This world database comes from a thinned cleaned-up version of the CIA
World Data Bank II data and contains approximately 30,000 points
representing the world coastlines and national boundaries. The full
database of nearly 2 million points is found in the mapdata package.
Usage
data(worldMapEnv)
Arguments
format
The data file is merely an assignment to a character string which
specifies the name of an environment variable which contains the
base location of the binary files used by the map drawing functions.
This environment variable (R_MAP_DATA_DIR for the datasets in the
maps package) is set at package load time if it does not
already exist. Hence setting the environment variable before loading
the package can override the default location of the binary datasets.
source
The CIA World Data Bank II is currently (mid-2003) available from
http://www.evl.uic.edu/pape/data/WDB/.
References
Richard A. Becker, and Allan R. Wilks,
"Maps in S",
AT&T Bell Laboratories Statistics Research Report [93.2], 1993.
Richard A. Becker, and Allan R. Wilks,
"Constructing a Geographical Database",
AT&T Bell Laboratories Statistics Research Report [95.2], 1995.