A geographical approach that uses distances to service regions and population information as the basis for quantifying service access and hence remoteness. A GIS road network analysis computes the minimum road driving distance and/or ferry travel time between the communities and the locations of essential services. Statistical procedures identify the significant variables necessary to measure remoteness as a single index of accessibility. GIS techniques are then used to produce an exhaustive coverage of remoteness/accessibility throughout the province and to derive a classification scheme as a framework for the dissemination and study of the remoteness results.