HydroPortailStats
France's national flood statistics, ported out of Fortran and into R.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
bcmaps vs metR
A side-by-side editorial comparison of bcmaps and metR — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
bcmaps vs metR: 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 metR?
A meteorology ggplot2 extension where the netCDF reader became the main event
metR supplies meteorological and oceanographic tools for R: contour and streamline geoms, EOF decomposition, wave fitting, and ReadNetCDF() for getting gridded data in. Development has concentrated heavily on that reader. Version 0.18.0 added subsetting by dimension index, so the first or last ten timesteps can be read without knowing how many exist; 0.18.1 moved time parsing to the CFtime package; 0.18.2 added cdo operations through rcdo and reading across multiple files in parallel, and fixed a subsetting bug where nearest-gridpoint matching could return data outside the requested range entirely.
bcmaps vs metR: 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.
metR
0.0INFRA · APIS
A meteorology ggplot2 extension where the netCDF reader became the main event
◆ Current state
metR supplies meteorological and oceanographic tools for R: contour and streamline geoms, EOF decomposition, wave fitting, and ReadNetCDF() for getting gridded data in. Development has concentrated heavily on that reader. Version 0.18.0 added subsetting by dimension index, so the first or last ten timesteps can be read without knowing how many exist; 0.18.1 moved time parsing to the CFtime package; 0.18.2 added cdo operations through rcdo and reading across multiple files in parallel, and fixed a subsetting bug where nearest-gridpoint matching could return data outside the requested range entirely.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run through the releases. The first is tracking ggplot2, absorbing the linewidth aesthetic, the trans to transform rename and guide compatibility as each landed upstream. The second is narrowing scope while deepening the data path: GetSMNData() was made defunct as too specific for a general package, raster and gdal dependencies were removed, and the udunits2 dependency was dropped when it was orphaned, initially replaced by a homebrewed date parser and eventually by CFtime. The result is a package steadily shedding its own code in favour of specialised upstream libraries.
◆ Prediction
Expect further ReadNetCDF() work, since it has received features in four of the last five releases and the rcdo integration opens a large surface of operations to expose.
Alternatives to bcmaps and metR
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 metR.
bsvarSIGNs
Sign, zero and narrative restrictions brought into the bsvars ecosystem.
estimatr
Fast design-based estimators for experiments, coasting on CRAN patches.
ggdist
The grammar of uncertainty visualization, now drawing the uncertainty in its own estimates.
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.
Recent activity from bcmaps and metR
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5mo agobcmapsCensus dissemination block layer added
- 7mo agometRSubset notation fix in the netCDF reader
- 11mo agometRcdo operations, parallel multi-file reads, and a subsetting correctness fix
- 1y agometRnetCDF time parsing handed to the CFtime package
- 1y agometRnetCDF subsetting by dimension index
- 1y agometRLongitude scales pass the transform argument correctly
- 1y agobcmapsCoordinate conversion fixed where output rows could be misaligned
- 1y agometREOF rotation takes a function, and scope narrows
- 2y agobcmapsutm_convert handles mixed UTM zones in tabular data
- 2y agobcmapsterra-based elevation function replaces the raster one
- 2y agobcmapssp and raster support removed, leaving sf as the only output class ⚡
- 3y agobcmapsDeprecation warnings announce the coming sf-only release
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between bcmaps and metR?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. bcmaps and metR 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 metR?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. bcmaps and metR 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 metR?
Top metR alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "metR alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/metr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.