Each ecological vegetation class is described through a combination of its floristic, life-form, and reproductive strategy profiles, and through an inferred fidelity to particular environmental attributes.
[1] Although there are more than 300 individual EVCs, some can be grouped together to form a bioregion, which is a geographical approach to classifying the environment using climate, geomorphology, geology, soils and vegetation.
[3] This represented a break from previous floristic mapping, which was based on structural vegetation units, which in turn were derived from assessing height, density and species composition of the canopy.
[4] The first implementation of EVCs was by Woodgate et al. (1994) for mapping of East Gippsland old growth forests, under the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
Ecological vegetation class mapping has become an important tool for biodiversity planning and management in the State of Victoria.