The purpose of this section is to show that although technically speaking the conversion of categorical data is a straightforward
process, it is by no means trivial to handle when integrated with the generalization process. After discussing
general issues related to generalization procedures where data model transformations are involved, examples are presented
to demonstrate when and how conversion from raster to vector and vector to raster can be usefully integrated in a
generalization strategy. The remainder of the section discusses specific possibilities of local data transformation.