ASDST Coastal Middens Pre1750 Model

ASDST Coastal Middens Pre1750 Model is a raster GIS layer predicting the likelihood of Aboriginal coastal midden sites across New South Wales prior to European colonization. The model was developed by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment in 2020, with cell values from 0 to 1000 indicating relative likelihood. It is part of a larger Aboriginal Sites Decision Support Tool suite designed to support landscape planning for Aboriginal heritage.

Use Cases

• Assess landscape development risk based on predicted likelihood of pre-colonial coastal middens.
• Prioritize archaeological survey areas using the relative likelihood scores (0-1000).
• Compare pre-colonial and current landscape models to understand accumulated impacts on cultural heritage.
• Support cultural heritage management plans with GIS-based predictive modeling.

Strengths

• Model covers the entire state of New South Wales at a 50-meter resolution.
• Likelihood values are standardized on a 0-1000 scale across all feature models for comparison.
• Explicitly models pre-colonial conditions, providing a historical baseline.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

Collection Method

Derived from the Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System (AHIMS) using predictive modeling.

Time Range

Pre-1750 (pre-European colonization).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-12 16:15:22.720184; freshness should be verified.

Geography

New South Wales, Australia.