This layer contains divisions of Victorian biounits as classified to CBICs Level 4 biotope complexes as lines. At this level of the hierarchy, biotopes are grouped into sets with similar physical and biological characteristics.

This layer contains divisions of Victorian biounits as classified to CBICs Level 4 biotope complexes as points. At this level of the hierarchy, biotopes are grouped into sets with similar physical and biological characteristics.

IEC2021_BARRIERS indicates locations of estuarine barriers (partial and complete) that were used in the 2021 Index of Estuarine Condition. A combination of existing data sources and field data collection was used to identify the existence of artificial barriers and whether these structures represented partial or complete barriers (Pope et al. 2015). Partial barriers were those that were considered to allow limited or intermittent movement of biota. Complete barriers were those that represented an absolute and permanent barrier to biota. Where artificial barriers were identified, the most likely location of the natural (pre-1750) inland extent (length) of the estuary was derived from historical documents, field observations, elevation data and geomorphology to provide a `natural estuary length¿.

Area that is impacted by the reduced car parking requirements for uses in commercial areas and for land within walking distance of high-quality public transport. For land within 400m of public transport (as shown on the new Principal Public Transport Network Area Maps, the reduced carparking rates specified in Column B of Table 1 in Clause 52.06 will apply. These rates will apply to the whole of a site, even if it is only part of the site which is within the PPTN Area

This layer contains divisions of Victorian biounits as classified to CBICs Level 4 biotope complexes as polygons. At this level of the hierarchy, biotopes are grouped into sets with similar physical and biological characteristics.

Areas of catchments that drain directly to Victorian estuaries - i.e. not via major freshwater tributaries. This data updates the previous EST_CATCH (Deakin) layer for use in the 2021 Index of Estuarine Condition. Boundaries were determined from a digital elevation model (DEM) and were compared with DELWP boundaries for some estuaries (where DELWP data existed (i.e. in the estuary fluvial catchment layer [WATER_EST_FLUV_VSDL] available on the Victorian Spatial Data Library [January 2020]). On steep land (the Otways, east Gippsland etc) the boundaries align well. On the flatter areas there are some discrepancies between the DEM derived boundary and the DELWP derived boundary. For some catchments the DELWP boundaries are more accurate, but for others the DEM derived boundary is more accurate. Final catchment boundaries were determined by adopting the DEM derived boundary where there was good alignment with the DELWP layer and then adjusting just the contested boundaries to choose the one that appeared most accurate based on the rationale specified for each estuary below.

Biologically Important Area data are spatially defined areas where aggregations of individuals of a regionally significant species are known to display biologically important behaviours such as breeding, foraging, resting or migration. This layer was originally produced by the Commonwealth of Australia (Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, 2015), and has been cropped to Victoria's state boundaries, and queried for temperate east marine regions (SEMR- south east marine region).

This layer contains species distribution maps for taxa groups across the Victorian coastline.

IEC2021_SUB_VEG is the spatial representation of submerged vegetation used in the calculation of Index of Estuarine Condition (IEC) scores. In the context of the IEC, 'submerged vegetation' refers to aquatic plants attached to bottom sediments that are generally entirely submerged but may be exposed during very low tides. Field data was collected at various locations within the estuary to ground-truth the mapping of full coverage derived from available aerial imagery. The field data was collected in late spring, summer and early autumn to correspond with warmer water temperatures and longer photoperiods, and to avoid winter periods of submerged vegetation dieback. In the field, ground-truthing by taking photos of the benthic environment largely followed the protocols outlined in Woodland and Cook (2015). If the estuarine bed was visible, photographic samples were collected of the different vegetation types present. Coverages of these different vegetation types (e.g. dense, sparse) were also photographed as well as bare ground. Ground-truthed benthic images were mapped over high-resolution (<20 cm) aerial imagery sourced from the DELWP imagery archive. Only imagery later than 2010 was considered, with most of the imagery used captured later than 2015. RPAS imagery collected for some estuaries was geo-rectified and mosaicked to provide very high-resolution imagery for mapping. Mapped areas were then compared to the geo-referenced ground-truthed benthic images and assigned a vegetation-coverage class and an indication of classification confidence (High, Medium or Low). For each estuary, MA:TV was then derived from the ratio of total macroalgae area to total vegetated area (i.e. seagrass and macroalgae) as per Woodland and Cook (2015). Briefly, vegetated habitat areas were weighted by their coverage classes such that polygons assigned `sparse¿medium¿ coverage were considered to contain 50% vegetation, and those assigned as `dense¿ coverage were considered as 100% vegetated. The ratio of macroalgae to total vegetation (MA:TV) was calculated as the sum of the weighted macroalgae areas divided by the sum of the weighted seagrass and macroalgae areas. MA:TV ranges from 0 to 1.

This dataset maps the geomorphic habitat environments (facies) for 54 Victorian coastal waterways. The classification system contains 11 easily identifiable and representative environments: Barrier/back-barrier, Central Basin, Channel, Coral, Flood- and Ebb-tide Delta, Fluvial (bay-head) Delta, Intertidal Flats, Mangrove, Rocky Reef, Saltmarsh/Saltflat, Tidal Sand Banks (and Unassigned). These types represent habitats found across all coastal systems in Australia. Most of the 54 coastal waterways have a "Modified" environmental condition (as opposed to "Near Pristine"), according to the National Land and Water Resources Audit definition.