Tranquil Areas Wales

This data collation is made up of two datasets showing tranquil areas across Wales for 1997 and 2009. A map of the land of Wales, graded to show levels of Tranquillity. It results from combining several underlying layers of data, covering different factors that either contribute to tranquillity or detract from tranquillity. Produced to provide a strategic baseline for monitoring change in tranquillity in Wales to inform strategic planning and policy-making. Tranquillity is an aspect of the Welsh Government's Noise Action Plan (in response to the European Noise Directive) and is one of the qualitative measures of natural resources benefits provided by landscapes, as used in SoNaRR 2016. An accompanying technical report details the methodology used and provides map images of underlying data layers and the resulting Tranquil Areas Map. Caveats: 1. The resolution of some layers that informed the map were coarse, meaning that those parts of the data are unsuitable for using at a detailed scale. 2. Tranquillity was not formally defined in the accompanying technical report. Welsh Government has more recently defined the term and Natural Resources Wales adopted this definition for SoNaRR 2016. Tranquillity is is an untroubled state, which is peaceful, calm and free from unwanted disturbances. This can refer to a state of mind or a particular environment. The 2009 dataset repeats more or less the same methodology used for a similar study in 1997. This allows change over time to be reported. Other projects in other parts of the UK using data at better resolution and with more sophisticated analysis means that the Wales 1997 and 2009 studies are regarded as crude. However to date the 2009 study is the most recent Tranquil Areas map available for Wales.