INTRODUCTION
Desk study focuses on information gathering to provide the context for
a Landscape Character Assessment. It involves the preparation of map
overlays of different landscape factors as the basis for defining areas
of common character which can then be checked in the field. The
interaction between the desk study and field survey will be iterative,
with the field survey highlighting questions that need to be informed by
further desk study. The desk study stage focuses and informs the field
survey and provides a crucial information base. Practitioners need to
ensure that sufficient time is devoted to this work before starting
detailed field work.
INFORMATION
GATHERING
Information that should be reviewed includes:
 past
character descriptions of the area;
designations and their distribution, for
example:
 landscape
designations,
historic parks and gardens, and designed landscapes,
Conservation Areas,
scheduled monuments and listed buildings
battlefields,
SACs, SPAs, NNRs, SSSIs and non-statutory Wildlife Sites;
literature on:
geology,
local architecture,
archaeology,
history and wildlife (including the relevant Natural Area
Profiles, available from  English Nature3; Biodiversity Action Plans;
and the relevant Natural
Heritage Prospectuses, called 'Natural Heritage
Futures'4;
relevant policies in public and formal
documents such as:
statutory development plans,
countryside strategies,
forestry and woodland strategies,
tourism strategies.
It
will also be important to review relevant
Landscape Character Assessments including
those covering the area but undertaken for a
different purpose, those covering surrounding areas and, in England, the
relevant descriptions of Countryside character areas [39-46], and the
national landscape typologies5,
which provide the framework for more local assessments.
3 More information on
Natural Area Profiles is available from
English Nature Local Teams. Local team addresses may be obtained via the
English Nature website at www.english-nature.org.uk or by contacting the
Enquiry Service on Tel:01733 455100 or email at:
equiries@english-nature.org.uk
4 See www.snh.org.uk/futures/Data/index.htm
for information on Natural Heritage Futures.
5 For more information on
the national landscape typologies see www.countryside.gov.uk
and www.snh.org.uk
|
