Researchers at the World Wild Life Fund in India (WWF-India) are expanding their uses of automated raster to vector conversion software to create a large scale spatial database for their biodiversity conservation programs in India. They are using Able Software's R2V for Windows to digitize more than 600 scanned vegetation cover maps on a 1:250000 scale for the entire country.

WWF national offices, is a not-for-profit organization, and is recognized by the government as a research body. The WWF-India's work focuses on nature conservation in the country, and the recently established Indira Gandhi Conservation Monitoring Centre (IGCMC).  The WWF-India is gearing up to provide database support for biodiversity conservation programs in India.

"We have had the occasion to use the evaluation version of R2V before we made the purchase decision, and find it to be very useful," says Dr. Ivan Robson of WWF-India, "we are now ready to apply this technology to speed up our data conversion process."

R2V is an automated raster to vector conversion software developed for GIS and mapping applications. It automatically extracts vector data from scanned maps, aerial photos, and satellite imagery using intelligent vectorization technology. The software supports bi-level, grayscale, and color images in TIFF and SPOT satellite image formats and exports vector data to ArcInfo, ArcView, MapInfo, and DXF vector file formats. In addition, R2V also provides functions for semi-automatic line tracing and manual heads-up digitizing. Digitized maps can easily be registered to a real world coordinate system using a set of user selected control points.