[R] Maps, Eastern Europe

[Roger Bivand]

Ray Brownrigg wrote:

> Unfortunately the world databases for the maps package are very old
> (early 1990's) and have not been updated since, except for minor
> typographical errors in country names.  Note that Czechoslovakia is
> there (as is USSR!).  Also, it currently satisfies my needs, which is
> why I don't have the resources to update it.

> I suggest you start with the maptools package, but as I understand it,
> you need to also find some appropriate shapefile data. [Other
> respondents may improve upon this suggestion.]

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Geographical_data 

provides some links, including one to:

http://www.esri.com/data/download/basemap/index.html

permitting the downloading of various layers as shapefiles that can be
read and handled by the maptools package. If you choose just country
boundaries, you'll get a lat-long rectangle, including the countries you
want (and (parts of) countries you don't). You may need to subset your
requests, because the website restricts how much you can choose at one go.  
Please contact me off-list or move this to the R-sig-geo list for more
information.

Roger

-- 
Roger Bivand
Economic Geography Section, Department of Economics, Norwegian School of
Economics and Business Administration, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen,
Norway. voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 95 43
e-mail: Roger.Bivand at nhh.no