9/26/02

Vegetative Cover of the Former Soviet Union, 1990

Note:  there are several formats of the same data provided with this data set.
These include:  binary raster data in IDRISI format, ASCIIGRID raster data 
in ASCII format (easily imported into ARC/INFO), vector data in ArcView 
shapefile format, and a graphic map in JPG format.  Please read all
documentation before using these files.  See errata at the bottom of this
document. 

Data files:
-----------
vmap90.img.gz - a binary raster image depicting vegetative cover (1990) in 
                IDRISI format (compressed).  Note:  must be converted to an 
                *rst file when using version 3.2 of IDRISI.  Use the "Idrisi 
                File Conversion (16/32)" utility available in the file pulldown
                menu to convert to the new format.  The *img file was
                compressed using the gzip utility available in UNIX.

vmap90.doc - companion file to vmap90.img.  This text  file describes the 
             raster data.  Most of the descriptive information (aside from 
             file type) is applicable to the ASCIIGRID version of the data 
             (vmap90.dat.gz) as well as the binary IDRISI version of the data 
             (vmap90.img.gz).  Note: this file MUST be present for the binary 
             data to be read by IDRISI.  Furthermore, the *doc file must be 
             converted to an *rdc file when using version 3.2 of IDRISI. Use
             the "Idrisi File Conversion (16/32)" utility available in the file
             pulldown menu to convert to the new format. 

vmap90.dat.gz - compressed ASCIIGRID version of the binary raster data 
                (vmap90.img).  This data file was created by converting the 
                IDRISI binary file (vmap90.img) using IDRISI export utilities.
                The ASCII file was compressed using the gzip utility available 
                in UNIX.  Note:  it was necessary to first convert the *.img 
                file to a *rst file and the *doc file to a *rdc file to match 
                the new file format and naming convention of raster data 
                supported by IDRISI 3.2.

vmap90.zip - vector map version of data (same info as raster data 
             vmap90.img.gz and vmap90.dat.gz) in ArcView shapefile format 
             (compressed with WinZip).

Viewer Images:
--------------
vmap90.jpg - graphic map depicting vegetation cover for the former U.S.S.R..


Companion Files:
----------------
vmap90_legend.dbf - Original Dbase IV database file of legend data.

vmap90_legend.txt - Comma delimited, ASCII text version of vmap90_legend.dbf.

vmap90_projection.txt - text file containing information on geographic
                        projections used.

vmap_method.doc - MS Word v.4.0 document file describing the methods used to
                  create this data.

vmap_method.pdf - pdf file version of vmap_method.doc, describing the 
                  methods used to create this data.

vmap90_readme.txt - this file.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Errata: 
There are two mislabelled polygons in the raster version in the Russian Far 
East, which are now labeled as being Water, but should be changed to Dark 
Coniferous, etc, of the type in map code 43b. These have been corrected in the 
vector versions of the map.

Peter Schlesinger
Woods Hole Research Center
12-3-98fmap90_readme.txt