The Biodiversity and Habitat Assessment was created by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program to identify, evaluate, and prioritize areas that are important for maintaining healthy and sustainable ecosystems statewide. The relative conservation values displayed by this dataset focus on (1) the biodiversity of aquatic and terrestrial species and communities, (2) large-scale landscapes, including core wildlife habitats and habitat connectors, and (3) lands important to ecosystem processes, such as riparian buffers and wetlands. These data illustrate the locations and conservation values of significant natural resources throughout North Carolina, and have been applied by local governments, state agencies, regional councils of governments, funding programs, conservation organizations, and the private sector to support planning and decision-making for land use, conservation, mitigation, and transportation projects.Priorities for conservation of important biodiversity and wildlife habitats are depicted using a scale of 1 (moderate conservation value) to 10 (maximum conservation value). Datasets used in this assessment are contributed by various state agencies and conservation organizations, and each individual data input is assigned a relative conservation value based on resource rarity and distinctiveness, resource function, and data precision, accuracy, and completeness. These data inputs are processed and combined to show conservation priorities statewide. Data inputs include natural heritage natural areas, rare species occurrences, core wildlife habitats and their connections, important aquatic resources (e.g., trout streams, fish habitat, fish nursery areas, outstanding resources waters), wetlands, and watershed priorities based on Federally-listed species and other factors. (For more information on the data inputs, see the Conservation Planning Tool detailed report at http://ncnhp.org/conservation/conservation-planning-tool/resources/report).