'Recent Practice and the evolution of Landscape Character Assessment'

Topic Paper 1 published by the Countryside Agency and Scottish Natural Heritage, April 2002

Author: Carys Swanwick, University of Sheffield

This summary sheet was produced September 2006

Topic Paper 1 looks at the development of methods for incorporating the landscape in environmental decision making: from the supposedly objective and often quantitative approaches of the 1970s which sought to classify landscapes in terms of their relative value (landscape evaluation); through attempts in the mid-1980s to develop systematic approaches for assessing different landscapes which distinguished between classification and evaluation (landscape assessment); to the shift in emphasis within landscape assessment to landscape character as a central concept, and the emergence of Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) as a distinct approach in the 1990s.

The paper describes LCA’s potential for integration with parallel tools that explore the historic dimension of landscape (Historic Landscape Characterisation in England, Historic Land-Use Assessment in Scotland). It also describes how, since the emergence of LCA in the early 1990s, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of engaging stakeholders and communities in the planning process, and how investment in this will result in better assessments.

The development of distinct national programmes of LCA in England and Scotland are described; these were led by the Countryside Agency (formerly the Countryside Commission) and Scottish Natural Heritage respectively. In England, the Countryside Commission began work on a large scale character assessment of the country in 1993, which led to the country being divided into 159 Countryside Character Areas. After encouragement from central Government, this work was combined with English Nature's Natural Areas programme, which sought to provide a national framework for setting nature conservation objectives. The resulting Character of England Map of Joint Character Areas (JCAs) (1996), has since been strengthened by local authority LCAs. In Scotland, SNH embarked on a national programme of LCA in 1994, carried out with the co-operation of local planning authorities and other partner organizations. This has resulted in 29 broadly similar regional studies which have subsequently been amalgamated to produce a bottom-up hierarchy of 3 levels of Landscape Character Types.

Finally, the paper looks at how LCA has been tailored to specific applications in work by the Forestry Commission, the Environment Agency and Defra RDS, before looking at the recent development of LCA studies in an urban context. It ends by mentioning the development of integrated characterization studies, which give equal weight to landscape character, biodiversity, historic character, air and water quality, recreation and accessibility

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