Using Historic Landscape Characterisation

Using Historic Landscape Characterisation
HLC provides a context for existing data.
In the past the landscape as a whole
has been overlooked as attention has
been confined to specific monuments
and point data recorded in SMRs. HLC
demonstrates that the historic landscape
has importance as a whole – the sum of
all its parts – as well as being able to
show how individual sites fit into their
surroundings and the wider landscape.
HLC is a valuable method of raising
awareness of the historic dimension of
the landscape, and a successful means
of ensuring that its needs are taken into
account alongside those of the natural
environment when development
proposals are considered. However,
it is not concerned to preserve the
landscape unchanged, nor to return it to
some past point in its evolution. We are
not trying to protect the landscape of
the past, but to manage sustainably the
past, history and origins of the
landscape in the present – i.e. the
historic character of the current
landscape. The aim is not to determine
how the landscape of the past shall
stay, or how it should be maintained or
recreated. Instead HLC is about
identifying the traces of the past within
the modern landscape, and recognising
that essentially the landscape has its
present character because of the
changes it has undergone over the past
millennia. The challenge, therefore, is to
address how future change can
sensitively respect local character and
diversity.
The following chapters will explore how
this information and understanding can
be used to inform a range of
applications:
Chapter 1 Landscape Management – the role of HLC in advising agri-environment
schemes and influencing the targeting of Countryside Stewardship Schemes and
Special Projects. How HLC is used by Historic Environment Countryside Advisors
(HECAS), and how it is influencing the Countryside Agency’s Landscape Management
Initiatives.
Chapter 2 Landscape Character Assessment and Strategies – using HLC to define,
understand and describe Landscape Character Assessment types, and to inform
Landscape Strategies, at county and district level.
Chapter 3 Spatial Planning – using HLC to inform new planning policy and SPG in
Development Plans, as well as to advise on planning applications and hedgerow
removal applications.
Chapter 4 Partnership, Learning and Outreach – many projects and initiatives
outside of the originally anticipated applications have recognised the value of HLC to
support other aspects of environmental management as well as to inform research in
both local authorities and universities; HLC information can be provided in a variety of
formats (reports, mapping, Internet and CD ROM), helping to raise awareness of the
historic landscape.
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