Conservation and Environment

Scoring Gain - DSE Gain Calculator

Native Vegetation Information for Victoria | Vegetation Quality Assessment Manual | Vegetation Gain Approach | Revegetation Planting Standards | Referred Guide |Wetland Vegetation Assessment

Version 1.2 of the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) Gain Calculator is now available for downloading. The Microsoft Excel gain calculator enables a user to quickly calculate the gain from one or more offset proposals. The DSE Gain Calculator uses standard gain-scoring algorithms described in the Vegetation Gain Approach document and incorporates amendments made to the Victorian Planning Provisions (VPP) regarding native vegetation exemptions and entitlements. [Note: New exemptions came into effect on 15 September 2008.] The DSE Gain Calculator will work for the majority of offset situations but also provides flexibility for users to score gains for non-standard actions/offset scenarios where these are encountered. Additional features of Version 1.2 include: updated BIOEVC and BCS information (incorporating the updated 2008 EVC information) updated gain scoring resulting from changes to the VPP - eg. large trees (in some BIOEVCs) and property size impacts provision of summary table for up to nine habitat zones for easy reporting gain calculations to two decimal places inclusion of "offset" and "investment proposal" options inclusion of some further grassland management options The DSE Gain Calculator is best used with the macro security set to low. (go to the following menu Tools > Macro > Security - and click on Low)

The DSE Gain Calculator can be downloaded as an Excel file. (please update your calculator to the October 2008 version)
Gain calculator - Version 1.2 October 2008 (XLS - 610 KB)

Please note that published updates to the Gain Calculator user instructions and the Vegetation Gain Guide will be available soon. Click on the following links for further information on the bioregions and EVC's.

The user instructions below are for the previous version.
Gain Calculator users instructions (PDF - 1.8 Mb)


If you have a query relating to the Habitat Hectares method for assessing vegetation quality that is not addressed in the Vegetation Quality Assessment Manual, please email: habitat.hectares@dse.vic.gov.au. If you have a query regarding an EVC benchmark go to the Feedback and Enquiries page for Vegetation Information Products.