The CBiCS Tools site allows users to explore the classification hierarchies of the seven components. Selecting the component of interest from the top banner takes the user to an interactive tree explorer.

Please allow several seconds for the explorer page to load. Once loaded and ready to explore, the top-level nodes of the tree will be visible.

We recommend that new users familiarise themselves with the Biotic component first. The Biotic component is the core of CBiCS and its structure and terminologies will help users understand the interactions between the seven components.

A future update to the explorer will allow users to view and export a ‘catalogue page’ containing full descriptions with photographs at desired nodes of the hierarchy.

The CBiCS team intends to publish instructional videos and quality control guidelines, and attend conferences and hold workshops to introduce users to the classification scheme. Notifications of these materials and events will be made on the CBiCS homepage.

Key considerations for use of the CBiCS hierarchies:

• Training and quality control are critical to reliable classification.
• The system is calibrated such that classification at the ‘biotope’ level (level 5 of the Biotic component) is the target for mapping and natural resource management.
• While the scheme can be applied in a ‘top-down’ manner (i.e., working through each component from left-to- right across the top banner), it is most powerful when a combined top-down and bottom-up process is applied. For example, with biological data or imagery as the primary input to a classification effort, experienced users may directly enter sub- levels of the Biotic component. Because the levels are strictly calibrated and the components closely inter-related, classifications made in this way can pre-emptively feed out to other components. Similarly, classifications in, for example, the Geoform and Substrate components, narrow down the area of the biotic component one is operating in.
• The CBiCS team has designed and maintains a central PostgreSQL database that houses the component tables and a large suite of classification data and links to associated imagery. We have also developed software tools to interface with the database and tools to classify imagery and directly populate the database with classification data. The maintenance of unique identifiers (UUIDs) is critical to the functioning of the CBiCS database and will be critical to the future centralisation of data. Therefore, we encourage contact from agencies wishing to develop their own classification databases to ensure compatibility with the core elements of the CBiCS database.