Ferdian Beuh

Landscape PLANNING Part 1

The ancestry and genealogy of Landscape Architecture

The term landscape architecture was first used in a book published by Gilbert Laing Meason, in 1828, from his family home in Scotland. Its origin was in
the Landscape Architecture of the Great Painters of Italy and provided information on a special type of architecture which could be seen in the landscape
painting of the great painters of Italy. Many of Measons examples show Italian buildings in verdant countryside.

John Claudius Loudon was taken with the term Landscape Architecture, praised it in the Gardeners Magazine and cited Deepdene as an English example. Loudons
American admirer, John Jackson Downing, took up the term and used it as an equivalent term to Rural Architecture. When Downings admirer, Frederick Law
Olmsted, took up the term he gave it a different meaning. Olmsted switched the emphasis and used landscape architecture to describe a special type of scenery,
set amongst buildings. Central Park was the first great example of Olmsteds art. Next, Olmsted planned a great series of parks in Boston. His work was
greatly admired in Europe.

In 1903 two men used the term in connection with a competition for the design of Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline: Patrick Geddes and Thomas Mawson. Later,
they became founder members of the British Town Planning Institute and in 1929 Mawson became first president of the Institute of Landscape Architects,
now the Landscape Institute. Like the garden designers of old, landscape architects are concerned with the design of outdoor space using Vegetation, Landform,
Water, Paving and Structures.

Frontispiece

An example of landscape architecture from Measons 1828 book

The ancestry and genealogy of Landscape Architecture

The term landscape architecture was first used in a book published by Gilbert Laing Meason, in 1828, from his family home in Scotland. Its origin was in
the Landscape Architecture of the Great Painters of Italy and provided information on a special type of architecture which could be seen in the landscape
painting of the great painters of Italy. Many of Measons examples show Italian buildings in verdant countryside.

John Claudius Loudon was taken with the term Landscape Architecture, praised it in the Gardeners Magazine and cited Deepdene as an English example. Loudons
American admirer, John Jackson Downing, took up the term and used it as an equivalent term to Rural Architecture. When Downings admirer, Frederick Law
Olmsted, took up the term he gave it a different meaning. Olmsted switched the emphasis and used landscape architecture to describe a special type of scenery,
set amongst buildings. Central Park was the first great example of Olmsteds art. Next, Olmsted planned a great series of parks in Boston. His work was
greatly admired in Europe.

In 1903 two men used the term in connection with a competition for the design of Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline: Patrick Geddes and Thomas Mawson. Later,
they became founder members of the British Town Planning Institute and in 1929 Mawson became first president of the Institute of Landscape Architects,
now the Landscape Institute. Like the garden designers of old, landscape architects are concerned with the design of outdoor space using Vegetation, Landform,
Water, Paving and Structures.

Frontispiece

An example of landscape architecture from Measons 1828 book

Will (landscape) planning die?

Environmental planning has been too scientific, too man-centred, too past-fixated and two-dimensional. In Cities of tomorrow Peter Hall asks Will planning
die away, then? (Hall 1988: 360). His answer is markedly cautious: Not entirely. The thirst for liberalism and economic growth, which pushed back planning
in the 1980s and smashed the Berlin Wall, now threatens all types of government planning. But, argues Hall, a core is likely to survive. This is because:

Good environment, as the economists would say, is an income-elastic good: as people, and societies generally, get richer, they demand proportionally ever
more of it. And, apart from building private estates with walls around them, the only way they are going to get it is through public action. The fact that
people are willing and even anxious to spend more and more of their precious time in defending their own environment, through membership of all kinds of
voluntary organisations and through attendance at public inquiries, is testimony to that fact (Hall 1988).

This chapter looks at the factors which have caused our doubts about planning, and at how they might be resolved. The argument, in summary, is that geography
created the opportunity for physical planning, that geography revolutionised planning at the start of the twentieth century, and that geography can revolutionise
planning once again. A development of profound importance, the computer-based Geographical Information System (GIS), is set fair to be the revolutions
handmaiden. Modern geography and modernist planning are giving way to a future in which there will be a myriad of thematic maps, pluralist plans and non-statutory
action by user groups which are willing and even anxious to spend more and more of their precious time on the environment.

Gender and planning Planning has been too masculine: it has concentrated on the way of the hunter and neglected the way of the nester.

Science and planning Planning has been too scientific in the sense of trying to project trends and deduce policies from empirical studies of what exists.

Geography and planning Three-dimensional design, and the natural tendency for places to evolve and change, have been comparatively neglected by planners.

Modern planning Modern planning tended towards the creation of similar places all over the world.

Single-purpose planning Great harm was done to the environment by single-use planning.

Multi-purpose planning Modern use-categories should be deconstructed

GIS-based planning Computer-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have the potential to revitalise planning, when they are used as conceptual models,
rather than maps or decision-making tools.

So will planning die? GIS to the rescue

On the contrary, I believe it will grow. But the way of the hunter must be married to the way of the nester. The age of the preeminent Development Plan,
Master Plan or Unitary Land Use Zoning Plan is passing away. The fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989, was a symbolic end to a period in which scientifically
trained technocratic elites aspired to the formulation of Five Year Plans. In the foreseeable future, all kinds of plans will be produced by all kinds
of groups. This book is concerned with plans for the conservation and improvement of the landscape as perceived by the individual, the walker, the cyclist,
the swimmer, the ornithologist, the parent, the traveller, the photographer, the home-maker, the employer and the employee. It is not concerned with the
planning of statistical aggregates.

Planning will become more plural. Forward-looking plans and backward looking plans will be wanted by many groups within society. Some will be able to prepare
their own plans. Others will need help. The planners job will become that of making plans, of assisting others to make plans, of fitting plans together,
of supplying information, of resolving conflicts, of helping with implementation. Where conflict resolution proves impossible, or where public funding
proves necessary, decisions must be taken by democratic or judicial bodies. Land Use Plans and Master Plans will be joined by Mistress Plans, Servant Plans,
Hedgehog Plans, Water Plans and Vision Plans, amongst others.

The forum for all this activity will be the Geographical Information System, accessed through the internet. The lower layers of the GIS model will represent
the existing environment. The upper layers will represent plans, ideals and aspirations. Conventional plans look downwards to the existing world and
project current trends in a depressing manner. Future plans will look upwards to the world of hopes and dreams. Development projects should be considerate
towards the welfare of the existing environment and creative with regard to future environments. GIS technology will enable both to be modelled and displayed.

Landscape planning for agriculture

The next generation of agricultural consultants will need to know as much about public goods as about agriculture.

Public goods: The landscape planning principles which will be considered in relation to agriculture may be summarised as follows:
Landscapes should be planned from different points of view. These will include those of landowners and different sections of the public, as discussed in
Chapter 1.
Public landscape planning should focus on public goods, especially recreation, scenic quality and nature conservation, as discussed in Chapter 2.
Plans must be adjusted to contexts. This may require zoning plans and Environmental Impact Design plans, as discussed in Chapter 3.

Different sets of public goods will be produced from poor land (category A), medium land (category B) and rich land (category C)

Strategic reserve: The history of agriculture is characterised by alternating periods of shortage and surplus.

Water conservation: The countryside can play a major role in conserving fresh water.

Habitat creation and conservation: The agricultural landscape should provide a diverse range of habitats for wild plants and animals.

Historic conservation: Farmland is the result of untold centuries of work.

Scenic conservation and enhancement: The farming landscape should be conserved AND improved.

Conservation farming: Historic farmland can produce high-value hand-made food.

Recreation: There is a great demand for rural recreation, for which the public is willing to pay.
In times of glut, it should be done for non-agricultural reasons.

Wild Food: Increasing the production of unfarmed food should become an objectives in countryside planning.

Healthy food: Producing low-quality food produces a low-quality landscape.

The geography of public goods: There is a geographical variation in the range of public goods which can and should be obtained from the countryside.

Mapping: Rural land needs to be mapped in many ways.

Implementation: The supply of public goods from agricultural land can be encouraged by zoning regulations, tax incentives, land re-organisation, acquisition
of easements and land purchase.

Conclusion: If public money is spent on agriculture, it should be to obtain specified public goods.
Refs

Neher, D. 1992. Ecological sustainability in agricultural systems: definition and measurement. In Olson R.K. (ed) Integrating sustainable agriculture, ecology
and environmental policy. Binghampton, New York:The Haworth Press. pp51-61
Turner, T., Landscape planning and environmental impact design UCL 1998 Chapter 7

Fields and mountains

Farming and fishing

Agriculture Policy

Agriculture should be subject to planning control and all agricultural subsidies should be linked to the provision of public goods:

a strategic reserve, for food production

greenways

high-quality hand made food and wild food

the creation of new wildlife habitats

recreational opportunities

the enhancement of scenery

additional tree cover

the reclamation of rivers

the conservation of farm walls, buildings and other historic features

Context theory for landscape architecture and urban design

The problem: How should a development project relate to its context?

For example:

Should new reservoirs be designed to look like natural lakes? [

Should new buildings in urban areas be designed to resemble their neighbours? ]

Should the traditional character of rural buildings be used to inspire new buildings?

Should road embankments be designed as farmland or as wildlife habitats?

Are some sites specially suited to dramatic and monumental structures?

Should new forests be planted with indigenous species, to resemble native forests?

Should bridges be designed according to purely functional criteria, or should some be traditional and others modern?

Should residential areas near public open spaces have a higher population density than areas distant from public open space?

Should mineral workings be concealed, or should they be designed to create spectacular cliff scenery?

What aesthetic and ecological criteria should influence the design of new roads?

These questions have multiple dimensions: administrative, aesthetic, ecological, historical, cultural, recreational, financial, climatic, hygienic, legal,
and so forth. The great questions for public policy are:

WHEN should the public intervene?

HOW should the intervention take place?

WHAT should be achieved by intervention?

When to intervene As much as necessary but as little as possible

How to intervene

There are three main approaches to the environmental regulation of development in a liberal democracy:

by means of zoning and land use plans. This approach works from the general to the particular.

by means of environmental impact assessment and control. This approach works from the particular to the general.

by a combination of zoning with environmental assessment. This is the best approach.

Control by zoning Zoning plans reserve areas for defined land uses, but fail when they are exclusive.

Control by environmental assessment Control by EA fails when it is too pragmatic.

Design Control Design control works best with the aid of forward-looking plans.

What to achieve by intervention

Theories of context Contextual decisions need a theoretical context

Genius loci An early eighteenth century theory, that buildings and planting should respond to the Genius of the Place, created a still-influential theory
of context.

The picturesque Late eighteenth century contextual theorists held that landscapes should be designed with a picturesque transition from the works of man
to the works of nature.

Modernism Modernist architectural theory held that the appearance of structures should be a consequence of social function and abstract artistic principles,
not contexts.

The Identity Index An index can be used to define the extent to which development projects will be Similar to, Different from or Identical with their context.

GIS and context A GIS can assist in checking the impact of development projects upon natural, social and aesthetic aspects of the context. It provides
the data for co-ordinating the environmental assessment and land use planning systems.

Conclusion Conservation is not enough

One of the great lessons of the twentieth century is that bad planning, like no planning, leads to lack of respect for human rights and the destruction
of public goods. Individuals and groups of individuals are often selfish. Without contraints, we destroy natures bounty of fresh air, clean water, fine
scenery, good earth and healthy vegetation. Hence the case for public intervention in private land use decisions. This chapter has reviewed the issues
of when intervention should take place, how it should be done and what should be achieved. With regard to landscape planning, the following conclusions
have been reached:

When to intervene? Intervention should take place when there are positive or negative environmental impacts on public goods.

How to intervene? Intervention should be guided by a combination of zoning with environmental impact procedures, both statutory and non-statutory.

What to achieve by intervention? Intervention should achieve better relationships between development and context.

Intervention should be guided by knowledge of the past, an environmental database, alternative visions of the future, environmental controls and theories
of context. So much damage has already been done that conservation is not enough. We can and must prepare landscape plans for the renewal of earth, water,
vegetation, air and other public goods. But it does not follow that these plans need the force of law. Regulations are ineffective without imaginative
leadership.

Refs

Turner, T., Landscape planning and environmental impact design UCL 1998 Chapter 3

Context Policy
Requiring all designers to make development similar to its context would be unreasonable
But it is entirely reasonable to require each and every development project team to EXPLAIN the planned relationship between a development and its context.
The three logical alternatives for contextual policy are:
Similarity
Identity
Difference

Landscape architecture of cycleways

Cycleways should be beautiful, safe and luxurious. This is not the case in Britain, but it could be. The UK has a
National Cycling Strategy,
promoted by the Department of Transport.
Sustrans,
with lottery money, is planning a National Cycle Network. The capital has a developing cycle network promoted by the
London Cycling Campaign.
There is also an active
Cambridge Cycling Campaign.
Strathclyde
aims to make cycling in the Strathclyde area safe, popular and fun .

The problem with these schemes is that provision for cycling is being promoted with too little imagination and far too little money. If we plan for 35%
of journeys to be made by bicycle then cycle provision should receive 35% of the transport budget, after a catch-up period in which it receives 70% of
the transport budget. This is simple equity. When the calculations have been done for the money saved elsewhere, it will be evident that cycling deserves
funding from other budgets:
Healthcare: more exercise will produce a healthier population
Leisure: cycling is a major sport and leisure activity
Environmental protection: reducing the number of car, rail and bus journeys will reduce hydrocarbon emissions and damage to the ozone layer

The bicycle is a delicate instrument requiring muscular exertion. In favourable conditions, cycling is a sublime pleasure: one can bowl with a silent grace
unattainable by any other means. Even in bad conditions, it can be as enjoyable as swimming or sailing in a rough sea. But this only applies if ones struggle
is against the forces of nature. A cyclists joy is too easily destroyed by motor vehicles. Not only are they noisy and smelly, they cause severe turbulence
and threaten to crush the unlucky peddler. If one is being deafened by internal combustion engines, bored by a featureless landscape, poisoned by diesel
fumes or forced to take diversions through back streets, ones enthusiasm for cycling can dim.

Decision-makers should never forget that cyclists behaviour is environment-friendly in the highest degree. It is also good for personal health. No expense
should be spared in the planning and design of utterly superb cycleways . Society should invest in facilities which persuade citizens to become green
commuters. There are many opportunities and few standard solutions. Much depends on the speeds and volumes of cars, trucks and cyclists. If 35% of journeys
are to be made by cycle, then substantial expenditure is necessary. It can be reduced to 35% of the transport budget when the basic infrastructure is in
place.

Cyclepaths and separate cycle lanes are the obvious solution - but one of the best books on cycle planning contains a well-researched and destructive analysis
of these ideas. Nobody should plan or build a cyclepath without reading Foresters Bicycle Transportation (Forester 1994 edn.). The author is a lifelong
cycling enthusiast with a dispassionate commitment to the principles of transport planning. Further information can be found on his
Foresters website.
His arguments are as follows:
Cyclepaths are promoted by (a) people who want roads without cyclists, (b) cyclists who do not understand traffic engineering
Cyclepaths have a higher accident rate than shared bike-car roads. The accidents result from hitting obstacles, other cyclists, pedestrians (especially
children) and dogs. Accidents also occur at points where cyclepaths join roads.
The mix of slow- and fast-cyclists on a narrow cyclepath is dangerous.
Cyclepaths only work in North Europe because they are used by slow-speed cyclists travelling short distances at speeds below 12 MPH. American cycle-commuters
travel at higher speeds for greater distances.
Motorists are good at seeing what is in front of them and only a small proportion of cycle accidents are caused by cars hitting cyclists from the rear.
Most car-bike collisions, which occur at junctions, can be avoided only if cyclists behave as vehicles and occupy a full car space.
Many cycle accidents happen to unskilled cyclists.
Cyclists cannot be accommodated on high-volume high-speed freeways/motorways/autoroutes.
Motor roads achieve their highest flow-rates at 22 MPH. This speed is within the capability of cyclists.
The maximum number of journeys made by cyclists on a cyclepath will be less than that made by motorists on roads of the same width. But cycle storage takes
up less space than car storage.
Cyclepaths will not be used if they result in longer journeys or longer waits at intersections

The validity of Foresters arguments was demonstrated in Britains new towns. At Milton Keynes, the combined leisure and commuting cycleway system, known
as the Redway, was reviewed unfavourably by the Milton Keynes Cycle Users Group soon after its completion. They reported that over half the adult commuter
cyclists in Milton Keynes prefer the grid roads, in spite of their dangerous roundabouts, because they are less hilly, more direct and easier to use. Furthermore,
the accident rate on the Redway is greater than on the grid roads. It has steep gradients, sharp corners, planting boxes, pedestrians and other obstacles.
The likelihood of a serious accident on the Redway is greater than on roads in Central London (Milton Keynes Cycle Users Group 1984).

Foresters arguments are persuasive but need to be read with some caution. As an engineer, he tends to see cyclepaths as right or wrong, rather than sometimes
right and sometimes wrong. Also, his points have less application in Europe, where he disparages cyclists for behaving as wheeled pedestrians who only
travel at 12 MPH. American cities have low densities and wide roads which both enable and require cyclists to travel long distances at high speeds. European
cities often have high densities and narrow roads, which are a pleasure for the slow cyclist. Having been engaged in debate for many years, Forester
may also have learned to exaggerate his case. He enjoys cycle-racing and under-rates the vileness of cycling amidst fast noisy vehicles emitting lung and
eye irritants from their exhaust pipes. Furthermore, as his title suggests, his interest lies more in transportation than leisure cycling. Forester concludes
that the best provision for cyclists is an extra-wide inside lane on a mixed car-bike road.

Links

Cycling in Cities - the Best Books
http://www.jfparker.demon.co.uk/bike_books.html

John Forester, M.S., P.E.Cycling Transportation Engineer
http://www.johnforester.com/

Gene McFaddens Bicycle Advocacy Page
http://shell.rmi.net/~gmcfad/advocacy.html

HBS is concerned with the science and engineering of bicycles
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/hbs.html .

A well-organized collection of links to cycling resources
http://danenet.wicip.org/bcp/global.html#global_hpv

Cool Bicycle-Related Links
http://www.oneandzero.com/abccazb/coolinks.html

The city of
Seattle
has a full bicycle transportation programme.
Denmark
has a project to replace short car trips with cycle trips.

Refs

Department of Transport. 1996 The National Cycling Strategy. London:Department of Transport.

Forester, J. 1994 2nd edn. Bicycle transportation. Harvard:MIT Press.

Provision for cycling in Berlin

Environmental
Impact Design (EID)

Notes for a course in Landscape Assessment and Design

Environmental Assessment
Zoning Control
Development Control
EA Control
Landscape EA
The EID Process
Drawing Types
Web references

What is Environmental
Assessment?

As the name implies, it is a technique for asssessing the environment. It is done with regard to development projects. ‘Environment’ comes from the French
word for surroundings. All projects affect their surroundings. If they produce an improvement (better views, less pollution, more wildlife) we are all
pleased to note the ‘beneficial side-effect’ or ‘positive externality’ or ‘positive environmental impact’. If, as happens more often, the affect on the
environment is harmful, society has a right to protest - and a need to employ environmental designers.

There are two main types of legislation which are used to regulate the impact of projects on the environment:
Zoning Regulations (including Land Use Plans and Town Plans)
EIA Regulations

As the Fig shows, landscape and visual effects can be thought of as sub-categories of external effects [grammatical note: ‘affect’ means influence and ‘effect’
means cause but the distinction between the two is not always clear in environmental assessment].

Control by
zoning
Top

Zoning plans reserve areas for defined land uses, but fail when they are exclusive.

Zoning laws were introduced in Germany in the late nineteenth century, to separate residential from industrial development. They produce what are now known
as land use plans in Europe and as zoning plans in America. The existence of a plan confers legal certainty and fairness on contextual decisions. In much
of North West Europe, a development will be approved if it accords with the land use plan and rejected if it does not. (Department of Environment, 1989:411).
The British planning system is becoming more ‘plan-led’ but a land allocation on a local plan does not confer a legal certainty that planning permission
will be granted.

Most of the large cities in Britain have been ringed by green belt zones since the 1950s. They have slowed the pace of development, driven up urban land
prices, enriched some farmers and impoverished other farmers. But they have not halted the process of land development (Elson, 1986). Zoning plans fall
into disrepute when they are subject to constant modification, and when powerful developers clutching fistfuls of gold can negotiate lucrative amendments.
This is especially so when local people wanting to build apartments for their ageing parents cannot do likewise.

Another regrettable consequence of zoning plans is that they restrict land use diversity. In a natural habitat there is a web of interaction between individual
plants and animals. The community gains mutual protection and re-cycles its by-products. Interactions of this type cannot occur if there is only one species
in the habitat. Monoculture is inefficient, both in natural and human communities. If a residential area has a single use and a fixed density it will be
occupied by people in a single socio-economic group. At 30 persons/hectare, they will probably have high-incomes, two children and two cars. This is less
efficient than a mixed-use area with shops, businesses, schools and smaller homes for young people and old people.

Flexible zoning, as an alternative to singular zoning, is much closer to the patterns formed by natural habitats. Each habitat tends to have a dominant
species (eg oak in an oakwood) and a wide range of associated species (birds, insects, fungi etc). One then finds a zone of transition where one habitat
shades into another. Examples of the landscape zones which should guide contextual decisions were given in the previous chapter. They include zones for
waterspace development, landform enhancement, habitat creation, greenspace, climate and scenery.

Development Control

Development control is a UK system

In the UK land development rights were nationalised by the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act. Since they it has been necessary to apply for planning permission
before carrying out development, though certain forms of development are permitted without the need for an application under the General Development Order.
In recent years the system has become more plan-led in the sense that development municipal countillors and development control officers have to act
in accordance with an approved local plan.

Control by
environmental assessment
Top

Control by EA fails when it is too pragmatic.

When it became apparent that the zoning system was not creating or protecting zones of environmental quality, it was supplemented by a second approach.
Basically, the new idea was to assess each project as it arrived on the development agenda and discover what impact it would have on its surroundings.
This became known as Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). [EA is the preferred term, partly because it leaves open the
possibility that a development will have no impact whatsoever]. The concept of EA originated in America, partly because of its extra-rigid system of zoning.
Planning control in some American states was much less comprehensive than in Europe and there was great public concern about the harmful affect which individual
development projects were having on the environment. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 became a model for similar legislation throughout
the world.

The key NEPA provision was that an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) must be prepared for all major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality
of the human environment. The word actions included building a house, planting a forest, felling a forest, laying a pipeline or carrying out a military
exercise. The great value of the EA approach was that it included every influence of every project on every aspect of its context. Interaction matrixes
were produced . Land users were prompted to consider the affects of each aspect of a development upon each component of the natural, social and spatial
environment. For example, Soldiers defecating was included for an EA of a military exercise in a wilderness area. For a road-building project, the component
actions would include construction of a site office, removing vegetation, hiring local labour, stripping topsoil, deflowering local virgins, excavating
subsoil, laying a base course, adjusting drainage patterns, and so on for ever. It was and remains a bonanza for environmental lawyers and scientists.
A distinction can be drawn between:

- Strategic Environmental Assessment, which is concerned with the assessment of general policies, plans and programmes

- Project Environmental Impact Assessment, which is carried out by organisations proposing specific development projects.

The Florida Power and Light Company, in preparing EIAs for new power stations, had to submit 5mm (¼") thick report in 1970, a 75mm (3") report in 1971,
a 150mm (6") report in 1973 and a 600mm (24") report in 1977. To deal with this escalation, restrictions were placed on the total length of American Environmental
Impact Statements and on the categories of project for which they were required. The scope of the European Community directive on EIA was restricted to
medium scale projects. Small-scale buildings and large-scale forestry or agriculture were excluded. A proposal for a large church surrounded by a new forest
could fall within Schedule 2 Section 10 of the European Community directive, as a significant urban development project. Scientists could then identify
negative impacts on fauna and flora. The hillside church would have an extensive Zone of Visual Influence. The cultural landscape would be adversely affected.
It is likely that the project would not be approved. Control by EIA has an anti-development bias. The inbuilt assumption is that the status quo ought not
to change. Control by EIA has become a highly structured procedure. The authors of a textbook on Environmental impact assessment identify fifteen steps
in the process of EIA (Glasson et al, 1994:3):
Project screening
Scoping
Consideration of alternatives
Description of the project/development action
Description of the environmental baseline
Identification of key impacts
Prediction of impacts
Evaluation and assessment of significance
Mitigation
Public consultation and participation
EIS presentation
Review of the EIS
Decision-making
Post-decision monitoring
Auditing

The EIA process is effective at permitting some projects and halting others. It is not as effective as it ought to be in securing improvements to a project
design. This is identified as stage 9 in the above list but, as the authors note, mitigation is in fact inherent in all aspects of the process (Glasson
et al, 1994:137)

Environmental assessment for
landscape
Top

Landscape architects have a particular interest in the EA process. According to Thompson, G.F. and Steiner, F.R. in Ecological design and planning (1997,
page 3) ‘As a point of fact, Design with Nature (by Ian McHarg) laid the groundwork for the emergence of geographic information systems (GIS) and environmental
impact assessments, which today dominate practice in both academic and public-policy spheres’. Other professions took the lead in EA work. Landscape architects
can take it back. An EA project co-ordinator requires a broad understanding of the subject but an environmental assessor must be careful, for insurance
reasons, not to stray outside their technical competence.[Liz Lake Associates comment that ‘The emphasis on Professional Indemnity Insurance forms has
shifted from liability for built construction to how much EA you do and what’s your part in it. We have to be very careful not to get involved in anything
outside our expertise (landscape, visual, nature conservation) unless we have people with special skills’.

If building yourself a house, a factory or a garden, you will think about your own needs. This is natural. It is what land owners and land users have always
done. But as our planet becomes more crowded and more affected by its human population, we also have to think about the affect of land use development
on other people and on our collective surroundings. In other words, we have to assess the impact of development on the environment. The technical term
for this procedure is environmental assessment. Some of the impacts (eg noise, smoke and water pollution) are of more concern to scientists than to landscape
designers. This is because scientists know how to measure some impacts (eg air pollution) and how mitigate them (by installing air filters). Other impacts
(eg on scenery, vegetation and recreation) are of particular concern to the landscape profession. We can call them ‘visual and landscape’ impacts. The
Landscape Institute published a book on this subject, which you should read. (Landscape Institute & Institute of Environmental Assessment (1995) Guidelines
for landscape and visual impact assessment (London:E&FN Spon). You must also read Chapter 6, on Landscape, of Morris, P and Therival, R. Methods of environmental
assessment. One of the old names for environmental impacts was ‘side-effects’ and the classic example was a smoky chimney (see
posneg1.jpg (17362 bytes)
Fig). A side-effect is described as positive if it benefits the environment and negative if it harms the environment. Good design can convert negative impacts
into positive impacts. Economists often describe side-effects as ‘external effects’ or ‘externalities’, because their effect is external to the land use
operation.

Landscape impacts need to be assessed, one-by-one, and then mitigated, one-by-one. The end result of this process will be a landscape design. Were this
not the case, there would be no need for landscape designers to become involved with landscape assessment. It could be done by geographers and environmental
scientists. There are in fact two reasons for carrying out a landscape assessment:
to assess, from an environmental perspective, whether a development project should be allowed to proceed (‘authorised’ under EA legislation, ‘licensed’
under zoning controls or given ‘permission’ under planning legislation). We can call this Landscape (or Environmental) Impact Assessment.
to discover what improvements can be made to the project design (eg the site planning of an industrial complex) to improve, or mitigate, its impact on the
environment. We can call this Landscape (or Environmental) Impact Design.

Landscape Assessment and Design can be viewed as a special approach to landscape design with the following characteristics:
it is analytical
it is sequential
it usually begins with a development proposal which someone else has formulated
it reaches out to treat ‘the environment’ as a set of clients, at least as important as the conventional client who merely owns the land and funds the development
project
for each category of impact, one has to go through a survey-assessment-mitigation procedure.
after a set of mitigation proposals has been prepared, they should be welded into a comprehensive landscape design
it uses the term ‘mitigation’ when it should use the term ‘design’

For a conventional landscape design project, your client may be a Mrs Developer, who owns a company called Landspoil PLC. For a Landscape Assessment and
Design project you may have another set of clients:
Mr Baron, who owned the site from 1330 to 1382
Mrs Hydrol, who cares deeply about water management
Mr Flora, whose roots go back a long way
Mrs Fauna, who is running all over the place
Mr and Mrs Neighbour, who live next door.

Each of these clients wants the landscape impact which affects them personally to be assessed and mitigated, usually with a single-purpose drawing. Note
that the types of impact which concern us may be to do with the past, the present
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or the future. The Fig shows a ‘layercake’ approach with categories for each of these time periods.

Environmental Impact Design is a most interesting approach to landscape design. It works by dividing a project development project into components, thinking
creatively about each component, ‘adding up’ the components and applying an additional burst of creativity to produce the landscape design. I represented
a process of this nature on pages 35 and 39 of City as landscape (Spons, 1996). It is shown in another way on Fig 4, with the individual ‘mitigation’ proposals
being added together to generate the basis for a landscape design.

The layered approach to design
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Environmental Assessment provides another reason for adopting a ‘layered’ approach to design. It is set in the context of other reasons on page 57ff of
City as landscape. A diagram showing a layered approach to contextual decisions is shown on page 115.

Jellicoe and the subconscious

Since writing City as landscape, I have written an essay on Jellicoe and the subconscious for the Landscape Institute monograph on Geoffrey Jellicoe (ed
Shiela Harvey). Jellicoe is very interested in the ‘evolutionary’ layers of landscape experience which lie in man’s collective subconscious. He described
them as Transparencies in the Guelph lectures on landscape design (1983).

EA in relation to landscape planning

A real weakness of the EA process in the UK is that it operates without the benefit of a framework of policy guidance. At some point in the future, projects
will be environmentally assessed with regard to policies for landscape conservation and development. At present, the EA process looks ‘down’ to the past
rather than ‘up’ to the future. The Countryside Commission’s Character Map of England could lead on to a policy framework for landscape planning.

The
EID Process
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The approach of starting with an already-designed development project is very common in professional practice. Clients frequently approach landscape firms
when they have encountered a landscape problem. [It is not so often that they come saying, ‘I have ten hectares and ten million pounds - have you any ideas?’.]
For landscape assessment projects it is often the case that the developer has been refused planning permission or has been advised that the development
project falls within Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 of the European Union’s environmental directive (See appendix to Guidelines for landscape and visual impact
assessment).

The Environmental Impact Design process can be subdivided into as few or as many stages as one likes. There is a complicated chart on p 97 of Landscape
and visual assessment. I see EA as having five main stages:
Scoping study: this is a quick preliminary study which, as the name implies, seeks to identify the scope of the
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likely impact of a development project upon the environment. For example, it may tell you that the ‘impact on surface water runoff’ will be very significant
but that there will be no significant impact on public rights of way. As the Fig suggests, it is a good idea to conclude the scoping study with a very
preliminary mitigation proposal. An Interaction Matrix (Fig
ASPECTS OF THE ENVIRONMENT / ASPECTS OF THE PROJECT)
be useful as a checklist and as a way of representing the pattern of likely impacts graphically. It should have Characteristics of the Environment on one
axis and Development Actions on the other axis. Fig 7 makes the same point with a Venn diagram. There is an example of an interaction matrix on page 47
of Landscape and visual assessment.
Baseline study: the next stage is to establish the ‘baseline’ condition, for each aspect of the environment, before it is subjected to a fresh impact. A
full survey of the site might take half a century. You are not going to do this: you are only going to investigate those aspects of the site which the
scoping study has thrown up as likely to receive a significant impact. As the sequence of diagrams shows, you have to define the baseline condition for
each assessment. There are a number of standard drawing types which you should use for this purpose eg a Phase 1 or Phase 2 Habitat Survey, a Zone of Visual
Influence (ZVI) drawing, a Landscape Character drawing. If the impact on habitat is a

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significant problem, you should produce a Phase 2 habitat survey.
Impact assessment: the next stage is to make an assessment of each impact to discover whether it will be positive or negative. This assessment is a matter
of judgement. But you should try to produce whatever evidence you can to support your judgement. The evidence might be statistics, a photomontage, cross-sections,
sketches etc. Please be rigorous and ingenious. You are constructing an argument. Someday, the evidence may have to be presented at a public inquiry.
Mitigation: the next stage is to make a mitigation proposal. Personally, I do not like the word ‘mitigation’. It suggests we are always trying to make development
as similar as possible to the existing environment. In fact, development proposals can be Similar, Identical or Different to their surroundings. I have
written an essay about this (‘Context and design’ in Turner, T., City as landscape, 1996). ‘Design’ is a better word.
Landscape design: the final stage is to take an overview of the individual mitigation proposals and integrate them to produce a landscape design. You should
also produce a diagrammatic ‘summary’ drawing to show what the individual mitigation proposals look like when you bring them together. You can think of
this procedure as being a Pattern Analysis approach to design (see essays 3 and 4 in City as landscape). My own view is that this approach can produce
proposals which are more relevant and more exciting than a traditional landscape design methodology (eg SAD).

.

Glossary

In preparing drawings and explaining projects you should use as much of the accepted technical vocabulary as possible. Test yourself by discovering if you
can wrote definitions of the following:
Determining Authority
Direct Impact
Non Technical Summary
Indirect Impact
Magnitude
Sensitivity
Impact Threshold
Tolerance
Scoping
Receptor
Mitigation

These and other terms are explained on pp90-3 of Landscape and visual assessment. See page 13 for the distinction between Landscape and Visual assessment.
See also: the very full glossary in Morris and Therival (pp 335-341).

Survey and Evaluation
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The distinction between Survey and Assessment drawings predates the idea of environmental assessment. Please see Ian McHarg’s famous book on Design with
nature. It has many examples of the pair. For example: a contour drawing merely shows survey information; an aspect drawing assesses this information to
show the warmest south-facing slopes. In Environmental Assessment, one is assessing something different eg the extent to which the landform will be harmed
by the proposed development.

At a public inquiry, the key issue is evaluation of impacts. One needs to evaluate both the magnitude and the significance of the impacts. Some impacts
(eg ‘disturbance of a rare bird’) have a low magnitude but a great significance. Other impacts (eg ‘arrival of visitors on opening day’) have a great magnitude
but a small significance. Specific design proposals can then be justified by reference to the evaluation. If, for example, there will be an impact on a
water course one can, depending on the magnitude and significance of the impact argue for:
Replacement of the stream course elsewhere on site
Mitigation of the impact, by implementing a management plan for the stream
Compensation for loss of the stream by constructing a new wetland area

Audit

An audit is an ‘official examination of accounts’. Its normal use is for the annual examination, by accountants, of company accounts. Scientists had the
idea that it would also be good idea to examine a company’s ‘environmental account’, to discover how much harm is being done to the environment (pollution,
consumption of resources etc). This led to the term ‘environmental audit’. The EA process is extends the idea to development projects, but usually on a
once-only basis. The term audit can be used to describe the process of monitoring a project on an annual basis. It is important to make a distinction between
impacts of the development process and impacts after the project is established and in full operation. Since it might take 20 years for new planting to
become an effective visual screen, one can define an ‘Opening Year’ or ‘Design Year’ for the date at which the Developer’s Proposal will have been completed.

Drawing types

There are a number of specific drawing types which are associated with the process of Environmental Assessment. You should try to make use of them where
appropriate. If you analyse a landscape from a specific point of view, it is normal to couple the analysis with a proposal.

Zone of Visual Influence. A ZVI drawing always relates to a specific object. The drawing then shows all the points from which the object is visible. See
page 49 & page 72 of Landscape and visual assessment for examples.

View envelopes: the envelope of land which can be seen from a defined viewpoint.

Scenic quality: you should use the Countryside Commission method to produce a map showing areas of quality graded from somewhere between 1-3 and 1-10. The
method is explained on pages 38-9 of Landscape and visual assessment. People often call it ‘landscape quality’ but ‘scenic quality’ is the better term.

Viewpoints: see p 41 of Landscape and visual assessment.

Designations: a great deal of land is subject to official designations (eg Metropolitan Green Belt, AONB, SSSI etc). They should be mapped.

Land use: this relates to the use of land, not to its visual character. For example, a uniform area of moorland may be classified as ‘agriculture’ (if used
by a farmer), ‘industry’ (if part-used as an electricity sub-station) and ‘recreation’ (if part of a country park).

Landscape character: show ‘zones of visual homogeneity’ (eg moorland, suburbia, coastal plain). [Note that p 42 of Landscape and visual assessment has examples
of ‘Landscape types and ‘Landscape Character Areas’, which are somewhat confusing). Almost always, boundaries of landscape character areas should overlap.

Photomontage: see page 51, page 71, page 118 of Landscape and visual assessment.

Colour impact, colour strategy, colour planning: see Michael Lancaster’s Colourscape (eg pages 70 and 90). Also p 59 of Landscape and visual assessment.

Land Cover: the vegetation, and land use, which cover the land

Surface water runoff. see Appendix C (p317) of Morris and Therival on ‘The rational method of runoff prediction’.

Phase 1 Habitat Survey See Appendix E (p 325) of Morris and Therival ‘Outline of the NCC Habitat Classification’ and the Nature Conservancy Council’s own
Handbook for phase 1 habitat survey.

Reminder: The above drawing types are very likely to find a place in an EA. But are not done for their own sakes. One should identify the need for them
in a scoping analysis and then incorporate them into the argument, normally by using the specialised drawing as a ‘stepping stone’ to a mitigation proposal.

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Web References

The following book is available for download: Visual Impact Assessment
Foundations for Visual Project Analysis
by Felleman, Palmer and Smardon. See
http://www.esf.edu/es/via/

DETR on
Assessment
on
Landscape Assessment
and on
Habitat Assessment

GIS Unit at deMontfort University on
landscape planning and use of GIS in habitat assessment

Middlemarch Environmental on
Landscape Assessment and Design

Hampshire
Historic Landscape Assessment

Australian discussion of
Landscape Evaluation

US Environmental Protection Agency overview of
landscape ecology
Countryside Commission
Press Releases

For pictures go to :
http://www.gardenvisit.com/landscape/LIH/landscape_planning/eid.htm