The Habitat Condition Assessment Tool: Instructions

For using expert knowledge to improve our understanding of the condition of Australia’s native ecosystems

​Samantha Munroe, Kate M Giljohann, Peter Brenton, Kristen J Williams, Geoff R Hosack, Jack Brinkman, Simon Checksfield, Joseph Salomon, Nat Raisbeck-Brown, Amy Warnick, Fiona Dickson, Rebecca Pirzl, Stephen J Sinclair, Matthew D White

September 2024

Publication number: EP2024-1988

The HCAT Instructions can be found on the CSIRO Research Publications Repository or a PDF copy can be downloaded here.

The Participation Information Sheet, which explains how your data and information will be used, how your IP and privacy will be protected, and our ethical clearance for this project, can be found on the CSIRO Research Publications Repository or downloaded here.

The HCAT Factsheet, which provides a brief summary of the tool and its applications, can be found on the CSIRO Research Publications Repository or downloaded here.

Citation

Munroe S, Giljohann KM, Brenton P, Williams KJ, Hosack GR, Brinkman J, Checksfield S, Raisbeck-Brown N, Warnick A, Dickson F, Pirzl R, Sinclair SJ, White MD (2024) The Habitat Condition Assessment Tool: Instructions for using expert knowledge to improve our understanding of Australia’s native ecosystem condition. Publication number: EP2024-1988. CSIRO, Australia.

Copyright

© Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 2024.

The authors request attribution as ‘© Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (collaborating with the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water)’. All material in this publication is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, with the following exceptions: the CSIRO logo, the ALA logo, the Commonwealth Coat of Arms.

Important disclaimer

CSIRO advises that the information contained in this publication comprises general statements based on scientific research. The reader is advised and needs to be aware that such information may be incomplete or unable to be used in any specific situation. No reliance or actions must therefore be made on that information without seeking prior expert professional, scientific and technical advice. To the extent permitted by law, CSIRO (including its employees and consultants) excludes all liability to any person for any consequences, including but not limited to all losses, damages, costs, expenses and any other compensation, arising directly or indirectly from using this publication (in part or in whole) and any information or material contained in it.

CSIRO is committed to providing web accessible content wherever possible. If you are having difficulties with accessing this document please contact csiro.au/contact.

How to use this page

This page contains background and instructions for using the Habitat Condition Assessment Tool (HCAT). This standardised training material aims to minimise ambiguities and provide a common interpretation of methodological approaches and implementation. Please read these instructions carefully and apply the method outlined when contributing your expert site condition scores. For information on how assessments will be used, how your IP and privacy will be protected, and our ethical clearance for this project, please see the Research Participant Information Sheet. By contributing data through HCAT, you are agreeing to these privacy terms and conditions.

The page is divided into 6 sections, as follows.

Section 1 – Project information

Outlines the function and purpose of the HCAT and provides contextual information for contributing experts.

Section 2 – Getting started

Explains the steps required to establish accounts and logins for the project. Please check that you have completed all these steps.

Section 3 – Data entry overview

Provides an overview of the core data entry components.

Section 4 – Essential concepts for scoring condition

Provides detail on essential concepts required to provide condition scores for image and site condition assessments. Please read this carefully and refresh your understanding regularly if contributing data on multiple occasions.

Section 5 – Entering Image Assessments

Contains standardised guidance on how to enter an Image Assessment score for the calibration component of the project. Please read all of this section and refer to it if you need assistance during data entry.

Section 6 – Entering Site Condition Assessments

Provides standardised guidance on how to contribute a Site Condition Assessment. Please read all of this section and refer back to it if you need assistance during data entry.

1 Project information

1.1 Overview

The Habitat Condition Assessment Tool (HCAT) is a web-based platform hosted by the Atlas of Living Australia’s BioCollect information system that enables experts with deep ecological knowledge and experience to contribute site-level habitat condition scores. Using this tool, experts delineate areas they are familiar with and provide an overall ecological condition score for each area (a Site Condition Assessment). Each score is benchmarked against extreme end points (0 – completely removed or transformed habitat, and 1 – habitat with high ecosystem integrity as it might have existed prior to European colonisation). Experts also provide condition scores for a set of calibration images (an Image Assessment) to enable their site condition assessment scores to be calibrated across experts and locations.

Your contributions to HCAT will support ongoing development of the Habitat Condition Assessment System (HCAS), which uses satellite remote sensing and site data to estimate ecosystem condition across the Australian continent. Data collected via HCAT informs HCAS by providing contemporary examples where ecosystems are relatively intact, as well as sites where ecosystems have been modified. The HCAS and HCAT data are also important inputs to ecosystem state and transition modelling, which is providing information to support management of ecosystems to improve outcomes for biodiversity. It is anticipated that coverage of Australia’s ecosystems will be extended through a rolling series of regional elicitation campaigns. Your site condition assessments will be a valuable addition to a national library of site condition assessment data supporting research, natural resource planning, monitoring, and reporting.

The HCAT was initially designed and tested in 2018 through a collaboration between the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), CSIRO, the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and the Arthur Rylah Institute of the Department of Environment, Water and Energy, Victoria. During that first round, invited experts were asked to contribute image and site condition assessments and provide feedback on their experiences with the tool. The current version of HCAT has been updated to address previous feedback and to introduce improvements to the original HCAT method and interface.

For more background, download the Round 2 HCAT factsheet and Research Participant Information Sheet. View the products from the first round of HCAT expert elicitation to improve our understanding of the condition of Australia’s native ecosystems: https://research.csiro.au/biodiversity-knowledge/projects/expert-knowledge-biodiversity/

2 Getting started

2.1 Checklist of steps

To participate in this project, you will need to:

a) Click on the link to open the HCAT portal (https://biocollect.ala.org.au/hcat/). This link can also be found in your invitation email.

b) Log in or create your Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) user account – This provides you with access to the HCAT data capture tools. If you have an existing ALA account, simply click on the HCAT link and enter your account details to access HCAT. If you do not already have an account, click ‘sign-up’ and follow the prompts to create an account. You will receive an activation email (be sure to check your junk mail folder) to activate your account. Once you have activated your account, return to the HCAT portal and login using your new ALA details.

c) Read all instructions in this document – It is important that you do this before entering your assessments. Instructions are also available on the Home Page of the HCAT portal.

d) Enter your Image Assessments – In this section of the HCAT you are asked to provide a condition score for a suite of photographic habitat images (Section 5). During this step you will also be asked to consent to the terms of participation and indicate if you wish all your contributions to be de-identified. Details of data use, IP, privacy and ethics permits are available in the Research Participant Information Sheet.

e) Contribute Site Condition Assessments – Enter individual Site Condition Assessments directly within the HCAT or by uploading data through a pre-formatted spreadsheet (Section 6).

2.2 For assistance
• Check supporting information via “Project Information” and “Instructions – Read me” from the HCAT homepage.

• Use the online help available within the HCAT via the question mark (?) icon.

• Check the relevant sections of this guidance document.

• Email expertconditionassessments@csiro.au – this email address is monitored by the project team and your enquiry will be directed to the appropriate team member.

3 Data entry overview

You will be asked to contribute two types of assessments, Image Assessments and Site Condition Assessments. Image Assessments are performed online within the HCAT. Site Condition Assessments can be a) performed online within the HCAT, or b) entered offline into a pre-formatted spreadsheet and then uploaded to the HCAT when completed.

These options are accessed via alternative buttons on the HCAT home page:

Image Assessments Contribute condition scores for photographic images of habitats. For details, see Section 5 of this document.

Site Condition Assessment

(a) Contribute condition scores, spatial locations, and ancillary information for site/s with which you are familiar online within the HCAT. For details, see Section 6.2 of this document

(b) Alternatively, contribute condition scores, spatial locations, and ancillary information for site/s with which you are familiar offline by adding records to a pre-formatted spreadsheet and uploading to the HCAT when completed. For details, see Section 6.3 of this document.

You must complete both Image Assessment and Site Condition Assessment tasks for your contributions to be used in further research and natural resource management. Detailed guidance on entering data for each is provided below (Sections 5 and 6).

Mandatory fields are marked with *

Online help is available via ?

4 Essential concepts for scoring condition

4.1 Definition of a ‘site’

In HCAT, a site is defined as a specific location with a geographic boundary (i.e not a point) and uniform condition. A site can be any size or shape that meets these criteria.

4.2 Definition of ‘condition’

Overall ecosystem condition scores are assigned to individual sites. A site’s overall ecosystem condition is scored between 1 and 0:

• A score of ‘1’ applies to a site with the highest ecosystem integrity, within its natural range of variability, as might have existed prior to European colonisation. Its characteristic composition, structure, functioning, and self-organisation are intact.

• A score of ‘0’ applies to a completely transformed site in which all native species have been removed. The site's functioning and self-organisation are now entirely different compared to any of its characteristic forms .

4.3 How to estimate a condition score

The overall site condition score you provide should reflect your satisfaction with the probability (i.e. chance) of assigning the highest (1) or lowest (0) condition state to a site in a random lottery, based on your knowledge of the site. You can provide your estimate of condition using the following steps.

  1. Consider the state of the site at the time of your assessment
  2. Using the definitions above (4.2), imagine what your site would look like if it was in the highest condition (score = 1) and the lowest condition (score = 0).
  3. Now consider you are given the option to exchange or swap the condition of your site for a lottery that randomly returns either the highest (1) or lowest (0) condition with a certain probability. What probability of getting the highest condition for your site would make you indifferent to participating in this lottery?

To help visualise this condition scoring method you may wish to use the thought exercise in Box 1 (found in Section 4.3 of the PDF) , which provides a practical interpretation of probability. Remember, we want your estimate of condition: there’s no “right” score otherwise. Scoring using probability will incorporate any uncertainty you may have around your score. This method was adopted for this reason and because it provides a consistent interpretation of condition for use in a range of analyses. For further reading on the rational for this method, see Appendix A. This is not required reading; it is included for interest.

4.4 Site level condition factors to consider

In scoring each site, focus on the local ‘site level’ condition of the ecosystem at the time of the observation:

a) Consider only the properties at the site; not any relationship to the surrounding area.

b) Consider the condition of the site in any/all of the following terms: • the physical and chemical properties of the soil and water (e.g. soil structure, nutrients, pH, salinity, hydrology, geomorphology) that sustain the ecosystem and its components • the structure of the ecosystem, and its capacity as habitat for native animals or plants (irrespective of the context of the site, and whether those species presently live there) • the balance between native and exotic species • the resident plant species richness/diversity (given ecosystem type, and the minimum area concept defined by the species-area relationship) • the abundance of species or life-forms that you consider ecologically relevant to the ecosystem type • the ecological processes and functions (e.g. water and nutrient cycling, regimes of disturbances and recovery) occurring at the site.

c) Please try NOT to introduce the following considerations. We acknowledge they are important, but they will not be dealt with in this data collection protocol: • the actual dollar cost of managing or improving the ecosystem or any of its components • consideration or anticipation of the likely future for the site (whether good or bad) • the liability or danger the site poses to other sites (e.g. as weed or pest harbour; as a fire hazard) • any unrealised effects (e.g. predictions, time-lags) of the land use at the site, or any surrounding sites • any unrealised effects of the context of the site (e.g. degree of ‘landscape fragmentation’) • ecological dynamics driven by disturbance regimes to which ecosystems have adapted over evolutionary timeframes, including disturbance regimes driven by Indigenous land management. Natural or benign perturbations (consequences of fire, flood, storm, etc.) are not considered to impair habitat condition, unless such disturbances are unseasonal, or at frequencies and intensities outside the bounds of presumed regimes prior to European colonisation. For example, a post-fire ecosystem with a fire-killed over-storey may still exhibit high levels of integrity if the fire was within bounds of its capacity over time to recover function and structure.

We acknowledge that ecosystems are dynamic and may manifest in alternative ecological states according to a range of natural perturbations (i.e. ‘endogenous’ disturbance regimes). However, in any of these characteristic states, the ecosystem is presumed to provide the necessary habitat components (structures and functions) for the persistence of all constituent species and their interactions over time. We also recognize that reference conditions (i.e. a score of 1) may still be achieved in contemporary landscapes that are actively managed, and that reference conditions do not require an absence of people.

5 Entering Image Assessments

5.1 Image allocation

In this section you will be asked to provide a condition score for a suite of photographic images. We allocate images to you based on the Major Vegetation Groups (MVG) and Hutchison geographic classifications that you nominate as being within your area of expertise. Scoring these images will enable your Site Condition Assessments to be calibrated with other participants. By determining whether individuals tend to routinely provide higher or lower condition scores relative to other experts, the ‘bias’ associated with each expert’s scores can be estimated and used to adjust their site condition scores .

The images presented will:

• represent ecosystems in geographic areas with which you are familiar • include examples in different condition states • also be scored by other participants with similar expertise. Ideally, each calibration image that you score will also be scored by 2-4 other experts, although this will depend on how much overlap in expertise there is among participants.

Your approach to scoring each image should apply the essential concepts outlined in Section 4. Given the images provide only limited information on the condition of the location, you should only spend a few minutes considering what you can assess visually and scoring each image. You will only be asked to perform the image assessment task once for your suite of images.

5.2 Consent

In addition to the Image Assessment, you will be asked to declare your consent to participate in this project and if you would like your Site Condition Assessments to be de-identified. Note that image assessment scores are for internal use only, are treated as confidential to the participant, and the results are not shared or published outside of the project team. For specific details about what you are consenting to, please read the Research Participant Information Sheet.

5.3 Image Assessment

To access the Image Assessment task, click on the Image Assessment button located on the HCAT home page.

  1. You will be presented with a list of Major Vegetation Groups (MVG) and Hutchison geographic agro-climatic classes. Please select all groups and classes in which you have expertise. Note that images of wetlands and coastal habitats are not included in this version of HCAT.

  2. Select if you would like your Site Condition Assessments to be de-identified or not. • If you select “Identify my data”, your name will be credited with your Site Condition Assessments in all relevant publicly available material using HCAT data (e.g. publications, reports, presentations, or data repositories). • If you select “De-identify my data”, only members of the HCAT project team and select ALA developers will be able to see your name associated with the Site Condition Assessments you provide. When your HCAT data are included in publicly available material, your contributions will be anonymised, using a code to replace your name. • Your Image Assessments will not be made public regardless of your selection– they are used for internal calibration and validation purposes only. Only members of the HCAT project team and select ALA developers will be able to see your name associated with these. • Note that once a selection is made, there will not be an option to change your decision within HCAT. If you change your mind about whether you want your contributions to be credited or de-identified you must contact the project team directly at expertconditionassessments@csiro.au, as soon as possible. Once your data have been published (at least 2 months later) it will not be possible to make a change.

  3. Check the box stating that you have read, understood, and accepted the privacy, IP and ethics arrangements for this project. Details are provided in the Research Participant Information Sheet.

  4. Click “Request Records” and HCAT will automatically select a set of images for you to assess.

  5. Open and assess each of the images presented in your list. a) Under the “Action” column, click the pencil icon and open a new page where you can provide a score for that unique image. b) For each ecosystem image, enter your estimate of condition for that photo. c) Score condition using the guidelines in Section 4 (Essential concepts for scoring condition). d) You can click on the image to enlarge it and view it in high resolution. e) Select “Yes” to indicate whether you have completed the assessment. f) Click “Submit” to enter your response and then close the page to return to the full image list. g) To return to the full image list, click “My Data” in the banner menu at the top of the page, and select the next image in the list. h) Repeat this process (5a-g) for each image in your list until all Image Assessments are completed.

After scoring all the listed images your Image Assessment is complete, you can return to the HCAT home page by clicking the “Home” link in the banner menu at the top of the page and begin your Site Condition Assessments. You can view your Image Assessments scores any time by clicking the “My Data” link in the banner menu at the top of the page.

6 Entering Site Condition Assessments

Once you have completed your Image Assessments, you may begin entering Site Condition Assessments. Contribute as many (or as few) Site Condition Assessments as you like during the campaign. Additional assessments can be added at any time throughout the campaign. The HCAT will remain open beyond the campaign period to receive further contributions from existing and new participating experts.

6.1 Choosing your sites
• Include sites with which you are already familiar based on your field experience. • A site must be homogenous in condition and should also be a relatively homogenous ecosystem type. You must be able to spatially define the site and assign it a condition score. If you are unsure about the bounds of the ecosystem type, it is more important to ensure the site is homogenous with regard to its condition.
6.2 Three options to enter Site Condition Assessments

  1. Enter individual Site Condition Assessment records online directly within the HCAT (Section 6.3). This option may be preferred if you would like to enter each site individually, have relatively few sites to contribute, or the sites are complex polygons.

  2. Upload multiple sites simultaneously using a customised Site Condition Assessment spreadsheet (Section 6.4). This option may be preferred if you have many sites to contribute for which you have pre-recorded data (e.g. location, date assessed). If this is the case, we provide a downloadable preformatted spreadsheet into which you can copy site information from existing records and add your personal site condition assessments, then upload the spreadsheet into the HCAT when completed. This option is presently only available for square-shaped sites with a North-South orientation.

  3. Contact us via expertconditionassessments@csiro.au to discuss alternative bulk data formats. This option may be preferred if you have pre-existing site condition assessments or data that you would like to provide, but is difficult to enter using either options 1 or 2 (e.g. alternative formats such as .TIFF, large spreadsheets of non-square plots).

Note that you can use any or all methods to enter site condition assessments. You may enter some site condition assessments directly via the HCAT online portal, other sites via the spreadsheet and further sites by contacting us directly.

6.3 Creating a new Site Condition Assessment within the HCAT portal

To create a new Site Condition Assessment online directly within HCAT, click on the “Site Condition Assessments” button located on the HCAT homepage.

6.3.1 Record details

When starting a new record, the assessor name and data-entry date are automatically populated from your ALA login details.

• Use the Condition Assessment Date section of the data capture tool to record the date or time period to which your Site Condition Assessment applies. • You don’t need to give exact dates – you can enter a date accurate to year, month or day. • If the assessment applies across a period of time – that is you are confident that the site has remained in the same condition across a number of months or years – enter an end date for the assessment period. If your assessment applies to a point in time only, leave end date blank.

6.3.2 Site location

You can define the spatial boundaries of the site (1) using the mapping tool embedded in the Site Condition Assessment form, or (2) by entering the Latitude and Longitude coordinates that define the spatial boundaries of the sites (this option is only available for square sites with a North-South orientation). Note that entering a site as a point location is not valid for this purpose. Sites must be homogenous in condition and should also be homogenous in ecosystem type.

Using the mapping tool:

  1. You can zoom and pan the map to navigate to your site

  2. Use the drawing icons to delineate your site polygon. A polygon can be of any size and shape, and you can edit it. Double click to complete the polygon

  3. You can switch between terrain, satellite and infrastructure layers to assist with orientation and delineation, using the ‘layers’ icon in the top right corner of the map.

  4. There is no maximum or minimum site size, however the site must be of a size that allows you to be confident that condition is homogenous across the entire polygon, and ideally the ecosystem type too

  5. If in doubt about the precise location of site boundaries, draw an internal polygon rather than a bounding polygon to ensure your condition estimate is homogenous, as far as possible

  6. You will be asked to give your polygon a name to save it (e.g. a general location). We suggest you use a common prefix for all your entries. They will then be grouped together in the dropdown site list, making it easier for you to locate your polygons later if you need to

  7. If you use the mapping tool to save your polygon, you can enter multiple condition assessments for the same polygon where condition has changed over time. To do this, add a new Site Condition Assessment record, type in the name of the site or select it from the dropdown list, and complete the data fields for the new record

Entering Latitude and Longitude coordinates:

  1. This option can only be used to enter square sites with a North-South orientation

  2. Click “Add coordinates manually”

  3. Enter the Latitude and Longitude (WGS84 decimal format) coordinate of one corner or the centre point (centroid) of the site

  4. Select the coordinate location (i.e. SE, NE, SW, NW, centroid)

  5. Enter the area of the site (Site Area) and specify the units (m2 or ha) of area measured (Site Area Units)

  6. If your coordinates are not in WGS84 decimal format, a free coordinate conversion tool can be found at: https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/NCAT/.

6.3.3 Site photo

This section is optional. If you have photos of the site and you are willing to make them available, you can upload them by clicking the “Add Images” button and selecting the photos you wish to share. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the photos into the designated area. For each photo, provide a file name, the date the photo was taken, attribution for the photo (i.e. photographer, if they have agreed to be named), and select the Creative Commons (CC) License that applies to the photos from the associated drop-down menu. For more information on the different CC License options please visit https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/. You can also provide notes about the photos, including any relevant context (e.g. if the photo was taken shortly after a natural perturbation or disturbance).

By contributing photos, you are giving permission for the HCAT team to use these photos in scientific applications, including future publications, research and analysis (subject to attribution and other conditions of the selected CC license). These photos may also be used to help grow our Image Assessment library.

Please avoid uploading photos that include the image of a person/s unless you have permission for their image to be published and that permission is clearly stated in the notes section.

6.3.4 Site condition score

Enter a score between 0 and 1 for your estimate of the condition at the site, informed by the definitions and instructions given in Section 4 (Essential concepts for scoring condition). You can enter any number between 0 and 1.

6.3.5 Ecosystem characteristics underpinning site condition

Ecosystem characteristics are the physical and biological properties associated with the ecosystem that contribute to its overall condition (i.e. ecosystem integrity).

In addition to an overall site condition score, please provide your estimate of a condition score between 0 and 1 for each of the ‘ecosystem characteristics’ listed in Table 2.

Table 2 Definitions of ecosystem characteristic to be scored for all site condition assessments. Each characteristic should be scored between 1 and 0 using the definitions given Section 4 (Essential concepts for scoring condition).

Each characteristic should be scored using the definitions and instructions in Section 4 (Essential concepts for scoring condition). For each characteristic, the lowest condition (0) and highest condition (1) are defined as in Section 4.2. The condition of each ecosystem characteristic is then assessed by applying the same probability thought experiment in Section 4.3, where overall condition is replaced with the condition of the specific ecosystem characteristic of interest (e.g. “condition of species composition”).

6.3.6 Drivers that negatively impact the condition of a site

In addition to condition, you can also provide details of the anthropogenic drivers at the site. Drivers, in this context, refers to anything that negatively impacts the condition of the site that is outside the range of disturbance and variation to which an ecosystem has adapted over evolutionary timescales (i.e. ‘exogenous’ to the ecosystem). Scoring can include both primary (e.g. livestock grazing) and secondary (e.g. resulting soil erosion) drivers. It does not include natural or benign disturbances (consequences of fire, flood, storm, etc.), including pre-European colonisation disturbance regimes driven by Indigenous land management (i.e. ‘endogenous’ to the ecosystem). Table 3 provides definitions for each driver . Scoring drivers is optional.

Table 3 Definitions and examples of the possible primary and secondary drivers impacting the condition of a site, based on the IUCN threats classification scheme and the Australian threatening processes

Scoring driver impact on condition

If you wish to do so, please provide a score between 0 and 1 that is your estimate of the impact of each driver on the overall condition of the site.

• A score of 0 applies when the driver is absent or effectively absent and does not impact the condition of the site. • A score of 1 applies when the driver is present and has the highest possible impact that can be realised at this site.

Like the site condition score, the impact score for each driver is defined as an equivalence between the impact of the driver at your site and the probability of instead getting the highest (1) or lowest (0) impact of the driver in a random lottery. You can estimate each impact score using a similar method as described in Section 4 with the following steps:

  1. Consider each driver’s influence on the site, including its presence and intensity

  2. Image two scenarios – the site without the driver (= 0) and the site where the driver has the maximum possible impact (= 1)

  3. Now consider you are given the option to exchange or swap the driver’s impact level at your site for a lottery that returns either no driver impact (lowest impact of 0) or instead the maximum possible impact of the driver on the condition of the site (highest impact of 1). What probability of getting the highest level of impact would make you indifferent to participating in this lottery?

A lower score (closer to 0) suggests that the driver has minimal impact on site condition because you will only accept a low chance of getting a site experiencing the maximum impact scenario.

Points to consider when scoring driver impact

Remember, we want your impact estimate; there is no “right” score otherwise. Scoring using probability will incorporate any uncertainty you may have around your score. We acknowledge that the ‘highest possible impact’ of a driver may manifest differently across different habitat types, therefore, it is up to you as the expert to imagine, what the highest possible impact of a given threat may be within the context of the site (i.e. a score of 1), and score accordingly.

Note that a high impact score for a specific driver does not mean a site must have a low overall condition score. For example, a hypothetical site may have a high number of invasive non-native animals, such as feral rabbits. You may believe that the impact of these invasive animals (e.g. carrying capacity) has reached a maximum and therefore assign a score of 1 to this driver. However, despite the high impact of invasive animals, many aspects of the site could still be relatively intact (such as its abiotic properties or vegetation structure), therefore a moderate to high overall condition score might still be applicable. Similarly, low to moderate impact scores for multiple drivers could result, in your view, in a low overall condition score. Ultimately, this determination is up to you based on our experience and knowledge of the site.

6.3.7 Comments

If you would like to provide any additional information about your site condition assessment, please enter it in the comments section. This can include an expanded explanation for you score or context for the site, such as if your scores are based on empirical data, if the site is part of a monitoring network or other collection, if it is featured in a publication, or what you perceive the ecosystem type to be. This section is optional, and what you provide here about the site and your condition assessment is up to you. There is no word limit.

6.3.8 Submitting and editing data

• Clicking the ‘Submit’ button at the bottom of the page will save and store your record. • Only when all mandatory fields () have been completed can the record be submitted. • Records with incomplete mandatory fields () cannot be saved. Navigating away from the data entry form without submitting your record will result in loss of all the data you have entered on the form. • You can edit your submitted Site Condition Assessment records at any time during and following the campaign period. • Your submitted records can be accessed via My Data in the banner menu. Review the filter panel on the left-hand side of the screen, and set the ‘Survey name’ filter to Site Condition Assessment to show your contributed records. (Without the ‘Survey name’ filter set the record list will show both Site Condition Assessment and Image Assessment records.)

6.4 Upload Site Condition Assessments using a pre-formatted spreadsheet

If you have datasets that already denote the location of sites for which you can provide assessments, you may prefer to upload your assessments in a single spreadsheet instead of submitting each site individually within HCAT (as described in Section 6.2).

In that case, we provide a downloadable preformatted spreadsheet into which you can copy site location information from existing records and then add your personal site condition assessments. Each row of the spreadsheet represents a unique site assessment. These may be different sites, or the same site for which you are providing multiple condition assessments over different periods of time. The spreadsheet requests the same information as the online Site Condition Assessment form, but in a spreadsheet format.

Note that, in this version of HCAT, the spreadsheet is only an option for square-shaped sites with a North-South orientation. All other site configurations must be entered individually within the HCAT portal directly or contact us via expertconditionassessments@csiro.au to discuss alternative bulk data formats.

To enter your Site Condition Assessment records using the pre-formatted template, go to the HCAT home page and click on the “Site Condition Assessments Spreadsheet” button.

6.4.1 Download the spreadsheet and enter site condition assessments

On this page, click the “Download Site Condition Assessment Spreadsheet” button to download the spreadsheet.

Once you have downloaded the spreadsheet, you can enter individual Site Condition Assessments. Each column is a different item of data requested as part of the site assessment (e.g. condition assessment date, overall condition score, a score for each ecosystem characteristic and disturbance, etc.). Please do not alter any of the column headings as this will affect the automatic upload and listing in your ‘My Data’.

  1. Each column should be filled according to the instructions described in Section 6.3 (particularly 6.3.1, 6.3.2, 6.3.4–6.3.7)

  2. To enter the location information of the site into the spreadsheet: a) Under the column headings “Latitude” and “Longitude”, enter the respective Latitude and Longitude coordinate of one corner or the centre point (centroid) of the site. b) Specify the geodetic reference system (also known as the geodetic datum) of the coordinates. c) Select the coordinate location (i.e. SE, NE, SW, NW or centroid). d) Enter the area of the site and specify the units measured (i.e. m2 or ha).

6.4.2 Upload the spreadsheet and record metadata

Once you have entered all the Site Condition Assessments you want to provide into the spreadsheet at that time, you can upload the file into HCAT by clicking on the “Upload Completed Site Condition Assessment Spreadsheet” button. This will take you to a new page, where you can attach the completed spreadsheet.

  1. The spreadsheet itself will be saved as a unique data record. Your name and the date the spreadsheet is uploaded will be populated automatically

  2. Click the “Attach Document” option to attach the completed spreadsheet. When you attach the spreadsheet, you will be prompted to supply some additional information. Please give your spreadsheet a Title and provide a Description of the dataset. This can include information on the general location of the sites, or how the sites were surveyed (if applicable). Please select “Dataset” as the Document Type. You may add additional information under the relevant categories if you wish. For example, you can enter an Attribution for the underlying dataset, a Citation for the source of the data, or a Licence agreement specifying how the data can be reused (if relevant). If you leave these fields blank, we will assume that you are the data owner (or you have permission of the data owner to share the data), and therefore have the right to upload the data

  3. Under Dataset Metadata, you will be asked to give the record a Dataset name and Dataset description. These can be identical to and copied from spreadsheet Title and Description you provided when you attached the spreadsheet

If you wish to submit additional sites later, you can download a new copy of the spreadsheet and upload additional files as a new data record. There is no limit on the number of spreadsheets you can upload.

A reminder that by uploading a site condition assessment spreadsheet you are giving permission for the HCAT team to publish these data (de-identified if you choose) and to use these data in scientific applications, including future publications, research and analysis (See the Research Participant Information Sheet for details).

Glossary

Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) – The Atlas of Living Australia is a comprehensive online resource that brings together biodiversity data from across Australia, making it freely available for research, conservation, and education.

Australian Ecosystems Models Framework – A framework for systematically capturing ecological knowledge about the dynamics of Australian ecosystems in pre- and post-industrialisation contexts.

BioCollect – The BioCollect app, developed by the Atlas of Living Australia, is a citizen science tool for collecting and recording biodiversity data in the field.

Condition Score – The ecosystem condition (synonymous with habitat condition) score of the site or image between two extreme end points of 1 and 0. A score of ‘1’ applies to a site with high ecosystem integrity within its natural range of variability as might have existed prior to European colonisation. Its characteristic composition, structure, functioning, and self-organisation are intact. A score of ‘0’ applies to a completely transformed site in which all native species have been removed. The site's functioning and self-organisation are now entirely different compared to any of its characteristic forms.

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) – An Australian government agency established in July 2022. It's responsible for a broad range of issues relating to Australia's sustainability and natural resources.

Driver – Anything that negatively impacts the condition of the site that is outside the range of disturbance and variation to which an ecosystem has adapted over evolutionary timescales (i.e. ‘exogenous’ to the ecosystem). It does not include natural or benign disturbances (consequences of fire, flood, storm, etc.), including pre-European colonisation disturbance regimes driven by Indigenous land management (i.e. ‘endogenous’ to the ecosystem).

Ecosystem characteristic – key and universal attribute of ecosystem condition, adapted from the ‘National standards for the practice of ecological restoration in Australia’ prepared by the Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia (SERA). Endogenous disturbance regimes – natural or benign disturbances that originate from within the ecosystem, driven by natural biological and ecological processes (i.e. consequences of fire, flood, storm, etc.), Within HCAT, this includes pre-European colonisation disturbance regimes driven by Indigenous land management.

Exogenous disturbance regime –Disturbances or changes driven by forces outside the natural biological and ecological processes of the ecosystem that can significantly alter the composition, structure or function of the site.

Habitat Condition Assessment Tool (HCAT) – web-based platform hosted by the Atlas of Living Australia’s BioCollect information system that enables experts with deep ecological knowledge and experience to contribute site-level habitat condition scores.

Hutchison geographic agro-climatic classes – The Hutchison geographic agro-climatic classes are a system for classifying land areas into zones with similar agricultural potential based on climatic factors. The classes reflect major patterns in plant growth, temperature, moisture indices, and seasonality.

Image Assessment – In this section of the HCAT you are asked to provide a condition score for a suite of photographic images. Scoring these images will enable your Site Condition Assessments to be calibrated with other participants.

Major Vegetation Groups (MVG) – The National Vegetation Information System (NVIS) classifies Australian native vegetation into major vegetation groups (MVG), which reflect the dominant vegetation occurring in a particular area. There are 33 MVGs in NIVS 6.0.

Probability – The probability (or chance) of an event occurring is recorded as a number between 0 and 1; the larger the probability or chance (i.e. closer to 1), the more likely an event is to occur.

Site – a specific location with a geographic boundary (i.e not a point) and uniform condition. A site can be any size or shape that meets the main criteria of uniform condition.

Site Condition Assessment – In this section of the HCAT you are asked to contribute condition scores, spatial locations, and ancillary information for site/s with which you are familiar, either online within the HCAT or offline by adding records to a pre-formatted spreadsheet and uploading to the HCAT when completed.

HCAT products from Round 1

Liu C (2022) R code for habitat condition score rescaling to make the scores more comparable across assessors (file: habitat_condition_score_rescaling.r). Mendeley Data, Online, https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/kpm44drn73/2. DOI: 10.17632/kpm44drn73.2. Pirzl R, Dickson F, White MD, Williams KJ, Sinclair S, Brenton P, Warnick A, Raisbeck-Brown N, Liu C, Lyon P and Mokany K (2019) A National Reference Library of Expert Site Condition Assessments: Development and evaluation of method. Report to the Department of the Environment and Energy. CSIRO, Canberra, Australia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25919/6txs-vy29. Warnick A, Raisbeck-Brown N, Mokany K, Williams KJ, White MD, Metcalfe D, Prober SM, Dickson F, Sparrow B and Pirzl R (2019) Australian habitat image collection. v1. Data Collection. CSIRO, Canberra, Australia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25919/5ce5e29fe1e81. White MD, Hollings T, Sinclair SJ, Williams KJ, Dickson F, Brenton P, Raisbeck-Brown N, Warnick A, Lyon P, Mokany K, Liu C and Pirzl R (2023) Towards a continent-wide ecological site condition database using calibrated expert evaluations. Ecological Applications 33(1), e2729. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2729. White MD, Raisbeck-Brown N, Williams KJ, Warnick A, Mokany K, Brenton P, Sathya Moorthy S and Pirzl R (2019) Habitat condition data for Australia from expert elicitation. v2. Data Collection. CSIRO, Canberra, Australia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25919/5c7da9661dbcc.

More information: https://research.csiro.au/biodiversity-knowledge/projects/expert-knowledge-biodiversity/

Acknowledgments

This work has been undertaken through a collaboration between the CSIRO, the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), the Arthur Rylah Institute of the Department of Environment, Water and Energy, Victoria, and the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA).

Previous authors and contributors engaged in creating the original HCAT platform and developing the original guidelines and instructions are acknowledged here as co-authors.

Contributions to concept design in Round 1 were received from Randall Donohue, Simon Ferrier, Michael Doherty, and in Round 2, Megan Good.

Assessment images for the image assessment task were provided by Ben Sparrow (TERN AusPlots), Dan Metcalfe, Suzanne Prober, Carl Gosper and Randall Donohue. Craig McFarlane provided image classification advice in Round 1. All Round 1 images and the classification were reused in Round 2.

Sue McIntyre, Suzanne Prober and Anna Richards assisted through testing of prototypes in 2018. Alison O’Donnell, Kaline De Mello, Brett Abbott, and Adam Liedloff provided assistance with testing the updated HCAT for Round 2 in 2024, and peer reviewed this Instructions Booklet.

This work was funded by DCCEEW and CSIRO, and built upon existing platform infrastructure provided by the Atlas of Living Australia.

CSIRO and DCCEEW acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land, sea, and waters, of the area that we live and work on across Australia. We acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. View CSIRO’s vision towards reconciliation and DCCEEW’s Reconciliation Action Plan.

Appendix A: Mathematical definition of a site condition score

A.1 Introduction to utility theory

As a novel approach for the elicitation of ecosystem condition assessments, HCAT 2024 has applied utility theory to develop a structured elicitation procedure for ecological experts. Utility theory was developed in 1944 by von Neumann and Morgensten (1944,1953) to describe a normative approach for coherent decision making where there are multiple options (e.g. what is the best option from some well-defined set of alternatives?). ‘Utility’ measures the satisfaction or preference a person has between options. In this case however, rather than measuring preferences between hypothetical alternatives, a modified utility approach is being applied to elicit expert opinion on habitat condition. This technique was chosen because, in contrast with the original HCAT that asked experts to intuit a score, it provides a consistent and probabilistic interpretation of condition that supports decision analysis in a range of applications. It also incorporates any uncertainty that you may have around your score, and so removes the need for additional assessments such as self-scaling or condition bounds (which were mandatory components of the original methodology in the 2018 version of HCAT).

In this 2024 version of HCAT, a site condition score, c, is a number between zero and one. By definition, a condition score of one (c = 1) corresponds to the overall highest possible condition score, and a condition score of zero (c = 0) corresponds to the overall lowest possible condition score. The condition score for a site between these values (site = s), is equivalent to a probability of c of obtaining the overall highest possible condition score of one and a probability of 1 – c of obtaining the overall lowest possible condition score of zero.

Your condition score for site s is the value of c such that the following two “lotteries” are equivalent:

  1. Obtain the condition of site s for sure (the “sure thing” lottery);

  2. Obtain the highest possible condition with probability c or the lowest possible condition with probability 1-c (the “uncertain” lottery).

A.1.1 What is a lottery?

As applied in HCAT, a lottery is a thought exercise that allows you to define the condition of any site. The term “lottery” refers to a hypothetical random process that produces outcomes with certain probabilities. For example, the auxiliary experiment might entail an imaginary draw of a winning ticket from a collection of tickets. DeGroot (1970) suggests spinning a “wheel of fortune”.

Pratt (1965) suggest drawing a single-coloured ball from a jar filled with a proportion of balls that are coloured and the remainder uncoloured, as was described in Section 4.2. The key point is that it’s not the process used by the auxiliary experiment that is important, but instead the generated probabilities for obtaining outcomes. The expected condition score is c for both lottery 1) and lottery 2) above. For site condition, the probability c in the uncertain lottery is the probability of obtaining the highest condition. The probability 1 – c is the probability of obtaining the lowest condition. Imagine a jar containing a proportion of c green balls with remaining proportion 1 - c being white: the lottery returns the highest condition if a green ball is drawn, and the lottery returns the lowest condition if a white ball is drawn. The condition c of site s is the probability of obtaining the highest condition in the uncertain lottery or a green ball from the jar.

A.2 Application to site condition and drivers

Therefore, in the context of a lottery, the condition of a site s is equivalent to a probability of obtaining the highest and lowest conditions. For example, a site s with an estimated condition score, c = 0.9, is equivalent to a 90% chance of the highest level of condition and 10% of the lowest level of condition. If the condition score estimated for the site, s, is c = 0.1, this would be equivalent to a 10% of the highest level of condition and 90% of the lowest level of condition. The score c is the probability of obtaining the highest condition in the uncertain lottery. Similarly, your driver score (Section 6.3.6) for the negative impact on the condition of site s is the value of d such that the following two “lotteries” are equivalent:

  1. Obtain the impact of the driver of site s for sure (the “sure thing” lottery);
  2. Obtain the highest possible impact of the driver with probability d or the lowest possible amount of the driver with probability 1-d (the “uncertain” lottery).

By asking you to consider the condition of a site as a probability of getting two extremes, the condition score for a site represents your assessment of the actual habitat condition but can also be used to infer the probability of that site being in the highest condition or lowest condition. As a result, uncertainty is inherent in the score you provide.

The Habitat Condition Assessment Tool: Instructions for participants, version 3.0

Using expert knowledge to improve our understanding of the condition of Australia’s native ecosystems

July 2025

The HCAT Instructions can be downloaded as a PDF booklet from the CSIRO Research Publications Repository

The Participation Information Sheet, which explains how your data and information will be used, how your IP and privacy will be protected, and our ethical clearance for this project, can be downloaded from the CSIRO Research Publications Repository

The HCAT Factsheet, which provides a brief summary of the tool and its applications, can be downloaded from the CSIRO Research Publications Repository

Citation: Munroe S, Giljohann KM, Brenton P, Williams KJ, Hosack GR, Richards AE, Brinkman J, Checksfield S, Salomon J, Raisbeck-Brown N, Warnick A, Dickson F, Pirzl R, Sinclair SJ, White MD (2025) The Habitat Condition Assessment Tool: Instructions for participants, version 3.0. Publication number: EP2025-2295. CSIRO, Australia.

Copyright © Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 2025.

The authors request attribution as ‘© Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (collaborating with the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water)’. All material in this publication is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, with the following exceptions: the CSIRO logo, the ALA logo, the Commonwealth Coat of Arms.

Important disclaimer: CSIRO advises that the information contained in this publication comprises general statements based on scientific research. The reader is advised and needs to be aware that such information may be incomplete or unable to be used in any specific situation. No reliance or actions must therefore be made on that information without seeking prior expert professional, scientific and technical advice. To the extent permitted by law, CSIRO (including its employees and consultants) excludes all liability to any person for any consequences, including but not limited to all losses, damages, costs, expenses and any other compensation, arising directly or indirectly from using this publication (in part or in whole) and any information or material contained in it.

CSIRO is committed to providing web accessible content wherever possible. If you are having difficulties with accessing this document please contact csiro.au/contact.

How to use this page

This page contains background and instructions for using the Habitat Condition Assessment Tool (HCAT). This standardised training material aims to minimise ambiguities and provide a common interpretation of methodological approaches and implementation. Please read these instructions carefully and apply the method outlined when contributing your expert image and site condition scores. For information on how assessments will be used, how your IP and privacy will be protected, and our ethical clearance for this project, please see the Research Participant Information Sheet. By contributing data through HCAT, you are agreeing to these privacy terms and conditions.

The page is divided into 6 sections, as follows.

Section 1 – Project information

Outlines the function and purpose of the HCAT and provides contextual information for contributing experts.

Section 2 – Getting started

Explains the steps required to establish accounts and logins for the project. Please check that you have completed all these steps.

Section 3 – Data entry overview

Provides an overview of the core data entry components.

Section 4 – Essential concepts for scoring condition

Provides detail on essential concepts required to provide condition scores for image and site condition assessments. Please read this carefully and refresh your understanding regularly if contributing data on multiple occasions.

Section 5 – Completing Image Assessments

Contains standardised guidance on how to enter an Image Assessment score for the calibration component of the project. Please read all of this section and refer to it if you need assistance during data entry.

Section 6 – Entering Site Condition Assessments

Provides standardised guidance on how to contribute a Site Condition Assessment. Please read all of this section and refer back to it if you need assistance during data entry.

1 Project information

1.1 Project overview

The Habitat Condition Assessment Tool (HCAT; https://biocollect.ala.org.au/hcat) is a web-based platform hosted by the Atlas of Living Australia’s BioCollect information system that enables experts with deep ecological knowledge and field experience to contribute site-level ecosystem condition scores. Using this tool, experts delineate areas they are familiar with and provide an overall ecosystem condition score for each area (a Site Condition Assessment). Each score is benchmarked against extreme end points (0 – completely removed or transformed habitat, and 1 – habitat with high ecosystem integrity as it might have existed prior to European colonisation). Experts also provide ecosystem condition scores for a set of calibration images (an Image Assessment), allowing their site condition assessment scores to be calibrated (i.e. bias corrected) across experts and locations.

Your contributions to HCAT will help build a national library of expert site condition assessments. It is our goal that this publicly available library will help support research, natural resource planning, and monitoring and reporting throughout Australia. Data collected through HCAT also supports ongoing development of the Habitat Condition Assessment System (HCAS), which uses satellite remote sensing and site data to estimate ecosystem condition across the Australian continent. Data collected via HCAT informs HCAS by providing contemporary examples where ecosystems are relatively intact, as well as sites where ecosystems have been modified; and may be used in model training, calibration and/or validation. Enhanced validation and calibration of HCAS may directly contribute to improved biodiversity assessment applications, such as the Nature Repair Market through the Ecological Knowledge System (EKS). HCAT data may also be used to improve conceptual models of ecosystem dynamics (via the Australian Ecosystem Models Framework). It is anticipated that coverage of Australia’s ecosystems will be extended through a rolling series of regional and national expert elicitation campaigns to improve the conceptual models of ecosystem dynamics. The HCAT will be introduced to ecosystem experts through workshops, scientific conferences, social media, professional networks, and by direct invitation.

The HCAT was initially designed and tested in 2018 through a collaboration between the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), CSIRO, the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and the Arthur Rylah Institute of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Victoria. During that first round, invited experts were asked to contribute image and site condition assessments and provide feedback on their experiences with the tool (Pirzl et al., 2019; White et al., 2023). The current version of the HCAT has been updated to address previous feedback and to introduce improvements to the original HCAT method and interface. The first update to this instruction booklet (September 2024) introduced a utility theory-based approach to elicit site condition assessments. This second update (July 2025, HCAT version 3.0) supersedes the September 2024 version by re-introducing the intuitive scoring method based on subsequent user and expert feedback, which indicated that an intuitive approach was easier to comprehend and apply consistently. Other improvements made to the scoring system and website are retained.

1.2 Scientific rational

Reliable on-ground assessments of habitat quality (synonymous with condition, health and integrity) are essential for managing Australia’s wildlife and ecosystems (Sparrow et al., 2020). Ecological scientists and practitioners possess invaluable knowledge, yet expert assessments are often fragmented and difficult to collect. Additionally, no universal method exists for measuring ‘ecosystem condition’.

A measurable ecosystem condition scoring system typically uses three steps (e.g., Keith et al., 2020):

Selecting measurable ecosystem characteristics and metrics (also called condition variables) as relevant proxies of ecosystem quality;

transforming these variables into a comparable scale, reflecting their relationship (often nonlinear) with ecosystem quality; and

weighting and combining the transformed variables into an overall, defined ecosystem condition score.

The weightings in the scoring system, above, should reflect the proportional contributions of each condition variable and the interactions among variables to ecosystem quality in constructing the overall score. However, each step in this process involves subjective choices that emphasise different aspects of ecosystem quality to varying degrees, for example which characteristics of the ecosystem’s structure, composition, and function to measure and how to weight them.

Rather than attempting to eliminate this subjectivity, the HCAT method recognises expert judgment as fundamental to assessing ecosystem condition. Over many years of field observation and training, members of the ecological science and practitioner community in Australia have developed a deep understanding of how Australia’s ecosystems work (Cook et al., 2014; Keith, 2017). For these reasons, the HCAT approach places ecological expertise at the centre of its ecosystem site condition data collection system. Ecosystem experts, with diverse backgrounds and expertise, may make different subjective choices (e.g. selecting, prioritising, transforming, and weighting condition variables) if asked to independently develop a system of ecosystem condition scoring. Each system would likely be valid and might highlight aspects of ecosystem quality that others may overlook. The HCAT method asserts that the subjectivity and noise associated with creating a measurable condition scoring system, which requires experts to make decisions about which variables to consider and how to weight them, is likely similar to the subjectivity and noise associated with a well-informed expert simply intuiting a score (Cook et al., 2014, 2010).

The HCAT method therefore asks expert’s to provide their ecosystem condition score based only on the given definitions of ‘site’ and ‘ecosystem condition’ when a score is equal to zero (‘0’) or one (‘1’), and provides guidance on what site-level factors an expert should consider when intuiting that score (as outlined in Section 4).

2 Getting started

2.1 Checklist of steps

To participate in this project, you will need to:

a) Click on the link to open the HCAT portal (https://biocollect.ala.org.au/hcat/).

b) Log in or create your Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) user account – This provides you with access to the HCAT data capture tools. If you have an existing ALA account, simply click on the HCAT link and enter your account details to access HCAT. If you do not already have an account, click ‘sign-up’ and follow the prompts to create an account. You will receive an activation email (be sure to check your junk mail folder) to activate your account. Once you have activated your account, return to the HCAT portal and login using your new ALA details.

c) Read all instructions – It is important that you do this before entering your assessments.

d) Complete your Image Assessments – In this section of the HCAT you are asked to provide a condition score for a given suite of photographic habitat images (Section 5). During this step you will also be asked to consent to the terms of participation and indicate if you wish all your contributions to be de-identified. Details of data use, IP, privacy and ethics permits are available in the Research Participant Information Sheet.

e) Contribute Site Condition Assessments – Enter individual Site Condition Assessments directly within the HCAT, by uploading data through a pre-formatted spreadsheet, or by contacting us directly with alternative data formats (Section 6). Site assessments should be entered only after Image assessments are completed.

2.2 For assistance

• Check supporting information via “Project Information” and “Instructions – Read me” from the HCAT homepage.

• Use the online help available within the HCAT via the question mark (?) icon.

• Check the relevant sections of this guidance document.

• Email expertconditionassessments@csiro.au – this email address is monitored by the project team and your enquiry will be directed to the appropriate team member.

3 Data entry overview

You will be asked to contribute two types of assessments, Image Assessments and Site Condition Assessments. Image Assessments are performed online within the HCAT. Site Condition Assessments can be a) performed online within the HCAT, or b) entered offline into a pre-formatted spreadsheet and then uploaded to the HCAT when completed.

These options are accessed via alternative buttons on the HCAT home page:

Image Assessment

Complete condition scores for the given photographic images of habitats. For details, see Section 5 of this document.

Site Condition Assessment

(a) Contribute condition scores, spatial locations, and ancillary information for site/s with which you are familiar online within the HCAT. For details, see Section 6.2 of this document

(b) Alternatively, contribute condition scores, spatial locations, and ancillary information for site/s with which you are familiar offline by adding records to a pre-formatted spreadsheet and uploading to the HCAT when completed. For details, see Section 6.3 of this document.

Both Image Assessment and Site Condition Assessment tasks will need to be completed for your contributions to be used in further research and natural resource management Detailed guidance on entering data for each is provided below (Sections 5 and 6).

Mandatory fields are marked with *

Online help is available via ?

4 Essential concepts for scoring condition

4.1 Definition of a ‘site’

In HCAT, a site is defined as a specific location with a geographic boundary (i.e. not a point) and uniform (i.e. homogenous) condition. A site can be any size or shape that meets these criteria. Sites can include multiple ecosystem types, so long as they are uniform in condition.

4.2 Definition of ‘condition’

Overall ecosystem condition scores are assigned to individual sites with uniform condition. A site’s overall ecosystem condition is scored between 1 and 0:

• A score of ‘1’ applies to a site with the highest ecosystem integrity, as might have existed prior to European colonisation, and its characteristic composition, structure, functioning, and self-organisation are intact and lie within its natural range of variability.

• A score of ‘0’ applies to a completely transformed site in which all native species have been removed. The site's functioning and self-organisation are now entirely different compared to any of its characteristic forms.

4.3 How to estimate a condition score

Provide your estimate of the overall ecosystem condition of the site by integrating all the local condition factors and characteristics that you consider important when determining a score (see Section 4.4 for guidance on site-level condition factors to consider).

The overall site-level ecosystem condition scores you provide should be intuitive and internally consistent across all sites you score and align with the definitions of the extreme endpoints of 1 and 0 (as described in Section 4.2 above). Scores should apply to the site overall, not to the highest or average condition available within the site.

By ‘intuitive’, we mean that you, as the expert, decide (without having to defend or rationalise that decision) what ecosystem characteristics to consider and how to weight and aggregate them when estimating the overall ecosystem condition of the site.

In Section 6.3.5 you will be introduced to how to score the independent contributions of four ecosystem characteristics to overall ecosystem condition.

4.4 Site level condition factors to consider

In scoring each site, focus on the local ‘site level’ condition of the ecosystem at the time of the observation:

a) Consider only the properties at the site; not any relationship to the surrounding area.

b) Consider the condition of the site in any/all of the following terms:

• the physical and chemical properties of the soil and water (e.g. soil structure, nutrients, pH, salinity, hydrology, geomorphology) that sustain the ecosystem and its components

• the structure of the ecosystem, and its capacity as habitat for native animals or plants (irrespective of the context of the site, and whether those species presently live there)

• the balance between native and exotic species

• the resident plant species richness/diversity (given ecosystem type, and the minimum area concept defined by the species-area relationship)

• the abundance of species or life-forms that you consider ecologically relevant to the ecosystem type

• the ecological processes and functions (e.g. water and nutrient cycling, regimes of disturbances and recovery) occurring at the site.

c) Please avoid introducing the following considerations. We acknowledge they are important, but they will not be dealt with in this data collection protocol:

the conservation significance of native species or ecosystems that may or may not occupy the site

the actual dollar cost of managing or improving the ecosystem or any of its components

consideration or anticipation of the likely future for the site (whether good or bad)

the liability or danger the site poses to other sites (e.g. as weed or pest harbour; as a fire hazard)

any unrealised effects (e.g. predictions, time-lags) of the land use at the site, or any surrounding sites

any unrealised effects of the context of the site (e.g. degree of ‘landscape fragmentation’)

ecological dynamics driven by disturbance regimes to which ecosystems have adapted over evolutionary timeframes, including disturbance regimes driven by Indigenous land management. Natural or benign perturbations (consequences of fire, flood, storm, etc.) are not considered to impair habitat condition, unless such disturbances are unseasonal, or at frequencies and intensities outside the bounds of presumed regimes prior to European colonisation. For example, a post-fire ecosystem with a fire-killed over-storey may still exhibit high levels of integrity if the fire was within bounds of its capacity over time to recover function and structure.

In addition to the overall ecosystem condition score, you will also be asked to provide a condition score for specific Ecosystem Characteristics (see section 6.3.5, Table 2) and drivers that negatively impact the condition of the site (see section 6.3.6, Table 3).

We acknowledge that ecosystems are dynamic and may manifest in alternative ecological states according to a range of natural perturbations (i.e. ‘endogenous’ disturbance regimes). However, in any of these characteristic states, the ecosystem is presumed to provide the necessary habitat components (structures and functions) for the persistence of all constituent native species and their interactions over time. We also recognise that high levels of ecosystem integrity (e.g. approaching a condition score of 1) may still be achieved in contemporary landscapes that are actively managed, and that maintenance of ecosystem integrity does not require an absence of people.

5 Entering Image Assessments

5.1 Image allocation

In this section you will be asked to provide a condition score for a suite of photographic images. We allocate images to you based on the Major Vegetation Groups (MVG) and Hutchison geographic classifications that you nominate as being within your area of expertise. Scoring these images will enable your Site Condition Assessments to be calibrated with other participants. By determining whether individuals tend to routinely provide higher or lower condition scores relative to other experts, the ‘bias’ associated with each expert’s scores can be estimated and used to adjust their site condition scores.

The images presented will:

• represent ecosystems in geographic areas with which you are familiar

• include examples in different condition states

• also be scored by other participants who nominate similar areas of expertise (i.e. broad vegetation and geographic groupings, as above). Ideally, each calibration image that you score will also be scored by 2-4 other experts, although this will depend on how much overlap in expertise there is among participants.

Your approach to scoring each image should apply the essential concepts outlined in Section 4. Given the images provide only limited information on the condition of the location, you should only spend a few minutes considering what you can assess visually and scoring each image. You will only be asked to perform the image assessment task once for your suite of images.

5.2 Consent

In addition to the Image Assessment, you will be asked to declare your consent to participate in this project and if you would like your Site Condition Assessments to be de-identified. Note that image assessment scores are for internal use only, are treated as confidential to the participant, and the results are not shared or published outside of the project team. For specific details about what you are consenting to, please read the Research Participant Information Sheet.

5.3 Image Assessment

To access the Image Assessment task, click on the Image Assessment button located on the HCAT home page.

  1. You will be presented with a list of Major Vegetation Groups (MVG) and Hutchison geographic agro-climatic classes. Please select all groups and classes in which you have expertise. Note that images of wetlands and coastal habitats are not included in this version of HCAT.

  2. Select if you would like your Site Condition Assessments to be de-identified or not.

• If you select “Identify my data”, your name will be credited with your Site Condition Assessments in all relevant publicly available material using HCAT data (e.g. publications, reports, presentations, or data repositories).

• If you select “De-identify my data”, only members of the HCAT project team and select ALA developers will be able to see your name associated with the Site Condition Assessments you provide. When your HCAT data are included in publicly available material, your contributions will be anonymised, using a code to replace your name.

• Your Image Assessments will not be made public regardless of your selection– they are used for internal calibration and validation purposes only. Only members of the HCAT project team and select ALA developers will be able to see your name associated with these.

• Note that once a selection is made, there will not be an option to change your decision within HCAT. If you change your mind about whether you want your contributions to be credited or de-identified you must contact the project team directly at expertconditionassessments@csiro.au, as soon as possible. Once your data have been published (at least 2 months later) it will not be possible to make a change.

  1. Check the box stating that you have read, understood, and accepted the privacy, IP and ethics arrangements for this project. Details are provided in the Research Participant Information Sheet.

  2. Click “Request Records” and HCAT will automatically select a set of images for you to assess.

  3. Open and assess each of the images presented in your list.

a) Under the “Action” column, click the pencil icon and open a new page where you can provide a score for that unique image.

For each ecosystem image, enter your best estimate of the overall condition for that photo.

Use the ‘upper’ ecosystem condition bound and a ‘lower’ ecosystem condition bound boxes to reflect your degree of confidence in the overall ecosystem condition score you have provided for the image (These bounds do not represent variability in condition within the image). This image assessment allows calibrations to be applied to site condition scores (White et al., 2023).

c) Score condition using the guidelines in Section 4 (Essential concepts for scoring condition).

d) You can click on the image to enlarge it and view it in high resolution.

    Select “Yes” to indicate whether you have completed the assessment.

f) Click “Submit” to enter your response and then close the page to return to the full image list

g) To return to the full image list, click “My Data” in the banner menu at the top of the page, and select the next image in the list

h) Repeat this process (5a-g) for each image in your list until all Image Assessments are completed.

After scoring all the listed images your Image Assessment is complete, you can return to the HCAT home page by clicking the “Home” link in the banner menu at the top of the page and begin your Site Condition Assessments. You can view and edit your Image Assessments scores any time by clicking the “My Data” link in the banner menu at the top of the page.

6 Entering Site Condition Assessments

Once you have completed your Image Assessments, you may begin entering Site Condition Assessments. Contribute as many (or as few) Site Condition Assessments as you like during the campaign. Additional assessments can be added at any time throughout the campaign.

6.1 Choosing your sites

• Include sites with which you are already familiar based on your field experience.

• A site must be homogenous in condition and should also be a relatively homogenous ecosystem type. You must be able to spatially define the site and assign it a condition score. If you are unsure about the bounds of the ecosystem type, it is more important to ensure the site is homogenous with regard to its condition.

If this is your first time entering Site Condition Assessments, the first two sites you contribute should be a site with the highest level of condition that you know of, and a site with the lowest level of condition that you know of, informed by the definitions given in Section 4 (Essential concepts for scoring condition). These sites need not have a score of 1 or 0, respectively, but should be the sites that you are familiar with that you would score closest to a 1 or 0. This sets your internal standards for self-scaling all subsequent scores. You may repeat this exercise at any time, especially when contributing Site Condition Assessments for quite different geographic areas or ecosystem types.

6.2 Three options to enter Site Condition Assessments

  1. Enter individual Site Condition Assessment records online directly within the HCAT (Section 6.3). This option may be preferred if you would like to enter each site individually, have relatively few sites to contribute, or the sites are complex polygons.

  2. Upload multiple sites simultaneously using a customised Site Condition Assessment spreadsheet (Section 6.4). This option may be preferred if you have many sites to contribute for which you have pre-recorded data (e.g. location, date assessed). If this is the case, we provide a downloadable preformatted spreadsheet into which you can copy site information from existing records and add your personal site condition assessments, then upload the spreadsheet into the HCAT when completed. This option is presently only available for square-shaped sites with a North-South orientation.

  3. Contact us via expertconditionassessments@csiro.au to discuss alternative bulk data formats. This option may be preferred if you have pre-existing site condition assessments or data that you would like to provide, but is difficult to enter using either options 1 or 2 (e.g. alternative formats such as .TIFF, large spreadsheets of non-square plots).

Note that you can use any or all methods to enter site condition assessments. For example, you may enter some Site Condition Assessments directly via the HCAT online portal, other sites via the spreadsheet and further sites by contacting us directly.

6.3 Creating a new Site Condition Assessment within the HCAT portal

To create a new Site Condition Assessment online directly within HCAT, click on the “Site Condition Assessments” button located on the HCAT homepage.

6.3.1 Record details

When starting a new record, the assessor name and data-entry date are automatically populated from your ALA login details.

• Use the Condition Assessment Date section of the data capture tool to record the date or time period to which your Site Condition Assessment applies.

• You don’t need to give exact dates – you can enter a date accurate to year, month or day.

• If the assessment applies across a period of time – that is you are confident that the site has remained in the same condition across a number of months or years – enter an end date for the assessment period. If your assessment applies to a point in time only, leave end date blank.

6.3.2 Site location

You can define the spatial boundaries of the site (1) using the mapping tool embedded in the Site Condition Assessment form, or (2) by entering the Latitude and Longitude coordinates that define the spatial boundaries of the sites (this option is only available for square sites with a North-South orientation). Note that entering a site as a point location is not valid for this purpose. Sites must be homogenous in condition and should also be homogenous in ecosystem type.

Using the mapping tool:

  1. You can zoom and pan the map to navigate to your site.

  2. Use the drawing icons to delineate your site polygon. A polygon can be of any size and shape, and you can edit it. Double click to complete the polygon.

  3. You can switch between terrain, satellite and infrastructure layers to assist with orientation and delineation, using the ‘layers’ icon in the top right corner of the map.

  4. There is no maximum or minimum site size, however the site must be of a size that allows you to be confident that condition is homogenous across the entire polygon.

  5. If in doubt about the precise location of site boundaries, draw an internal polygon rather than a bounding polygon to ensure your condition estimate is homogenous, as far as possible.

  6. You will be asked to give your polygon a name to save it (e.g. a general location). We suggest you use a common prefix for all your entries. They will then be grouped together in the dropdown site list, making it easier for you to locate your polygons later if you need to.

  7. If you use the mapping tool to save your polygon, you can enter multiple condition assessments for the same polygon where condition has changed over time. To do this, add a new Site Condition Assessment record, type in the name of the site or select it from the dropdown list, and complete the data fields for the new record.

Entering Latitude and Longitude coordinates:

  1. This option can only be used to enter square sites with a North-South orientation

  2. Click “Add coordinates manually”

  3. Enter the Latitude and Longitude (WGS84 decimal format) coordinate of one corner or the centre point (centroid) of the site

  4. Select the coordinate location (i.e. SE, NE, SW, NW, centroid)

  5. Enter the area of the site (Site Area) and specify the units (m2 or ha) of area measured (Site Area Units)

  6. If your coordinates are not in WGS84 decimal format, a free coordinate conversion tool can be found at: https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/NCAT/.

6.3.3 Site photo

This section is optional. If you have photos of the site and you are willing to make them available, you can upload them by clicking the “Add Images” button and selecting the photos you wish to share. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the photos into the designated area. For each photo, provide a file name, the date the photo was taken, attribution for the photo (i.e. photographer, if they have agreed to be named), and select the Creative Commons (CC) License that applies to the photos from the associated drop-down menu. For more information on the different CC License options please visit https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/.You can also provide notes about the photos, including any relevant context (e.g. if the photo was taken shortly after a natural perturbation or disturbance).

By contributing photos, you are giving permission for the HCAT team to use these photos in scientific applications, including future publications, research and analysis (subject to attribution and other conditions of the selected CC license). These photos may also be used to help grow the HCAT Image Assessment library which is periodically published via CSIRO’s Data Access Portal (e.g. Warnick et al. 2019).

Please avoid uploading photos that include the image of a person/s unless you have permission for their image to be published and that permission is clearly stated in the notes section.

6.3.4 Site condition score

Enter a score between 0 and 1 for your estimate of the condition at the site, informed by the definitions and instructions given in Section 4 (Essential concepts for scoring condition). You can enter any number between 0 and 1. You may use as many decimal places as you consider necessary.

6.3.5 Ecosystem characteristics underpinning site condition

Ecosystem characteristics are the physical and biological properties associated with the ecosystem that contribute to its overall condition (i.e. ecosystem integrity).

In addition to an overall site condition score, please provide your estimate of a condition score between 0 and 1 for each of the ‘ecosystem characteristics’ listed in Table 2.

Table 1: Definitions of ecosystem characteristic to be scored for all site condition assessments. Each characteristic should be scored between 1 and 0 using the definitions given Section 4 (Essential concepts for scoring condition).
ecosystem chara

Each characteristic should be scored using the definitions and instructions in Section 4 (Essential concepts for scoring condition). For each characteristic, the lowest condition (0) and highest condition (1) are defined as in Section 4.2. The condition of each ecosystem characteristic is then assessed by applying the same steps as in Section 4.3, where overall condition is replaced with the condition of the specific ecosystem characteristic of interest (e.g. “condition of species composition”). You may use as many decimal places as you consider necessary.

6.3.6 Drivers that negatively impact the condition of a site

If your overall site condition score is less than ‘1’, you may wish to provide details of the anthropogenic drivers that caused the decline in condition. Drivers, in this context, refer to anything that negatively impacts the condition of the site that is outside the range of disturbance and variation to which an ecosystem has adapted over evolutionary timescales (i.e. ‘exogenous’ to the ecosystem). Scoring can include both primary (e.g. livestock grazing) and secondary (e.g. resulting soil erosion) drivers. It does not include natural or benign disturbances (consequences of fire, flood, storm, etc.), including pre-European colonisation disturbance regimes driven by Indigenous land management (i.e. ‘endogenous’ to the ecosystem). Table 2 provides definitions for each driver. Scoring drivers is optional.

Scoring driver impact on condition

If you wish to do so, please provide a score between 0 and 1 that is your estimate of the impact of each driver on the overall condition of the site. This is the inverse of condition scoring.

• A score of 0 applies when the driver is absent or effectively absent and does not impact the condition of the site.

• A score of 1 applies when the driver is present and has the highest possible impact that can be realised at this site.

Like the site condition score, the impact score for each driver should be intuitive and internally consistent across all sites that you score and align with the definitions of the extreme end points of 0 and 1 (as defined above). A lower score (closer to the end point of 0) suggests the driver has minimal negative impact on site condition, whereas a higher score (closer to the end point of 1) signifies a strong negative impact’. You may use as many decimal places as you consider necessary.

Points to consider when scoring driver impact

We acknowledge that the ‘highest possible negative impact’ of a driver on ecosystem condition may manifest differently across different habitat types, therefore, it is up to you as the expert to imagine what the highest possible impact (i.e. an impact score of 1) of a given driver on condition may be within the context of the site (not necessarily the highest possible impact globally) and score accordingly.Note that a high impact score for a specific driver does not mean a site will always have a low overall condition score. For example, a hypothetical site may have a high number of invasive non-native animals, such as feral rabbits. You may believe that the impact of these invasive animals (e.g. carrying capacity) on site condition has reached a maximum and therefore assign a score of 1 to this driver. However, despite the high impact of invasive animals, other aspects of the site could still be relatively intact (such as its abiotic properties or vegetation structure), therefore a non-zero overall condition score might still be applicable. Similarly, a low to moderate impact score for multiple drivers could result, in your view, in a low overall condition score. Ultimately, this determination is up to you based on your experience and knowledge of the site and of drivers that have negatively impacted the condition of that site.

Table 2 Definitions and examples of the possible primary and secondary drivers impacting the condition of a site, based on the IUCN threats classification scheme and the Australian threatening processes

drivers
6.3.7 Comments

Please provide any additional information about your Site Condition Assessment in the comments section, as this can be useful in later data interpretation.

For example, an expanded explanation for your score or context for the site, such as:

your scores are based on empirical data;

the site is part of a monitoring network or a specific project;

the site is featured in a publication;

or what you perceive the ecosystem type to be.

This section is optional, and what you provide here about the site and your condition assessment is up to you.

6.3.8 Submitting and editing data

• Clicking the ‘Submit’ button at the bottom of the page will save and store your record.

• Only when all mandatory fields have been completed can the record be submitted.

• Records with incomplete mandatory fields cannot be saved. Navigating away from the data entry form without submitting your record will result in loss of all the data you have entered on the form.

• You can edit your submitted Site Condition Assessment records at any time during and following the campaign period.

• Your submitted records can be accessed via My Data in the banner menu. Review the filter panel on the left-hand side of the screen, and set the ‘Survey name’ filter to Site Condition Assessment to show your contributed records. (Without the ‘Survey name’ filter set the record list will show both Site Condition Assessment and Image Assessment records.)

6.4 Upload Site Condition Assessments using a pre-formatted spreadsheet

If you have datasets that already denote the location of sites for which you can provide assessments, you may prefer to upload your assessments in a single spreadsheet instead of submitting each site individually within HCAT (as described in Section 6.2).

In that case, we provide a downloadable preformatted spreadsheet into which you can copy site location information from existing records and then add your personal site condition assessments. Each row of the spreadsheet represents a unique site assessment. These may be different sites, or the same site for which you are providing multiple condition assessments over different periods of time. The spreadsheet requests the same information as the online Site Condition Assessment form, but in a spreadsheet format.

Note that, in this version of HCAT, the spreadsheet is only an option for square-shaped sites with a North-South orientation. All other site configurations must be entered individually within the HCAT portal directly or contact us via expertconditionassessments@csiro.au to discuss alternative bulk data formats.

To enter your Site Condition Assessment records using the pre-formatted template, go to the HCAT home page and click on the “Site Condition Assessments Spreadsheet” button.

6.4.1 Download the spreadsheet and enter site condition assessments

On this page, click the “Download Site Condition Assessment Spreadsheet” button to download the spreadsheet.

Once you have downloaded the spreadsheet, you can enter individual Site Condition Assessments. Each column is a different item of data requested as part of the site assessment (e.g. condition assessment date, overall condition score, a score for each ecosystem characteristic and disturbance, etc.). Please do not alter any of the column headings as this will affect the automatic upload and listing in your ‘My Data’.

  1. Each column should be filled according to the instructions described in Section 6.3 (particularly 6.3.1, 6.3.2, 6.3.4–6.3.7).

  2. To enter the location information of the site into the spreadsheet:

a) Under the column headings “Latitude” and “Longitude”, enter the respective Latitude and Longitude coordinate of one corner or the centre point (centroid) of the site.

b) Specify the geodetic reference system (also known as the geodetic datum) of the coordinates.

c) Select the coordinate location (i.e. SE, NE, SW, NW or centroid).

d) Enter the area of the site and specify the units measured (i.e. m2 or ha).

6.4.2 Upload the spreadsheet and record metadata

Once you have entered all the Site Condition Assessments you want to provide into the spreadsheet at that time, you can upload the file into HCAT by clicking on the “Upload Completed Site Condition Assessment Spreadsheet” button. This will take you to a new page, where you can attach the completed spreadsheet.

  1. The spreadsheet itself will be saved as a unique data record. Your name and the date the spreadsheet is uploaded will be populated automatically.

  2. Click the “Attach Document” option to attach the completed spreadsheet. When you attach the spreadsheet, you will be prompted to supply some additional information.

Please give your spreadsheet a Title and provide a Description of the dataset. This can include information on the general location of the sites, or how the sites were surveyed (if applicable). Please select “Dataset” as the Document Type. You may add additional information under the relevant categories if you wish. For example, you can enter an Attribution for the underlying dataset, a Citation for the source of the data, or a Licence agreement specifying how the data can be reused (if relevant). If you leave these fields blank, we will assume that you are the data owner (or you have permission of the data owner to share the data), and therefore have the right to upload the data.

  1. Under Dataset Metadata, you will be asked to give the record a Dataset name and Dataset description. These can be identical to and copied from spreadsheet Title and Description you provided when you attached the spreadsheet.

Alternatively, if you encounter any difficulties uploading the spreadsheet via the HCAT website, you can also email your completed spreadsheet to expertconditionassessments@csiro.au.

If you wish to submit additional sites later, you can download a new copy of the spreadsheet and upload additional files as a new data record. There is no limit on the number of spreadsheets you can upload.

A reminder that by uploading a site condition assessment spreadsheet you are giving permission for the HCAT team to publish these data (de-identified if you choose) and to use these data in scientific applications, including future publications, research and analysis (See the Research Participant Information Sheet for details).

Glossary

Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) – The Atlas of Living Australia is a comprehensive online resource that brings together biodiversity data from across Australia, making it freely available for research, conservation, and education.

Australian Ecosystems Models Framework – A framework for systematically capturing ecological knowledge about the dynamics of Australian ecosystems in pre- and post-industrialisation contexts.

BioCollect – The BioCollect app, developed by the Atlas of Living Australia, is a citizen science tool for collecting and recording biodiversity data in the field.

Condition Score – The ecosystem condition (synonymous with habitat condition) score of the site or image between two extreme end points of 1 and 0. A score of ‘1’ applies to a site with high ecosystem integrity within its natural range of variability as might have existed prior to European colonisation. Its characteristic composition, structure, functioning, and self-organisation are intact. A score of ‘0’ applies to a completely transformed site in which all native species have been removed. The site's functioning and self-organisation are now entirely different compared to any of its characteristic forms.

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) – An Australian government agency established in July 2022. It's responsible for a broad range of issues relating to Australia's sustainability and natural resources.

Driver – Anything that negatively impacts the condition of the site that is outside the range of disturbance and variation to which an ecosystem has adapted over evolutionary timescales (i.e. ‘exogenous’ to the ecosystem). It does not include natural or benign disturbances (consequences of fire, flood, storm, etc.), including pre-European colonisation disturbance regimes driven by Indigenous land management (i.e. ‘endogenous’ to the ecosystem).

Ecosystem characteristic – key and universal attribute of ecosystem condition, adapted from the ‘National standards for the practice of ecological restoration in Australia’ prepared by the Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia (SERA).

Endogenous disturbance regimes – natural or benign disturbances that originate from within the ecosystem, driven by natural biological and ecological processes (i.e. consequences of fire, flood, storm, etc.), Within HCAT, this includes pre-European colonisation disturbance regimes driven by Indigenous land management.

Exogenous disturbance regime –Disturbances or changes driven by forces outside the natural biological and ecological processes of the ecosystem that can significantly alter the composition, structure or function of the site.

Habitat Condition Assessment Tool (HCAT) – web-based platform hosted by the Atlas of Living Australia’s BioCollect information system that enables experts with deep ecological knowledge and experience to contribute site-level habitat condition scores.

Hutchison geographic agro-climatic classes – The Hutchison geographic agro-climatic classes are a system for classifying land areas into zones with similar agricultural potential based on climatic factors. The classes reflect major patterns in plant growth, temperature, moisture indices, and seasonality.

Image Assessment – In this section of the HCAT you are asked to provide a condition score for a suite of photographic images. Scoring these images will enable your Site Condition Assessments to be calibrated with other participants.

Major Vegetation Groups (MVG) – The National Vegetation Information System (NVIS) classifies Australian native vegetation into major vegetation groups (MVG), which reflect the dominant vegetation occurring in a particular area. There are 33 MVGs in NIVS 6.0.

Native species –a species that is within its known natural range and occurs naturally in a given geographic region or habitat as a result of local natural evolution, as opposed to an introduced species or invasive species.

Site – a specific location with a geographic boundary (i.e not a point) and uniform condition. A site can be any size or shape that meets the main criteria of uniform condition.

Site Condition Assessment – In this section of the HCAT you are asked to contribute condition scores, spatial locations, and ancillary information for site/s with which you are familiar, either online within the HCAT or offline by adding records to a pre-formatted spreadsheet and uploading to the HCAT when completed.

HCAT products from Round 1

Liu C (2022) R code for habitat condition score rescaling to make the scores more comparable across assessors (file: habitat_condition_score_rescaling.r). Mendeley Data, Online, https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/kpm44drn73/2. DOI: 10.17632/kpm44drn73.2.

Pirzl R, Dickson F, White MD, Williams KJ, Sinclair S, Brenton P, Warnick A, Raisbeck-Brown N, Liu C, Lyon P and Mokany K (2019) A National Reference Library of Expert Site Condition Assessments: Development and evaluation of method. Report to the Department of the Environment and Energy. CSIRO, Canberra, Australia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25919/6txs-vy29.

Warnick A, Raisbeck-Brown N, Mokany K, Williams KJ, White MD, Metcalfe D, Prober SM, Dickson F, Sparrow B and Pirzl R (2019) Australian habitat image collection. v1. Data Collection. CSIRO, Canberra, Australia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25919/5ce5e29fe1e81.

White MD, Hollings T, Sinclair SJ, Williams KJ, Dickson F, Brenton P, Raisbeck-Brown N, Warnick A, Lyon P, Mokany K, Liu C and Pirzl R (2023) Towards a continent-wide ecological site condition database using calibrated expert evaluations. Ecological Applications 33(1), e2729. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2729.

White MD, Raisbeck-Brown N, Williams KJ, Warnick A, Mokany K, Brenton P, Sathya Moorthy S and Pirzl R (2019) Habitat condition data for Australia from expert elicitation. v2. Data Collection. CSIRO, Canberra, Australia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25919/5c7da9661dbcc.

More information: https://research.csiro.au/biodiversity-knowledge/projects/expert-knowledge-biodiversity/

Acknowledgments

This work has been undertaken through a collaboration between the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), the Arthur Rylah Institute of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), Victoria, and the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA).

Previous authors and contributors engaged in creating the original HCAT platform and developing the original guidelines and instructions are acknowledged here as co-authors.

Contributions to concept design in Round 1 were received from Randall Donohue, Simon Ferrier and Michael Doherty; and in Round 2, Megan Good, Suzanne Prober and Helen Murphy.

Assessment images for the image assessment task were provided by Ben Sparrow (TERN Ecosystem Surveillance), Dan Metcalfe, Suzanne Prober, Carl Gosper and Randall Donohue. Craig McFarlane provided image classification advice in Round 1. All Round 1 images and the classification were reused in Round 2.

Sue McIntyre, Suzanne Prober and Anna Richards assisted through testing of prototypes and feedback on the HCAT method in 2018 and 2025, resulting in key revisions of the method and booklet. Alison O’Donnell, Kaline De Mello, Brett Abbott, and Adam Liedloff provided assistance with testing the updated HCAT for Round 2 in 2024, and peer reviewed version 2.0 of these Instructions (September 2024). Alison O’Donnell and Brett Abbott provided subsequent peer-review for these revised Instructions (version 3.0). We also than Joanna Wareham for her insightful comments that helped improve this final version of the revised Instructions.

This work in Round 2 was funded by DCCEEW and CSIRO through the ‘Priority improvements to the Habitat Condition Assessment System’ project, and built upon existing platform infrastructure provided by the ALA.

This project has been approved by CSIRO’s Social Science Human Research Ethics Committee in accordance with the Australian National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007, updated 2023): ethics clearance 248/23 (participant selection and engagement) and 049/24 (expert elicitation).

CSIRO and DCCEEW acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land, sea, and waters, of the area that we live and work on across Australia. We acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. View CSIRO’s vision towards reconciliation and DCCEEW’s Statement of Commitment to First Nations people.

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