom_sf() +
  coord_sf(expand = FALSE) +
  labs(caption = "Source: www.geoboundaries.org")

# }