Download and load North America Level 2 Ecoregions

Downloads and loads the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) North America Level 2 Ecoregion boundaries as a spatial object.

Usage

get_nal2eco(
  output = c("sf", "vect", "terra"),
  cache = FALSE,
  timeout = 3600,
  verbose = TRUE,
  dry_run = FALSE,
  overwrite = FALSE
)

Arguments

output

character(1) class of the returned spatial object. Either "sf" (default) or "vect" / "terra" for a terra::SpatVector.

cache

logical(1) or character(1). Controls where the ZIP is cached. FALSE (the default) uses a temporary directory that is cleaned up when the R session ends. TRUE uses the platform user cache directory (tools::R_user_dir("fireR", "cache")). Supply a directory path as a string to specify a custom location.

timeout

numeric(1) download timeout in seconds. Default is 3600.

verbose

logical(1) print progress messages.

dry_run

logical(1) if TRUE, do not download the file but instead return the path where it would be saved. Defaults to FALSE.

overwrite

logical(1) re-download when TRUE, deleting any cached ZIP first; defaults to FALSE.

Value

An sf object or terra::SpatVector of North America Level 2 Ecoregion polygons. (Or the file path invisibly if dry_run = TRUE).

About CEC Ecoregions

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) North American ecoregion framework divides the continent into hierarchical levels based on similarity of ecosystems and the type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Level 2 subdivides the Level 1 regions into finer ecological units. Data are sourced from the US EPA / CEC ecoregion mapping programme.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
eco <- get_nal2eco()
eco_terra <- get_nal2eco(output = "vect")
} # }