HydroPortailStats
France's national flood statistics, ported out of Fortran and into R.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
bcmaps vs ggdist
A side-by-side editorial comparison of bcmaps and ggdist — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
bcmaps vs ggdist: at a glance
What is bcmaps?
BC's spatial data package finished its sf migration and went back to adding layers
bcmaps provides British Columbia spatial layers and boundary data to R users, pulling from the BC Data Catalogue. The disruptive work is behind it: version 2.0.0 removed sp and raster support outright, leaving sf as the only returned class, in response to the retirement of rgdal and rgeos. Since then releases have been additive and small - cded_terra() replacing the deprecated raster variant, utm_convert() for reconciling coordinates across UTM zones, and in 2.3.0 a census dissemination block layer plus a dependency bump that removes an indirect reliance on the soon-to-be-archived leaflet.extras.
What is ggdist?
The grammar of uncertainty visualization, now drawing the uncertainty in its own estimates.
ggdist supplies ggplot2 with a compositional vocabulary for distributions — slabs, intervals, dotplots and the sub-geometries that combine them. The last three years moved it from a drawing library to an estimation library: bounded density estimation with Sheather-Jones bandwidth became the default, weights propagate through every density, interval and point summary, and blurred dotplots render Monte Carlo standard error as visual fuzz. The 2025 release rounds this out with per-geometry thickness subscales and settable global defaults.
bcmaps vs ggdist: editorial side-by-side
bcmaps
0.0INFRA · APIS
BC's spatial data package finished its sf migration and went back to adding layers
◆ Current state
bcmaps provides British Columbia spatial layers and boundary data to R users, pulling from the BC Data Catalogue. The disruptive work is behind it: version 2.0.0 removed sp and raster support outright, leaving sf as the only returned class, in response to the retirement of rgdal and rgeos. Since then releases have been additive and small - cded_terra() replacing the deprecated raster variant, utm_convert() for reconciling coordinates across UTM zones, and in 2.3.0 a census dissemination block layer plus a dependency bump that removes an indirect reliance on the soon-to-be-archived leaflet.extras.
◆ Where it's heading
The package has spent most of its recent history reducing what it depends on rather than growing. Layers moved from a companion data package to direct Data Catalogue downloads in 1.1.0, ending manual update cycles; the sp and raster removal followed a full release of deprecation warnings; the terra transition took the same staged path. The recent dependency bump for leaflet.extras is the same instinct applied early. Feature work now arrives one function or one layer at a time, at roughly one release a year.
◆ Prediction
Expect further individual layer additions on request, and a completion of the terra transition through removal of the deprecated cded_raster(), given the package's pattern of announcing removals a release ahead.
ggdist
0.0INFRA · APIS
The grammar of uncertainty visualization, now drawing the uncertainty in its own estimates.
◆ Current state
ggdist supplies ggplot2 with a compositional vocabulary for distributions — slabs, intervals, dotplots and the sub-geometries that combine them. The last three years moved it from a drawing library to an estimation library: bounded density estimation with Sheather-Jones bandwidth became the default, weights propagate through every density, interval and point summary, and blurred dotplots render Monte Carlo standard error as visual fuzz. The 2025 release rounds this out with per-geometry thickness subscales and settable global defaults.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run in parallel and keep converging. One is statistical: pluggable density estimators arrived first, then became the default, then gained weights and quantile histograms. The other is compositional: sub-geometries acquired their own guides, then their own scales, so a slab's thickness axis is now a first-class annotated dimension. Cadence has stretched from twice-yearly to roughly annual, with the recent work tightening existing surface rather than opening new.
◆ Prediction
Subguides gained subscales a release later, so the remaining asymmetry is in the sub-geometry system rather than the statistics; expect the next release to continue that fill-in work.
Alternatives to bcmaps and ggdist
Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either bcmaps or ggdist.
bsvarSIGNs
Sign, zero and narrative restrictions brought into the bsvars ecosystem.
estimatr
Fast design-based estimators for experiments, coasting on CRAN patches.
ipaddress
IP address vectors for R that hit 1.0 and then went quiet.
ltertools
A column-key toolkit for stitching decades of ecological field data into one table.
finnts
Microsoft's automated forecasting framework, still mostly a one-maintainer effort.
See all bcmaps alternatives → · See all ggdist alternatives →
Recent activity from bcmaps and ggdist
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agobcmapsCensus dissemination block layer added
- 1y agoggdistPer-geometry thickness subscales and settable defaults
- 1y agobcmapsCoordinate conversion fixed where output rows could be misaligned
- 2y agoggdistBlurred dotplots draw Monte Carlo error; weights reach every estimator ⚡
- 2y agobcmapsutm_convert handles mixed UTM zones in tabular data
- 2y agoggdistC++ dotplot binning and safer bandwidth fallbacks
- 2y agobcmapsterra-based elevation function replaces the raster one
- 2y agobcmapssp and raster support removed, leaving sf as the only output class ⚡
- 3y agoggdistBounded density becomes the default; existing charts change ⚡
- 3y agobcmapsDeprecation warnings announce the coming sf-only release
- 3y agoggdistCategorical distributions, hex layouts, pluggable density estimators
- 4y agoggdistComputed variables shared across sub-geometries
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between bcmaps and ggdist?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. bcmaps and ggdist are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is bcmaps better than ggdist?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. bcmaps and ggdist are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to bcmaps?
Top bcmaps alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "bcmaps alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/bcmaps for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to ggdist?
Top ggdist alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ggdist alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ggdist for the full list with editorial commentary on each.