SYSTEMATIC SURVEY SITE DATA TEMPLATE INSTRUCTIONS

Intended Usage

This Systematic Survey Site Data template should be used to record data about a Site area where species occurrences have been sampled during a systematic survey.

This Systematic Survey Site template must be used in combination with the Systematic Survey Occurrence Data template and the Systematic Survey Metadata template, and in some cases the Systematic Survey Site Visit template.

Templates have been provided to facilitate integration of data into the Biodiversity Data Repository (BDR) database. Not all types of data have been catered for in the available templates at this stage - if you are unable to find a suitable template, please contact bdr-support@dcceew.gov.au to make us aware of your data needs.

Data Validation Requirements:

For data validation, you will need your data file to:

be the correct file format,
have fields that match the template downloaded (do not remove, or change the order of fields),
have extant values for mandatory fields (see Table 1), and
comply with all data value constraints; for example the geographic coordinates are consistent with a geodeticDatum type of the 5 available options.

Additional fields may be added after the templated fields (noting that the data type is not assumed and values will be encoded as strings).

FILE FORMAT

The systematic survey site data template is a UTF-8 encoded csv (not Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets). Be sure to save this file with your data as a .csv (UTF-8) as follows, otherwise it will not pass the csv validation step upon upload.
[MS Excel: Save As > More options > Tools > Web options > Save this document as > Unicode (UTF-8)]
otherwise it will not pass the csv validation step upon upload.
Do not include empty rows.

FILE NAME

When making a manual submission to the Biodiversity Data Repository, the file name must include the version number of this biodiversity data template (v2.0.0). The following format is an example of a valid file name:

data_descripion-v2.0.0-additional_description.csv

where:

data_description: A short description of the data (e.g. survey_sites, test_data).
v2.0.0: The version number of this template.
additional_description: (Optional) Additional description of the data, if needed (e.g. test_data).
.csv: Ensure the file name ends with .csv.

For example, survey_sites-v2.0.0-test_data.csv or test_data-v2.0.0.csv

FILE SIZE

MS Excel imposes a limit of 1,048,576 rows on a spreadsheet, limiting a CSV file to the header row followed by 1,048,575 occurrences. Furthermore, MS Excel has a 32,767 character limit on individual cells in a spreadsheet. These limits may be overcome by using or editing CSV files with other software.

Larger datasets may be more readily ingested using the API interface. Please contact bdr-support@dcceew.gov.au to make us aware of your data needs.

TEMPLATE FIELDS

The template contains the field names in the top row. Table 1 will assist you in transferring your data to the template indicating:

Field name in the template (and an external link to the Darwin Core standard for that field where relevant);
Description of the field;
Required i.e. whether the field is mandatory, conditionally mandatory, or optional;
Format (datatype) required for the data values for example text (string), number (integer, float), or date;
Example of an entry or entries for that field; and
Vocabulary links within this document (for example pick list values) where relevant. The fields that have suggested values options for the fields in Table 1 are listed in Table 2 in alphabetical order of the field name.

ADDITIONAL FIELDS

Data that does not match the existing template fields may be added as additional columns in the CSV files after the templated fields. For example, fieldNotes, continent, country, countryCode, stateProvince, georeferencedDate, landformPattern, landformElement, aspect, slope.

Table 1: Systematic Survey Site data template fields with descriptions, conditions, datatype format, and examples.

Field #	Name	Description	Mandatory / Optional	Datatype Format	Examples
1	siteID	A unique within dataset string identifier for the site. Valid values include strings that are used specifically for this survey or URIs from BDR Sites that have been established in previous surveys.	Mandatory	String	P1
2	siteIDSource	The organisation that assigned the SiteID to this Site	Optional	String	TERN
3	siteType	The type of site that relates to its sampling type and/or dimensions.	Optional	String	Plot (Vocabulary link)
4	siteName	A name for the site that may be more descriptive than the siteID.	Optional	String	Plot 1
5	siteDescription	The site (plot) description covers important aspects of the site (generally of the land surface). Some overlap in collected information does occur due to the modular nature of the survey processes. The description provides significant background information to gain an appreciation of the plot history, topography, position in the landscape and for understanding the likely relationship between the soils, vegetation and fauna.	Optional	String	Fine woody debris.
6	habitat	A collection of habitat types representing the dominant vegetation structural formation class adopted by the National Vegetation Information System (NVIS).	Optional	List	Chenopod Shrubland \| Closed Fernland (Vocabulary link)
7	relatedSiteID	Identifier of a related site to the specified site e.g. parent site, same site with different identifier.	Mandatory if relationshipToRelatedSite is provided.	String	Same as within dataset or existing URI
8	relationshipToRelatedSite	Relationship between the site and the related site. This field can be used to record Site identifiers for the same site from different custodians through the use of URIs.	Mandatory if relatedSiteID is provided.	String	Same as within dataset or existing URI (Vocabulary link)
9	locality	The specific description of the place.	Optional	String	Cowaramup Bay Road
10	decimalLatitude	The geographic latitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic origin of a Site. Positive values are north of the Equator, negative values are south of it. Legal values lie between -90 and 0, inclusive for Southern hemisphere.	Optional	Number	-34.036
11	decimalLongitude	The geographic longitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic origin of a Site. Positive values are east of the Greenwich Meridian, negative values are west of it. Legal values lie between 0 and 180, inclusive for the BDR use case.	Optional	Number	146.363
12	footprintWKT	A Well-Known Text (WKT) representation of the shape (footprint, geometry) that defines the Site. A Site may have both a point-radius representation and a footprint representation, and they may differ from each other.	Optional	WKT	LINESTRING (146.363 -34.036, 146.363 -34.037) (WKT notes)
13	geodeticDatum	The geodetic datum, or spatial reference system (SRS) upon which the geographic coordinates given for the Site are based.	Optional	String	WGS84 (Vocabulary link)
14	coordinateUncertaintyInMeters	The horizontal distance (in metres) from the given decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude describing the smallest circle containing the whole of the Site. Leave the value empty if the uncertainty is unknown, cannot be estimated, or is not applicable (because there are no coordinates). Zero is not a valid value for this term.	Optional	Integer	50
15	dataGeneralizations	Actions taken to make the shared data less specific or complete than in its original form.	Optional	String	Coordinates given in decimalLatitude, decimalLongitude, easting and northing have been rounded to 0.1 DEG. The observer name has been changed to a unique User ID.

CHANGELOG

Changes from Systematic Survey Site Data Template v1.0.0

CHANGED FIELDS

Add field locality. Type is string, can be blank.
Moved fields surveyID, siteVisitID, siteVisitStart, siteVisitEnd, visitOrgs, visitObservers, condition to the new Systematic Survey Site Visit Data Template.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX-I: Vocabulary List

With the exception of geodeticDatum and relationshipToRelatedSite, the data validation does not require fields to adhere to the vocabularies specified for the various vocabularied fields. These vocabularies are merely provided as a means of assistance in developing consistent language within the database. New terms may be added to more appropriately describe your data that goes beyond the current list.

Table 2: Suggested values for controlled vocabulary fields in the template. Each term has a preferred label with a definition to aid understanding of its meaning. For some terms, alternative labels with similar semantics are provided.
Note: The values for geodeticDatum and relationshipToRelatedSite must come from one of the Preferred labels or Alternate Labels in this table.

Template field name	Preferred label	Definition	Alternate label
geodeticDatum	AGD66	Australian Geodetic Datum 1966	EPSG:4202
geodeticDatum	AGD84	Australian Geodetic Datum 1984	EPSG:4203
geodeticDatum	GDA2020	Geocentric Datum of Australia 2020	EPSG:7844
geodeticDatum	GDA94	Geocentric Datum of Australia 1994	EPSG:4283
geodeticDatum	WGS84	World Geodetic System 1984, used in GPS	EPSG:4326
habitat	BEACH	Type of Landform Element, which is usually short; low; very wide slope; gently or moderately inclined; built up or eroded by waves; forming the shore of a lake or sea.
habitat	BILLABONG OR SWAMP	A swamp is a wetland that features temporary or permanent inundation of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water, generally with a substantial number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, and covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation.
habitat	CAVE	The type of habitat representative of a naturally formed, subterranean open area or chamber.
habitat	CHENOPOD SHRUBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 50-80% members of Chenopodiaceae.
habitat	CLOSED CHENOPOD SHRUBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about >80% members of Chenopodiaceae.
habitat	CLOSED FERNLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about >80% members of Fern and Fern-allies.
habitat	CLOSED FORBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about >80% members of Forbs or herbs other than grasses.
habitat	CLOSED FOREST	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about >80% members of Forbs or herbs other than grasses.
habitat	CLOSED HEATHLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about >80% members of heath shrubs (e.g., members of Ericaceae, Myrtaceae).
habitat	CLOSED HUMMOCK GRASSLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about >80% members of hummock (e.g., Triodia) grasses.
habitat	CLOSED LICHENLAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by lichenised tree trunks and rocks.
habitat	CLOSED LIVERWORTLAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by lower plant groups such as moss, liverworts and bryophytes.
habitat	CLOSED MALLEE FOREST	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about >80% members of tree mallee (e.g., some members of Eucalyptus).
habitat	CLOSED MALLEE SHRUBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about >80% members of mallee shrubs (e.g., some members of Eucalyptus).
habitat	CLOSED MOSSLAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by lower plant groups such as moss, liverworts and bryophytes.
habitat	CLOSED RUSHLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about >80% members of Rushes (e.g., Juncaceae).
habitat	CLOSED SEDGELAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about >80% members of sedges (e.g., Cyperaceae).
habitat	CLOSED SHRUBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about >80% members of sedges (e.g., Cyperaceae).
habitat	CLOSED SOD GRASSLAND	Refers to the type of habitat representative of a characteristic sod-like (turf) grass.
habitat	CLOSED TUSSOCK GRASSLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about >80% members of tussock grasses (e.g., Poa).
habitat	CLOSED VINELAND	Refers to the type of habitat represented by a closed vegetation dominated by stragglers and woody climbers.
habitat	COASTAL WATERS	Refers to the type of habitat representative of an aquatic body typically characterized by a shallow continental shelf, gently sloping seaward to a continental slope, which drops relatively abruptly to the deep ocean.
habitat	CROP LAND	Refers to the type of habitat representative of a cultivated land or land on which agricultural crops are grown or land that is set aside or temporarily not being used for crop production.
habitat	ESTUARY	Type of Landform Element which has a stream channel close to its junction with a sea or lake; where the action of channelled stream flow is modified by tide and waves. The width typically increases downstream.
habitat	FERNLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 50-80% members of Fern and Fern-allies.
habitat	FORBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 50-80% members of Forbs or herbaceous plants other than grasses.
habitat	FRESHWATER LAKE	Refers to the type of habitat representative of an enclosed aquatic body having a relatively low mineral content, generally less than 500 mg/l of dissolved solids.
habitat	GRAZING LAND	Refers to the type of habitat representative of a land predominantly used for grazing.
habitat	HEATHLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 50-80% members of Heath (e.g., Ericaceae, Myrtaceae).
habitat	HUMMOCK GRASSLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 50-80% members of hummock grasses (e.g., Triodia).
habitat	ISOLATED CHENOPOD SHRUBS	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about <0.25% members of Chenopodiaceae.
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF CHENOPOD SHRUBS	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of chenopod shrubs.
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF HEATH SHRUBS	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of heath or heath-like shrubs.
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF HUMMOCK GRASSES	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of hummocky grass (e.g., Triodia spp., Spinifex spp.).
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF LIVERWORTS	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of bryophytes, moss and liverworts.
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF MALLEE SHRUBS	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of mallee shrubs (members of Eucalyptus spp., multistemmed from base).
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF MALLEE TREES	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of tree mallee (members of Eucalyptus spp., multistemmed from base).
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF MOSSES	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of bryophytes, moss and liverworts.
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF RUSHES	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of rushes.
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF SEDGES	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of sedges.
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF SHRUBS	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of shrubs.
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF SOD GRASSES	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of sod grass.
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF TREES	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of trees.
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF TUSSOCK GRASSES	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of tussock grasses (e.g., Poa spp).
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMP OF VINES	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of vines.
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMPS OF FERNS	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0-5% members of Fern and Fern-allies.
habitat	ISOLATED CLUMPS OF FORBS	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0-5% members of Forbs or herbs other than grasses.
habitat	ISOLATED CLUP OF LICHENS	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated clumps of lichens.
habitat	ISOLATED FERNS	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about <0.25% of fern and fern allies.
habitat	ISOLATED FORBS	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about <0.25% of forbs or herbs other than grasses.
habitat	ISOLATED HEATH SHRUBS	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about <0.25% of heath shrubs (e.g., Ericaceae, Myrtaceae).
habitat	ISOLATED HUMMOCK GRASSES	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about <0.25% of hummock grasses (e.g., Triodia).
habitat	ISOLATED LICHENS	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated or sparse lichens.
habitat	ISOLATED LIVERWORTS	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated or sparse liverworts.
habitat	ISOLATED MALLEE SHRUBS	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about <0.25% of mallee shrubs (e.g., some multistemmed individuals from base of Eucalyptus).
habitat	ISOLATED MALLEE TREES	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about <0.25% of tree mallee (e.g., some multistemmed individuals from base of Eucalyptus).
habitat	ISOLATED MOSSES	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated mosses, including bryophytes and liverworts.
habitat	ISOLATED RUSHES	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about <0.25% of rushes (e.g., Juncaceae).
habitat	ISOLATED SEDGES	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about <0.25% of sedges (e.g., Cyperaceae).
habitat	ISOLATED SHRUBS	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about <0.25% of shrubs including cycads, grass-tree and tree-fern.
habitat	ISOLATED SOD GRASSES	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated or sparse sod or turf-like grasses.
habitat	ISOLATED TREES	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about <0.25% of trees including palms.
habitat	ISOLATED TUSSOCK GRASSES	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about <0.25% of tussock grass (e.g. Poa species).
habitat	ISOLATED VINES	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by isolated or sparse stragglers or climbing woody vines.
habitat	LICHENLAND	Refers to the type of habitat predominated by lichens on rocks, trees or tree stumps, etc.
habitat	LIVERWORTLAND	Refers to the type of habitat predominated by liverworts.
habitat	MALLEE SHRUBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 50-80% of shrub mallee (e.g., individuals of some Eucalypts multistemmed from base).
habitat	MALLEE WOODLAND	Refers to the dominant vegetation structural formation, with a percent cover of about 20-50% of Tree Mallee.
habitat	MOSSLAND	Refers to the type of habitat dominated by mosses.
habitat	MUDFLAT	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by a wetland that forms when mud is deposited by the tides, rivers, sea or oceans.
habitat	OPEN CHENOPOD SHRUBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 20-50% of members of Chenopodiaceae.
habitat	OPEN FERNLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 20-50% of ferns and fern allies.
habitat	OPEN FORBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 20-50% of forbs or herbs other than grasses.
habitat	OPEN FOREST	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 20-50% of trees including palms.
habitat	OPEN HEATH	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 20-50% of heaths (e.g., Ericaceae, Myrtaceae).
habitat	OPEN HUMMOCK GRASSLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 20-50% of hummock grasses (e.g., Triodia).
habitat	OPEN LICHENLAND	Refers to the type of habitat represented by open or sparse (i.e., 10-30%) hummocky grasses (e.g., Spinifex spp., Triodia spp.).
habitat	OPEN LIVERWORTLAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by open or sparse lichenised tree trunks and rocks.
habitat	OPEN MALLEE FOREST	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 50-80% of tree Mallee (e.g., certain individuals of Eucalypts multistemmed from base).
habitat	OPEN MALLEE SHRUBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 20-50% of Mallee shrubs (e.g., certain individuals of Eucalypts multistemmed from base).
habitat	OPEN MALLEE WOODLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0.25-20% of tree mallee (e.g., certain individuals of Eucalypts multistemmed from base).
habitat	OPEN MOSSLAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by open or sparse members of lower plant groups such as moss, liverworts and bryophytes.
habitat	OPEN OCEAN	Refers to the type of habitat surrounded by ocean, i.e., a continuous saline-water bodies that surround the continents and fill the Earth's great depressions.
habitat	OPEN RUSHLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 20-50% of rushes (e.g. Juncaceae).
habitat	OPEN SEDGELAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 20-50% of sedges (e.g. Cyperaceae).
habitat	OPEN SHRUBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 20-50% of shrubs (e.g. shrubs, cycads, grass-tree, tree-fern).
habitat	OPEN SOD GRASSLAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by open or sparse (10-30% ground cover) of a characteristic sod-like (turf) grass.
habitat	OPEN TUSSOCK GRASSLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 20-50% of tussock grasses (e.g. Poa species).
habitat	OPEN VINELAND	Refers to the type of habitat represented by a closed vegetation dominated by stragglers and woody climbers.
habitat	OPEN WOODLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0.25-20% of trees including palms.
habitat	ROCK OUTCROP	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by rocks, which protrudes through the surface layer.
habitat	RUSHLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 50-80% of rushes (e.g. Juncaceae).
habitat	SALTWATER LAKE	Refers to the type of habitat representative of an aquatic body filled with water (with high salinity) of considerable size contained in a depression on a landmass.
habitat	SEDGELAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 50-80% of sedges (e.g., Cyperaceae).
habitat	SHRUBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 50-80% of shrubs (e.g., shrub, cycad, grass-tree, tree-fern).
habitat	SOD GRASSLAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by mid-dense (30-70% cover) sod or turf-like grasses.
habitat	SPARSE CHENOPOD SHRUBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0.25-20% of members of Chenopodiaceae.
habitat	SPARSE FERNLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0.25-20% of members of fern and fern-allies.
habitat	SPARSE FORBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0.25-20% of members of forbs and herbs other than grasses.
habitat	SPARSE GRASSLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0.25-20% of grasses.
habitat	SPARSE HEATH	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0.25-20% of members of heath (e.g., Ericaceae, Myrtaceae).
habitat	SPARSE LICHENLAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by very sparse (<10% cover) lichens.
habitat	SPARSE LIVERWORTLAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by very sparse (<10% cover) liverworts.
habitat	SPARSE MALLEE SHRUBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0.25-20% of members of shrub Mallee.
habitat	SPARSE MOSSLAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by very sparse (<10% cover) mosses.
habitat	SPARSE RUSHLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0.25-20% of rushes (e.g., Juncaceae).
habitat	SPARSE SEDGELAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0.25-20% of sedges (e.g., Cyperaceae).
habitat	SPARSE SHRUBLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0.25-20% of shrubs, including cycad, grass-tree, tree-fern.
habitat	SPARSE SOD GRASSLAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by very sparse (<10% cover) sod or turf-like grasses.
habitat	SPARSE TUSSOCK GRASSLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 0.25-20% of tussock grass (e.g., Poa species).
habitat	SPARSE VINELAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by well separated or very sparse crown stragglers or woody vines.
habitat	STREAM OR RIVER	Refers to the type of habitat representative of an aquatic body with a watercourse which is linear and flows across the solid portion of a planetary surface.
habitat	TUSSOCK GRASSLAND	Refers to the NVIS dominant vegetation structural formation class, with a percent cover of about 50-80% of tussock grass (e.g., Poa species).
habitat	URBAN	Refers to the type of habitat relating to, located in, or characteristic of a city or densely populated area.
habitat	VINELAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by woody climbers/straggling vines.
habitat	WOODLAND	Refers to the type of habitat characterised by a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade.
relationshipToRelatedSite	PART OF	When a site is a subset of another site.
relationshipToRelatedSite	SAME AS	When two sites are the same.
siteType	PARENT SITE	Parent site.
siteType	PLOT	Land area selected from within a survey region which abiotic and biotic properties are sampled.
siteType	QUADRAT	A transportable frame (usually a square made out of PVC tube, metal rod or wood) used to isolate a standard unit of area for study of the distribution of item(s) over a large area (e.g. a plot).
siteType	SITE	A place in which study/protocol/sampling activities are conducted.
siteType	TRANSECT	A line along which biotic and abiotic characteristics are sampled

APPENDIX-II: Well Known Text (WKT)

For general information on how WKT coordinate reference data is formatted is available here. The length of a WKT string or of its components is not prescribed; however, MS Excel does has a 32,767 (32K) character limit on individual cells in a spreadsheet.

It is possible to edit CSV files outside of Excel in order to include more than 32K characters.

Multipart geometries (2D) WKT

Source: Mwtoews - CC BY-SA 3.0 - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-known_text_representation_of_geometry

APPENDIX-III: Timestamp

Following date and date-time formats are acceptable within the timestamp:

TYPE	FORMAT
xsd:dateTimeStamp with timezone	yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.sTZD (eg 1997-07-16T19:20:30.45+01:00) OR yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssTZD (eg 1997-07-16T19:20:30+01:00) OR yyyy-mm-ddThh:mmTZD (eg 1997-07-16T19:20+01:00)
xsd:dateTime	yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.s (eg 1997-07-16T19:20:30.45) OR yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss (eg 1997-07-16T19:20:30) OR yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm (eg 1997-07-16T19:20)
xsd:Date	dd/mm/yyyy OR d/m/yyyy OR yyyy-mm-dd OR yyyy-m-d
xsd:gYearMonth	mm/yyyy OR m/yyyy OR yyyy-mm
xsd:gYear	yyyy

Where:
yyyy: four-digit year
mm: two-digit month (01=January, etc.)
dd: two-digit day of month (01 through 31)
hh: two digits of hour (00 through 23) (am/pm NOT allowed)
mm: two digits of minute (00 through 59)
ss: two digits of second (00 through 59)

APPENDIX-IV: UTF-8

UTF-8 encoding is considered a best practice for handling character encoding, especially in the context of web development, data exchange, and modern software systems. UTF-8 (Unicode Transformation Format, 8-bit) is a variable-width character encoding capable of encoding all possible characters (code points) in Unicode.
Here are some reasons why UTF-8 is recommended:

Universal Character Support: UTF-8 can represent almost all characters from all writing systems in use today. This includes characters from various languages, mathematical symbols, and other special characters.
Backward Compatibility: UTF-8 is backward compatible with ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). The first 128 characters in UTF-8 are identical to ASCII, making it easy to work with systems that use ASCII.
Efficiency: UTF-8 is space-efficient for Latin-script characters (common in English and many other languages). It uses one byte for ASCII characters and up to four bytes for other characters. This variable-length encoding minimises storage and bandwidth requirements.
Web Standards: UTF-8 is the dominant character encoding for web content. It is widely supported by browsers, servers, and web-related technologies.
Globalisation: As software applications become more globalised, supporting a wide range of languages and scripts becomes crucial. UTF-8 is well-suited for internationalisation and multilingual support.
Compatibility with Modern Systems: UTF-8 is the default encoding for many programming languages, databases, and operating systems. Choosing UTF-8 helps ensure compatibility across different platforms and technologies.

When working with text data, UTF-8 encoding is recommended to avoid issues related to character representation and ensure that a diverse set of characters and languages is supported.

For assistance, please contact: bdr-support@dcceew.gov.au