We encourage local authorities, agencies and landowners to maintain and enhance local landscapes according to a set of landscape management guidelines.
Blackdown Hills landscape management guidelines will shortly be available to download.
These landscape management guidelines are based on a detailed landscape character assessment that was carried out during 2005-7 as part of a Devon wide project. The guidelines are based on the 13 landscape character types which make up the landscape of East Devon. This area includes both Blackdown Hills AONB and East Devon AONB.
The purpose of the guidelines is to encourage best practice in the maintenance and enhancement of the high quality landscapes of the Blackdown Hills AONB. It is the intention that the guidelines will provide an easily understood reference to help shape and guide landscape based plans, projects and schemes across the area based on a widely endorsed assessment and detailed descriptions of the character types that make up the landscapes of East Devon and the Blackdown Hills. The guidelines should be seen as encouraging a landscape-led approach to development in the countryside. They also seek to influence the future targeting of agri-environment schemes.
The guidelines are not intended to provide a one-stop answer to any planning, development or land management query but rather to provide a framework from which answers can be derived. They are not meant to inhibit innovative planning, management or design, but have a key role to play in understanding how and where changes could take place whilst ensuring that the special characteristics and distinctive features of the landscape are conserved.
It is intended that these guidelines will be used by planners, development control officers, farmers, land managers, foresters, wildlife and conservation agencies, countryside management teams, developers and a range of other agencies and organisations involved in landscape related matters.
Landscape Character Assessment
Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) is a tool for identifying the features that give a locality its ‘sense of place' and pinpointing what makes it different from its neighbouring areas. The process of LCA describes the characteristic patterns and features of our countryside, and explains how an area has developed over time. It does not judge or rank the character of a place - it simply records it in a systematic way. The study area is divided into areas of broadly similar character by overlaying different layers of information, either in paper form or using Geographic Information Systems software. These layers include information about the landform, the underlying geology and soils and the influence of human activity as seen in patterns of settlement, land cover and differences in tree cover. National guidance is followed to ensure that this is carried out in a consistent way.
