What is Landscape Character?

The physical geology and topography, combined with the green cover, are major contributors to the structure and the aesthetic aspects of landscapes. These have combined with cultural, historic, social and economic infleunces over centuries to create the unique and distinctive character of the AONB.

It is with this definition in mind that the AONB approaches its task of enhancing and conserving the landscape.

Landscapes and landscape character are more than just topography

They include the interactions of generations of people who have lived, worked, or passed through, including the cultural as well as physical attributes, and the living wildlife, the aesthetic, and the productive. Landscapes are more than three dimensional, they change daily and seasonally, they respond to the weather, some have a greater proportion of hard and constructed elements whilst in others the soft and semi-natural predominate. Landscapes are multi-faceted and are perceived and valued in different ways by individuals and communities.