ModalMap: Modeling and Map production using Random Forest and Stochastic Gradient Boosting

############################## before you begin ##############################################


Make certain you have already installed required packages: gbm, randomForest, rgdal, and PresenceAbsence

Install ModalMap package using Packages > Install package(s) from local zip files...

######################### Sample dataset ######################################################

After installing ModelMap, there will be a subdirrectory external under the package dirrectory in your installation.

For Example: C:\R\R-2.6.2\library\ModelMap\external 

This contains the example dataset, along will a word document giving a short tutorial on converting model.map output to view in ArcGIS.

The example dataset contains Training and Test data .csv files with 7 columns

An index variable to identify each row:

     * ID

Two response variables:

     * BIO        Continuous response variable of above ground Biomass
     * CONIFTYP   Categorical response variable of presence of Conifer Forest Types

Four predictor variables:

     * 3 tasselcap (TC) bands as continuous predictor variables
     * NLCD (National Land Cover Dataset) as a catagorical predictor variable

The .csv files LUT_2001.csv and LUT_2004.csv are look up tables for associating the column headers in the training and test datasets
with the image files for map production.

The subdirectory 'imagefiles' contains the .img files for the predictor variables over a small rectangular area. 

There is one image file for NLCD data.
There are two image files for tasselcap data giving 2001 data and 2004 data.

