INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

In February 2000 Hertfordshire County Council commissioned The Landscape Partnership Ltd. to undertake the preparation of a 'local authority scale' landscape character assessment and evaluation of the southern part of the county in accordance with the most current version of national guidance, with stakeholder input, and co-ordinated with existing landscape characterisations. The characterisation work was to enable a definitive classification of all landscape types and boundaries encountered to be made, for the purposes of

advising on development control and policy development for future development plans, and
providing a framework for other landscape planning, regulation, conservation and management activities in the county.

1.2 Context

The process of landscape characterisation and assessment has been spearheaded in England by the work of the Countryside Agency (formerly Countryside Commission) and is currently enshrined as a major planning tool in PPG7. In tandem with English Nature, parallel approaches were formulated and tested during 1995-97 to derive, on the one hand, a series of Natural Area profiles for the whole of England and, on the other, the Countryside Character profiles. While the Natural Area profiles highlighted the distinctive ecology of rural areas, the Countryside Character profiles analysed landscape character in fairly broad-brush terms via the assessment of physical influences, historic and cultural influences, buildings and settlement, land cover and changes in the landscape.

Through this process 120 Natural Areas and 181 character areas were formulated and a joint map published, called 'The Character of England: landscape, wildlife and natural features' (see Figure 01). This map defines the county of Hertfordshire as lying within five Character Areas:

Area 86 South Suffolk and North Essex Clayland
Area 87 East Anglian Chalk
Area 110 Chilterns
Area 111 Northern Thames Basin
Area 115 Thames Valley

Figure 01
The Character of England

Š Countryside Commission/English Nature

The Hertfordshire Structure Plan Review, adopted in April 1998, embraced the landscape character approach (see para 392 et seq.) and refers to Volume 1 of A Landscape Strategy for Hertfordshire, which had been published as background information in September 1997. Based on a refinement of the national mapping (based on local knowledge) Volume 1 had identified and described six landscape character regions within Hertfordshire. But critically the Strategy had set the target that county-wide landscape assessment at a finer scale should be undertaken as a basis for devising future policy for the management of landscape change.

	Region 1: The Northern Vale Salients. A transition zone between the Chilterns scarp face and the adjacent open plains (Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire).
	Region 2: The Chilterns
	Region 3: The North Hertfordshire Ridge (A sub-section of the East Anglian Chalk).
	Region 4: The East Hertfordshire Plateau. (A subsection of the South Suffolk and North Essex Clay Lands).
	Region 5: The Central River Valleys. (A sub-section of the Northern Thames Basin).
	Region 6: The South Hertfordshire Plateau. (A sub-section of the Northern Thames Basin).

Figure 02
Landscape Regions of Hertfordshire

In Volume 2, the process anticipated is begun. Following a commission from Hertfordshire County Council's Strategic Planning Group, logical and consistent observation and analysis has been used by experienced consultants to derive 93 distinct Landscape Character Areas in the southern half of the county. For each of these there is available (restrictions apply) a detailed description, assessment, and evaluation, and digital mapping at 1:2000 scale.

Work is now commencing on a similar process of assessment in the Northern half of the county. Information on this further work may be obtained from Simon Odell at Hertfordshire County Council.