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SDTM supplemental-qualifier merging got sturdier, then the package went quiet for two years.
Comparison · Analytics
FedData vs superspreading
A side-by-side editorial comparison of FedData and superspreading — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
FedData vs superspreading: at a glance
What is FedData?
FedData has spent two major versions migrating US federal geodata off R's retiring spatial stack.
FedData downloads and standardises US federal geospatial datasets — NLCD, NHD, NED, SSURGO, Daymet, GHCN, PAD-US, NASS — into consistent R objects. Two breaking majors define the current package: 3.0.0 moved returns to sf and raster and pulled data from cloud-optimised GeoTIFFs, and 4.0.0 finished the job by dropping sp and raster entirely for terra and sf. Recent releases are dataset refreshes, most recently PAD-US 4.0.
What is superspreading?
superspreading now asks whether a pathogen will emerge at all, not just how unevenly it spreads.
superspreading quantifies individual-level variation in transmission — the offspring distributions and summary metrics behind the 20/80 rule — and calculates probabilities of epidemic, extinction and containment. With 0.4.0 it added probability_emergence(), estimating whether an introduced pathogen can evolve into sustained human-to-human transmission. The package moved from experimental to stable in the same release.
FedData vs superspreading: editorial side-by-side
FedData
0.0ANALYTICS
FedData has spent two major versions migrating US federal geodata off R's retiring spatial stack.
◆ Current state
FedData downloads and standardises US federal geospatial datasets — NLCD, NHD, NED, SSURGO, Daymet, GHCN, PAD-US, NASS — into consistent R objects. Two breaking majors define the current package: 3.0.0 moved returns to sf and raster and pulled data from cloud-optimised GeoTIFFs, and 4.0.0 finished the job by dropping sp and raster entirely for terra and sf. Recent releases are dataset refreshes, most recently PAD-US 4.0.
◆ Where it's heading
The package tracks two moving targets at once: the R spatial stack, which it has now fully migrated onto terra and sf, and the federal agencies whose URLs, file naming and hosting keep shifting. With the dependency migration finished, releases have shrunk to single-dataset updates such as annual NLCD and PAD-US 4.0, which suggests the structural work is done and the ongoing cost is data-source maintenance.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued small releases pinned to new vintages of the underlying federal datasets, plus fixes when an agency moves or reformats a source; no further dependency-level upheaval is visible in these entries.
superspreading
0.0ANALYTICS
superspreading now asks whether a pathogen will emerge at all, not just how unevenly it spreads.
◆ Current state
superspreading quantifies individual-level variation in transmission — the offspring distributions and summary metrics behind the 20/80 rule — and calculates probabilities of epidemic, extinction and containment. With 0.4.0 it added probability_emergence(), estimating whether an introduced pathogen can evolve into sustained human-to-human transmission. The package moved from experimental to stable in the same release.
◆ Where it's heading
Scope has widened one published framework at a time. 0.2.0 added network-based reproduction numbers, 0.3.0 added the Lloyd-Smith formulation of proportion_transmission() and vendored a branching-process simulator to drop the {bpmodels} dependency, and 0.4.0 implemented and extended the Antia et al. emergence model. Each addition brings a vignette reproducing the source paper's figures, which is how this package treats a method as delivered.
◆ Prediction
The established pattern — implement a published framework, extend it, document it against the original figures — makes another literature-derived addition likelier than internal refactoring.
Alternatives to FedData and superspreading
Other Analytics 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 FedData or superspreading.
marquee
marquee is filling in the typographic details — outlines, border types, real font metrics for underlines.
logrx
A clinical-script logger that stopped shipping after its 0.2 line, changelogs made of merged PRs.
lobstr
R's object inspector is losing its view of the internals as CRAN closes off the private C API.
GSODR
A weather-station data client that broke one return type to hand back distances instead of bare IDs.
giscoR
giscoR's 1.0 moved its dataset index into the cache, so new Eurostat releases arrive without a package update.
See all FedData alternatives → · See all superspreading alternatives →
Recent activity from FedData and superspreading
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1y agosuperspreadingprobability_emergence() extends the package into pathogen emergence risk ⚡
- 1y agoFedDataget_padus() updated to PAD-US 4.0
- 1y agosuperspreadingLloyd-Smith transmission proportions; bpmodels dependency removed
- 1y agoFedDataAnnual NLCD access added; get_nass() retired
- 2y agosuperspreadingNetwork reproduction numbers and joint individual/population control
- 2y agoFedDatasp and raster dropped; everything returns terra or sf ⚡
- 2y agosuperspreadingFirst release: offspring distributions and epidemic risk metrics
- 3y agoFedDataGHCN moves to https; NHD handles empty and odd geometries
- 3y agoFedDataAll raster writing moves to terra
- 3y agoFedDataVersion 3 rebuilds on sf and cloud-optimised GeoTIFFs ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between FedData and superspreading?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. FedData and superspreading 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 FedData better than superspreading?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. FedData and superspreading 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 Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to FedData?
Top FedData alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "FedData alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/feddata for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to superspreading?
Top superspreading alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "superspreading alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/superspreading for the full list with editorial commentary on each.