Conducting a landscape character assessment
Landscape Character Assessment enables us to understand and agree what makes a place distinctive. This understanding contributes to viable and imaginative solutions for managing future changes. Assessments can:
- help people appreciate the landscape they live, work and enjoy themselves in
- influence local planning authorities' development plans and their studies of development potential
- influence individual planning decisions on the scale, quality and location of new development
- help to define and target the objectives of farming, forestry and other kinds of land management
Landscape character assessment is a framework for decision-making. It is a two-stage process:
- Characterisation – understanding what makes a place distinctive
- Making judgements – addressing the question of 'so what' and identifying what happens next
At stage 1, you would define the purpose and scope of the assessment, review existing material and conduct field studies. At stage 2, you would decide who should be involved, what further information is needed and what sort of 'end project' you will create – such as a strategy, a report or an event.
Landscape character assessment was developed by the Countryside Agency (now part of Natural England). The agency's publication Landscape Character Assessment: Guidance for England and Scotland provides a description of the overall approach and the particular methods used as part of an assessment.
You can visit the Natural England website and download a copy of the guide.
Or you can obtain a printed copy from
Countryside Agency Publications
PO Box 125
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7EP
Tel: 0870 120 6466
Fax: 0870 120 6467
Email: countryside@twoten.press.net
