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Understanding and conserving the diversity of the County Durham Landscape

Character Assessment

Landscape Character Assessment

Landscape Character Assessment involves mapping, classifying and describing variations in landscape character. It also involves making judgements about the character and quality of the landscape, and analysing forces for change, to help us make informed decisions about how we should manage change in the future.

In classifying the landscape two types of units may be identified:

  • Landscape Types are landscapes with broadly similar patterns of geology, soils, vegetation, land use, settlement and field patterns. Landscapes belonging to a particular type - for example an ‘upper dale’ landscape - may be found in many different places.
  • Character Areas are unique areas - geographically discrete examples of a particular landscape type. For example ‘Upper Teesdale’ is a character area belonging to the ‘Upper Dale’ type.

The Countryside Agency’s Countryside Character Initiative

In the mid 1990s the then Countryside Commission and English Nature developed a joint project to map variations in the landscape and ecological characteristics of the English Countryside. The result of this colaberation was a joint map, called 'The Character of England: landscape, wildlife and natural features', which identifies 181 Countryside Character Areas and 120 Natural Areas. Natural areas are broad bio-geographic zones. Countryside Character Areas are broad regional landscapes. Together they form a national framework for decision making about landscape and biodiversity. The Agencies have published Natural Area Profiles which describe the ecology of Natural Areas, and Character Area Descriptions in several regional volumes.

There are six Countryside Character Areas in County Durham and five Natural Areas.

The County Durham Landscape Character Assessment

The County Durham Landscape Character Assessment is a detailed assessment of the character of the county. It works within the framework of Countryside Character Areas and Natural Areas, identifying variations in landscape character at a sub-regional and local level. It was undertaken by the Council’s Landscape Section with the assistance of the Countryside Agency and consultants Shiels Flynn.

The assessment is based on a detailed GIS (Geographical Information Systems) database of landscape elements which was used to identify landscape types and character areas at a number of levels from regional landscapes, like the North Pennines or the West Durham Coalfield, to local landscapes like parklands and wooded denes. These landscapes are mapped and described in the following pages.

The assessment has been written to be viewed through the web site and is also printed in a limited number of hard copies as a loose-leaf folder. We are currently developing an internet GIS facility for viewing maps of landscape types and character areas alongside a wide range of other environmental data.

The assessment forms the basis for the County Durham Landscape Strategy. The Strategy sets out key issues and objectives for the landscape of the county as a whole and for individual character areas and contains strategies for conserving, restoring or enhancing the character of the landscape.

Landscape Character and Sustainability

The Government's Sustainable Development Strategy A Better Quality of Life gives four objectives for sustainable development:
  • Social progress that recognises the needs of everyone.
  • Effective protection of the environment.
  • Prudent use of natural resources.
  • Maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment.

Landscape Character Assessment can help us protect the environment while accommodating and influencing change. The English landscape has evolved over centuries, created as much by the activities of farmers and foresters, builders and miners as by the underlying physical forces of geology, soils and climate that shaped their work. It is both a natural resource, on which we depend for our food and water, a cultural resource that evokes feelings, memories, associations and attachments, and a place we continue to live in, to change and adapt to our needs.

Landscape character assessment can tell us what the landscape is like today, how it came to be the way it is, and how it may change in the future. It helps us understand the sensitivity of different landscapes to development, or to changes in the way they are managed, and so inform the decisions we make about them.

Sustainable Development

Landscape Character Assessment can contribute to the sustainability of new development by informing planning policies for developments like housing, minerals or wind energy. It can help us decide where new development should go and how it should be designed if it is to conserve what we value about our environment. An understanding of landscape character can help individual developers assess the impacts of their proposals through the Environmental Assessment process, and design them to be in keeping with the character of the locality.

The County Durham Landscape Character Assessment and Strategy will be used in the review of the County Durham Structure Plan, the Minerals Local Plan and the Waste Local Plan, and in the emerging Regional Spatial Strategy and Local Development Frameworks.

Sustainable Land Management

Landscape Character Assessment can help inform the way land management initiatives and agri-environmental schemes like DEFRA’s Countryside Stewardship and new Entry Level Scheme, or local initiatives like the County Durham Hedgerow Partnership's Field Boundary Restoration Grant, are targeted. An understanding of landscape character can also inform the day-to-day decisions of individual land managers, farmers and foresters.

The County Durham Landscape Character Assessment and Strategy provide detailed information on the landscape of the county and objectives for its management, accessible through the council's web site and available as a printed document. The internet GIS facility for viewing landscape character maps and other environmental data, which is being developed, will give easier access to information about the landscape and the wider environment. Landscape Guidelines are currrently being produced on issues like woodland management and the species native to the local landscape.

Landscape Conservation, Enhancement, Restoration and Renewal

Landscape Character Assessment can help us identify priorities for conservation, enhancement, renewal or restoration in the landscape. It will inform environmental improvement initiatives like the Urban and Rural Renaissance Initiative and strategies for the expansion of woodlands and forestry in the county.

The spatial strategies contained in the Landscape Strategy identify broad landscape strategies like ‘conserve and restore’ or ‘enhance’ for local landscapes. These provide an integrated framework for dealing with landscape planning, land management and environmental improvement.

Landscape Character and Biodiversity

The character and biodiversity of the landscape are closely linked. Many of the features that contribute most to the character and distinctiveness of the landscape - trees and hedges, ancient woodlands, the flowers of old meadows, pastures and heaths - are also of great importance to its nature conservation value. The Landscape Assessment and Landscape Strategy are designed to be used alongside the Durham Biodiversity Action Plan and the forthcoming Durham Geodiversity Action Plan.

Landscape Character and Cultural Heritage

The landscape is a cultural artefact, a living record of the activities of our ancestors. The historical dimension to the landscape - its time-depth and cultural continuity - has played an important role in the Landscape Character Assessment. A Historical Landscape Character Assessment is shortly to be produced for the county with the support of English Heritage. This will explore and map in greater detail the historical elements of the Durham landscape.

Where do I Come In?

We are seeking the views of all those with an interest in the landscape of the county in order to develop a rounded understanding of how the landscape is perceived and a degree of consensus as to how change in the future should be managed.

You can contact us to let us know your views on the contents of the Landscape Character Assessment and the Landscape Strategy, or on landscapes issues that you consider to be important.

Further Information

For information on landscape character visit the Countryside Character Initiative pages on the Countryside Agency website.

For information on landscape character assessment, view or download the Landscape Character Assessment Guidance for England and Scotland, published by the Countryside Agency and Scottish Natural Heritage.

To find out the latest news about landscape character assessment visit the Landscape Character Network - an informal network, open to anyone who has an interest in Landscape Character Assessment and its applications.