Skip to content

Landscape

These assessments assist with decision making about future land use. Gloucestershire has one of the most diverse landscapes in England.

Landscape Character Assessments have been produced for:

Also relevant to Gloucestershire is The Gloucester‐Cheltenham‐Tewkesbury Joint Core Strategy Landscape Characterisation Assessment & Sensitivity Analysis (2013) and The Stroud LP Landscape Sensitivity Appraisal (2013).

A Landscape Character Assessment classifies, maps and describes the distinctive character of individual landscapes. The assessments covering Gloucestershire describe what is already in the landscape but do not prescribe what should be there.

Landscape Character Types are distinct types of landscape that are relatively uniform in character. They may occur in different parts of the country, but wherever they occur they share broadly similar combinations of geology, landform, drainage patterns, vegetation, and historical land use and settlement pattern. The combined landscape character assessment for the whole of Gloucestershire has identified a total of 38 landscape character types. This unusually large number of types for a county wide assessment is a reflection of the great diversity of the Gloucestershire's landscape as a consequence of the remarkable range of the underlying geology and the pattern of social, economic and cultural responses to this diversity. Sitting beneath the Landscape Character Types are Landscape Character Areas which are single, unique areas and form discrete geographical areas.

Additionally digital mapping files held by the County Council can be requested by emailing ecology@gloucestershire.gov.uk. These are: 

County Landscape Character Types (2002)

Forest of Dean District Landscape Character Areas (2002)

Cotswolds AONB Landscape Character Areas (2004)

Various Gloucestershire Vales Landscape Character Areas (2006)

Additionally a Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) is available for Gloucestershire and further details can be found on the Archaeology Data Service website.

Help us improve Gloucestershire County Council

Don’t include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details.