ASDST Western Mounds and Shell Current Model

A geospatial raster dataset predicting the likelihood of Aboriginal heritage site features across New South Wales, Australia. The dataset, produced by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment in 2020, includes separate layers for ten feature types like stone artefacts, rock art, and burials. It contains current and pre-colonial likelihood models with cell values ranging from 0 to 1000.

Use Cases

• Assess landscape development impact based on predicted likelihood of Aboriginal site features.
• Prioritize field survey locations based on the survey priority map (drvd_srv) derived from model reliability.
• Model accumulated historical impacts (drvd_imp) by comparing pre-colonial and current feature likelihoods.
• Evaluate the reliability of predictive models for specific feature types using the drvd_rel layer.

Strengths

• Provides separate predictive layers for ten distinct Aboriginal site feature types.
• Offers both pre-colonial and current landscape likelihood models for comparative analysis.
• Covers the entire spatial extent of New South Wales at a 50-meter resolution for Version 7.5.
• Includes derived products for impact assessment, reliability, and survey prioritization.

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.
• The data represents likelihood, not probability, which requires careful interpretation.

Provenance

Source

NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE), now part of the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Current model reflects 2020 landscape; pre-colonial model predicts distribution prior to European colonization.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-12 16:57:48.198049; freshness should be verified.

Geography

State of New South Wales, Australia.