The 'Landscape Character Turn': An Examination of Experience in the UK and Taiwan

Landscape policy in the UK has a tradition of conserving natural beauty within designated areas. As a result of both the progressive development of landscape analysis techniques, of which the most recent is the use of Landscape Character Assessment (LCA), and contemporary environmental trends, landscape policy in the past twenty years has undergone a significant �landscape character turn� from this focus on the 'best' landscapes to the wider notion of the 'rest'�of the landscape. This poses a particular challenge for the non-statutory locally defined landscape designations. Over time questions have arisen about whether these designations should be retained or replaced by criteria-based policies informed by LCA and covering the countryside as a whole. The 'turn' underlines significant changes in landscape concepts and the way in which they contribute to planning policies and practice in the UK and also at a global scale. This research explores how the character-based approach has, in the last two decades, developed into an alternative tool to the traditional local landscape designation approach. The evolution of these two approaches has been examined at both the national (England) level and the local level (English local authorities) by conducting policy document review, case study analysis and in-depth interviews. At the national level, the discourses concerning the transition between the two approaches have been extracted to scrutinise their development and interrelationships. At the local level, three sample local authorities have been identified to investigate how the approaches have been delivered. Lastly, the research examines the extent to which knowledge gained from the UK experience can be compared to the cultural context of Taiwan, where the use of local landscape designations is still prevailing. The research shows that the character-based approach is appropriate to replace the use of local landscape designations given that certain conditions are met. Outside the UK this approach is not readily application to other planning contexts where crucial elements for carrying out this approach are absent.