EVC Benchmarks - Murray Scroll Belt bioregion

EVC - Benchmarks for Bioregion Home | Glossary

Below is a list of published Ecological Vegetation Class benchmarks for the Murray Scroll Belt bioregion.

These benchmarks have been developed to assess native vegetation using the method for Vegetation Quality Assessment (VQA).

Please note: These benchmarks are endorsed for the purpose of implementing 'Victoria's Native Vegetation Management - A Framework for Action, 2002'. For Wetland Vegetation assessments, please follow this link. Mosaic and complex mapping units have been removed from this page except where the scale is too fine to resolve at the site level. When assessing a site, you should be able to determine which component EVC is dominant on-site. See note below.

EVC no.	BCS	Ecological Vegetation Class Benchmark	Last Updated
86	D	Woorinen Sands Mallee (PDF 137 kb) - VQA
97	V	Semi-arid Woodland (PDF 137 kb) - VQA
98	D	Semi-arid Chenopod Woodland (PDF 158 kb) - VQA
102	D	Low Chenopod Shrubland (PDF 136 kb) - VQA
103	D	Riverine Chenopod Woodland (PDF 139 kb) - VQA
104	V	Lignum Swamp (PDF 134 kb) - VQA	Name change - October 2005
106	D	Grassy Riverine Forest (PDF 137 kb) - VQA
107	V	Lake Bed Herbland (PDF 134 kb) - VQA
158	V	Chenopod Mallee (PDF 146 kb) - VQA
200	V	Shallow Freshwater Marsh - refer to generic wetland table	former wetland mapping unit - March 2006
806	V	Alluvial Plains Semi-arid Grassland (PDF 136 kb) - VQA
807	E	Disused Floodway Shrubby Herbland (PDF 134 kb) - VQA
808	LC	Lignum Shrubland (PDF 135 kb) - VQA
809	E	Floodplain Grassy Wetland (PDF 90 kb) - VQA	Updated - May 2005
810	D	Floodway Pond Herbland (PDF 90 kb) - VQA	Updated - May 2005
813	D	Intermittent Swampy Woodland (PDF 136 kb) - VQA
818	LC	Shrubby Riverine Woodland (PDF 139 kb) - VQA	Deleted - March 2006
819	V	Spike-sedge Wetland (PDF 91 kb) - VQA	Updated - May 2005
820	V	Sub-saline Depression Shrubland (PDF 95 kb) - VQA	Changed BCS - November 2007
823	D	Lignum Swampy Woodland (PDF 136 kb) - VQA
824	V	Woorinen Mallee (PDF 139 kb) - VQA

EVC - Ecological Vegetation Class
BCS - Bioregional Conservation Status
* - BCS rating to be used only if unable to determine the component EVC within the generic and/or aggregate wetland tables.
VQA - vegetation quality assessment

Wetland Vegetation Assessment
If you are interested in assessing a wetland area for the purpose of implementing 'Victoria's Native Vegetation Management - A Framework for Action, 2002', you must use an EVC Benchmark for Vegetation Quality Assessment (VQA) in conjunction with the VQA methodology.

If a wetland EVC benchmark for the VQA is unavailable, please use the wetlands default habitat score of 0.45 as outlined in the 'Guide for Assessment of Referred Planning Permit Applications, 2007'.

If you are interested in undertaking a wetland vegetation assessment which is not for the purpose of implementing "Victoria's Native Vegetation Management - A Framework for Action, 2002', then the Index of Wetland Condition (IWC) methodology may be appropriate. The IWC method uses a set of dedicated wetland EVC benchmarks that you will find on the IWC webpage.

Lookup tables for wetland areas:
The tables below provide information for mapped wetland areas that have not yet been assigned a wetland EVC type or are known to comprise an aggregate of wetland EVCs due to their temporal nature. Please keep in mind your purpose for assessing a wetland area and make sure you use the appropriate benchmark.

Generic wetland EVC - lookup table [MS Excel Document - 35.0 KB]

EVC wetland aggregate table [MS Excel Document - 30.0 KB]

Note

• The bioregional conservation status of EVCs was revised and updated in November 2007 following revised native vegetation mapping. To view the changes in the spatial datasets please go to the Accessing Native Vegetation Data page.
• Before choosing any vegetation mapping units that are EVC mosaics, complexes and aggregates and generic wetland mapping units, some further on-site decision will be required before selecting the appropriate benchmark to apply. In addition, EVC 'variants' and those EVCs that are known to exhibit structural variation across their range will also need to utilise on-site information to determine the appropriate benchmark to apply.
• The EVC benchmarks contain a subset of “typical” but not comprehensive lists of species for each EVC in a bioregion. It should also be noted that not all species listed in the benchmark will be appropriate to all sites across the range of an EVC in a bioregion nor readily available through local nurseries.