the principles and practice of landscape classification;

terminology used, with the aim of encouraging greater consistency amongst
practitioners;

dealing with boundaries between landscape character types and areas;

description of character.

Landscape classification is central to Landscape Character Assessment and is concerned with the process of dividing landscape into areas of distinct, recognisable and consistent common character, and grouping areas of similar character together. Classification can be carried out at any scale and so can provide information on the extent and distribution of different types and areas of landscape from the national to the local scale. Classification provides the central framework on which subsequent judgements about landscape character are based.

Classification requires the identification of patterns in the landscape, created by the way in which the natural and human influences on the landscape interact to create character. Methods of classification are simply ways of recognising and recording these patterns. Broadly, classification approaches take three forms, and there may be a variety of combinations of these:

professional and/or stakeholder judgement about boundaries based on the
manual manipulation of all data collected;

use of GIS for the manipulation of map data and computer classification
techniques to devise the classes of landscape character and the appropriate
boundaries;

use of GIS to assist in the manipulation and analysis of map data to help inform
professional and/or stakeholder judgements about the boundaries of landscape
classes.