The NVIS framework was developed to enable the compilation of a nationally consistent vegetation dataset from data collected by states and territories. It provides a comprehensive means of describing and representing vegetation information based on establishing relationships between structural and floristic data. The NVIS Information Hierarchy is a system for describing the structural and floristic patterns of groups of plants in the landscape. Collectively, the different levels in the classification provide a description of vegetation that can be directly related to precise spatial areas as a vegetation map.