Landscape
Though the term ‘landscape’ is not used in the legislation creating AONBs, it does to a large extent encapsulate what AONBs are about. Landscape has natural influences such as geology, soils, flora and fauna, as well as cultural influences such as land use and settlement patterns.
It also recognises the personal and subjective response that people have to aesthetic qualities. Though it is hard to measure this scientifically, attempts have been made to assess landscape in a rigorous manner to help provide evidence to protect what people value.
Designating certain areas because of their landscape quality is one approach, followed in Britain since the 1940s through the designation of National Parks and AONBs. Current government policy now recognises that these areas are of equal value and have equal protection in law. The main difference is that National Parks were judged to have greater potential for recreation and therefore needed more developed structures for their management.
More recent approaches have focussed on defining the character of a landscape - those features and elements which give an area it’s ‘sense of place’ and make it different from other areas. Computer based mapping called Landscape Character Assessment is now used as a tool to inform the development of planning policies and conservation grant schemes for landowners.