This layer is the result of a wilderness mapping project that was undertaken by the Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) in 2015. The scope of the project was the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) and some adjoining areas considered to be of high conservation area. The project driver was to encapsulate the level of wilderness quality of additional areas added to the TWWHA in 2013. A rerun of the previous 2005 assessment, for the TWWHA (at the 1999 boundary) allowed the project to see what changes in wilderness quality had occurred between 2005 and 2015 for existing areas of the TWWHA. The methodology utilized was the same as the wilderness quality study of 2005, see metadata on WHA Wilderness Quality 2005 (PWS), which was also based on the Commonwealth NWI (below). The methodology followed the guidelines of the National Wilderness Inventory (NWI) which was developed by the Australian Heritage Commission in the late 1980s and early 1990s to identify wilderness quality across Australia. The methodology is described in detail in the NWI Handbook of Procedures, Content and Usage (Lesslie and Taylor 1995). See hyperlink below for notes on the NWI from the Australian Heritage Commission website. The objective of the first phase of the project (Module 1) was to use the existing NWI methodology to assess wilderness values in the WHA and in specified adjacent areas, based on the latest available information on roads, walkers, huts and similar infrastructure. In the second phase (Module 2), wilderness was to be assessed using revised criteria taking into account walkers' huts, tracks and time-remoteness. The assessment of viewfields has been postponed to a future study. The business processes, input data, spatial analysis and results are described in the project methodology document, available in the hyperlink below. The wilderness quality layer is a coverage that represents the level of naturalness and remoteness based on the proximity of physical intrusions and infrastructure. The study did not consider social aspects. View dataset: https://maps.thelist.tas.gov.au/listmap/app/list/map?bmlayer=3&layers=2407 Project methodology: https://listdata.thelist.tas.gov.au/public/TWWHA%20Wilderness%20Value%20Assessment%202015.pdf Commonwealth NWI methodology: http://www.environment.gov.au/node/20141

Refer to the project methodology document hyperlink for detailed notes on how this layer was prepared. The final result is a vector layer of grid cells, 500 metres x 500 metres. Each cell has a wilderness index value that is within the range of 0 to 20. A value nearing 20 indicates excellent wilderness quality and values less than 5, would represent heavily modified environments, such as urban areas.

Position Accuracy: The spatial inputs to the spatial analysis have been derived from a number of sources including the PWS GIS, The LIST, Forestry Tasmania and digitization of disturbances from aerial imagery (LIST, Google Earth, Bing). It is estimated the geographic accuracy of spatial inputs were within 10 to 100 metres of their true position. The measurement of accuracy was not stored as an attribute. Attribute Accuracy: The final wilderness index value, is the result of a number of mathematical calculations. Some rounding and inaccuracies in determining distance calculations through the spatial analysis process may of introduced small errors to the final index cell value. The degree of error has been estimated at less than 1%. Logical Consistency: The vector cells are topologically correct and will not include overshoots, dangles, free endpoints, intersections or duplicate overlaying lines. Completeness: The coverage is 100% for the TWWHA.