More than a decade after the second edition of Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment was published, its successor has appeared. ‘Appeared’ however is not the right word, since it suggests a certain effortlessness, whereas the effort that went into this important book was considerable. It involved not only the research and the writing, but extensive consultation both within and outside the Landscape Institute.The work involved was certainly worth it, since GLVIA3 is a crucially important book, at the heart of what the Landscape Institute does.

1. Visual Impact Assessment Planning
2. Landscape And Visual Impact Assessment Example
3. Iema

It is an approach that allows professionals to assess the effect that proposed developments will have on the landscape and on people’s visual appreciation of it. These assessments play a vital part in the planning process, offering some of the evidence that is needed in order for decision makers to be able to say yes or no to proposals or to ask for changes. This new guidance not only brings its predecessor up to date but offers a fresh approach, stressing the need for professional judgment and presentation by those doing the work, rather than setting out protocols that could in the worst instances be followed blindly without true understanding.In this feature we look in some detail at what the guidance says, including a quick beginners’ guide to LVIA. We also interview Carys Swanwick who had the important but challenging task of writing the report.A book is by definition a finished thing, but this one has been written in a way that should ensure that it dates as slowly as possible. While it sets out to offer the best and most intelligent guidance, it will also be a jumping-off point for further discussion. The pieces in this issue of the journal should be seen as both a taster for the book itself, and a stimulus for that discussion.

Landscape and visual impact assessments should focus on proportionality, transparency, professional judgement, clear communication and presentation. The skills of landscape professionals will be paramount in carrying out this work.he third edition of Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment is one of the most significant publications with which the Landscape Institute has been associated for some years. Jeff Stevenson, chair of the advisory panel for the book says, ‘We have to assess impacts properly and make sure that the outcomes of our assessments are better presented. We are trying to bring forward the role of the landscape professional, and are engaged in the process of helping decision makers make better decisions and be accountable for them.’GLVIA3 aims to do this by building on the strengths of the two preceding editions, eschewing a tick-box approach and instead providing a framework within which landscape professionals can use their skills and judgment to make recommendations about projects. Produced jointly by the Landscape Institute and IEMA (the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment), GLVIA3 has drawn on the experience and opinion of the advisory panel, of Carys Swanwick who wrote the third edition, as well as of a broad range of individuals and organizations who took part in the consultation process.

These included LI members and registered practices and a wide range of statutory and non-statutory stakeholders.It has been 11 years since GLVIA2 was published, and in her foreword LI president Sue Illman writes, ‘The new edition is comprehensive and clear, covering the many developments that have taken place in the scope and nature of impact assessment since publication of the second edition. There have been significant changes to the environmental framework within which LVIA is now undertaken, particularly with the UK Government’s ratification of the European Landscape Convention, confirming the importance and role of the landscape asused and enjoyed by all.’With any publication such as this, where a pristine copy is likely to replace a well-thumbed version, the first thing anybody wants to know is, ‘What is different?’. In this case there are a number of significant differences, which is why the LI issued advice to the profession, guiding members as to how to proceed during the transition to the publication of the new book in April.The main change is one of approach. Carys Swanwick, who wrote the book, said, ‘The most important aspect to my mind has been the search for an appropriate balance between a very prescriptive approach, which encourages practitioners to treat the guidance as a recipe book from which standard solutions can be “cranked out”, and an approach that establishes a clear framework but allows the response to be tailored to the individual circumstances of each project.‘This was a particularly difficult challenge when we tackled the matter of assessing the significance of landscape and visual effects. I am sure that there will be those who feel that we haven’t been prescriptive enough, and others who feel that we have been too prescriptive or that we have prescribed the wrong thing!’John Briggs, of Natural Resources Wales, said, ‘It won’t suit everybody.

People will have to think more. Some people are reassured by having a tried and tested method where the results just pop out. But it is difficult for landscape to be considered in that way.’ The book has been written to be as clear and easy to follow as possible, in sensible plain English.

It emphasises the aspects that are essential to successful landscape and visual impact assessment: proportionality to ensure that relevant weight is given to the most important elements; transparency of professional judgement: to allow others to see how judgements have been reached and what reasoning has been applied by the assessor and communication and presentation, so that the people reading the assessment can actually understand what is being said.Evolving thinkingThe partnership with IEMA was vital to the success of the book, believes Swanwick. ‘I think the close working with IEMA helped to make sure that the guidance was in tune with evolving thinking about EIA processes more generally,’ she said. ‘For example this edition of the guidance devotes far more space to the difficult issue of cumulative-effects assessment’.There is an entire chapter devoted to the topic. It is, says GLVIA3, ‘an evolving area of practice that is relevant to all forms of development and land use change. It is not appropriate to prescribe the approach to such assessment since the issues related to cumulative effects depend on the specific characteristics of both the development proposal and the location.

Visual Impact Assessment Planning

The challenge is to keep the task reasonable and in proportion to the project under consideration. Common sense has a large part to play in reaching agreement about the scope of the assessment’.These guiding principles have driven Swanwick’s work on the new edition, which of course contains changes both large and small. As well as omitting items that will date GLVIA3, andensuring that there is a forum for discussion, the bookaims as far as possible to be able to deal with thechanges that will arise in the future.‘We have tried to anticipate what the profession’s needswill be as questions arise in the future,’ said JeffStevenson. ‘I think there will be more accountabilityin decision making.

That means that decision makerswill have to have an appropriate corpus of informationpossible. Landscape and visual resources areincreasingly understood to be at the core of people’slives and well-being. The third edition also providesa reminder to the landscape professional to recall whatis said in the Royal Charter. Landscape professionalshave responsibilities to the character and quality of theenvironment. We should seek to manage change in thelandscape for the benefit of both this and futuregenerations and we should seek to enhance the diversityof the natural environment, to enrich the humanenvironment and to improve them in a sustainablemanner. GLVIA3 has a part to play in this process.’Just as wind farms have come to dominate concernsabout the landscape, so solar farms are likely to have anincreasing impact. Laura Campbell at Scottish NaturalHeritage also expects growth in coastal energy proposals, in micro-hydro and in tidal energy, as well assmaller-scale wind generation.

It is important, she said,that the guidance has a focus on what will be significant‘rather than just providing a load of information.This should help focus on the germane points.’The landscape in Scotland is becoming an increasinglyemotive issue, especially in relation to wind turbinesand questions of what comprises wild spaces.‘GLVIA3 can provide a clear way of rationalizingvarious landscape elements and help tease out theissues,’ she said.Chris Bolton of Natural England also believes thatLVIA may come to be applied to smaller developmentsin addition to the larger ones. ‘It may be that theguidelines will be applied more locally to suchdevelopments,’ he says.

‘It will help to nuance them.’He also thinks it is vital that there is more awarenessbeyond the landscape profession of what LVIA consistsof. ‘There should be more understanding andawareness,’ he said, ‘among local authority plannersin particular.’For Peter Herring at English Heritage, the newedition represents an opportunity to raise awarenessof the historic landscape. ‘English Heritage welcomedthe LI’s proposals for a new third edition of theGLVIA as it provided an opportunity to include moreon the historic environment, on land and at sea,and better links with the cultural sections in EIAs,and in particular reference to historic landscapecharacterisation,’ he said.‘The cultural dimension of landscape extends wellbeyond simply the tangible aspects of how it has beenshaped in the past and today. Even in areas viewed bymany as being “wild” or as showing little obviousevidence for human intervention, it is also about howwe view, understand and respond to landscape,intangible themes which themselves have a clearhistorical development and which have always drivenour actions, whether consciously or not, and still do.’Every organisation sees the development of landscapeand the challenges in a different way. We cannot denythat there will be a variety of pressures for change, witha growing population and diminishing resources.

Landscape And Visual Impact Assessment Example

Allover the UK organisations will have to make decisionsabout the landscape and visual impacts of proposeddevelopments, will have to decide if they are acceptable,unacceptable or can be mitigated. The first two editionsof GLVIA have played an important role in this process.The publication of GLVIA3 is another step forward. For many landscape professionals, Landscape andVisual Impact Assessment forms a major elementof their work. But others may scarcely comeacross it, either because it is not the type of workthat their practice undertakes, or because it is theresponsibility of others within the practice.For example, Tim Waterman, honorary editor ofLandscape, says, ‘Because of the broad nature oflandscape architecture, many practitioners willrarely encounter LVIA, while others may be largelyoccupied with it. For largely the same reasons,universities approach the teaching of LVIA withdifferent levels of concentration dependent uponthe larger focus of their programmes.’So what is it that the Landscape Institute is makingsuch a fuss about? Why does it consider it soimportant? It is hard to imagine anyone better equipped to write the GLVA3 book than Carys Swanwick, who has a background in both practice and academia and experience of wrestling with complex guidance projects.arys Swanwick had a well-earned holiday after the completion of GLVIA3.

Iema

The end result is one with which all parties are delighted but getting there was, as expected, a complex task that required detailed negotiations. It was a project that Swanwick’s experiences had led her to see was important. ‘My interest was partly because I teach LVIA to students and have views on the difficulty of explaining what can be a difficult and potentially dry subject,’ she said.‘I also realised, from meeting graduates who had gone on to work in this area, that it can be difficult to develop the knowledge and skills on the job and that the guidance therefore plays an important role for those setting out in this area.

I thought there was room for the current guidance to be updated, expanded in some areas and clarified in others and I thought my experience in writing guidance might be useful to the advisory panel.’This guidance writing included being lead author on the ‘Landscape Character Assessment – Guidance for England and Scotland’ published in 2002, and morerecently her involvement with the Foresight Land Use Futures project where she was a member of the Lead Expert Group. This, she says, was ‘interesting but extremely challenging.