This layer is the result of a wilderness mapping project that was undertaken by the Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) in the mid 1990's. The scope of the project was the landmass of Tasmania including the Bass Strait islands.
The project driver was to complete work to contribute to the 1997 Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA).
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.
Documentation of the business processes, input data, spatial analysis and results are not readily available, although the reference to the PLUC document below, provides a starting point.
The wilderness quality layer is a coverage that represents the level of naturalness and remoteness based on the proximity of physical intrusions and infrastructure.
View dataset:
https://maps.thelist.tas.gov.au/listmap/app/list/map?bmlayer=3&layers=2405
Project map:
https://listdata.thelist.tas.gov.au/public/AFig%2018A%20Wilderness%20Quality%201995.pdf
Commonwealth NWI methodology:
http://www.environment.gov.au/node/20141
Background notes, Tasmanian Public Land Use Commission (1996)
https://listdata.thelist.tas.gov.au/public/PLUC_CRFA_%20supplement_to_Envt_and_Heritage_report_vol_V-background_part_C.pdf
RFA reference:
PLUC (Tasmanian Public Land Use Commission) 1997. Tasmania: Commonwealth Regional Forest
Agreement National Estate Report. Tasmanian Land Use Commission in conjunction with the
Commonwealth Forests Taskforce, Hobart.
