There has been extensive monitoring and assessment of landscape change within England and the UK over recent decades, through a variety of programmes and organisations. National initiatives have understandably been tailored to the policy and evidence needs at the time; for example, the Countryside Quality Counts indicators (spanning 1990-2003) commissioned by government to inform the Rural White Paper (2001).

The New Agricultural Landscapes project set up in 1972 initially explored the potential for different landscapes to accommodate productive farmland alongside wildlife conservation.  It then evolved into a valuable long-term monitoring programme. The UK become a signatory to the Council of Europe Landscape Convention in 2006; this gave renewed impetus to building the evidence base national (and local) in ‘identifying landscapes’ (e.g. landscape character assessment) as a basis for monitoring changes over time.  Eventually this led to the publication in 2014 of the National Character Area profiles – a core national component of landscape change monitoring for Agri-environment schemes and for the wider landscape.

The legacy of insights and methods associated with previous monitoring projects have informed the approach to the Defra 25 Year Environment Plan Outcome Indicator Framework indicator G1: Changes to landscape and waterscape character.  The most recent package of national work has also benefitted from the availability of open data and a digital database which can be more easily updated, accessible and able to support a range of uses.

 

Field surveyors

The following key reports were reviewed to assist in the development of the overall approach, but to also provide context and guidance in the interpretation of the findings.

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Countryside Quality Counts: Tracking change in the English countryside, 1990-98

The Countryside Agency (2004)

Read the full Tracking change in the English Landscape 1st assessment 1990-1998 report.

This study (commissioned in 2001 under the Rural White Paper) aimed to create an indicator of change in countryside quality, centred upon the analysis of change in semi-natural habitats, historical features, woodland, boundary features, settlement and development, agriculture, and coastal and river elements. In addition, Joint Character Area (JCA) descriptions were used to inform judgments about the significance of the change in the attributes mentioned above. With the inauguration of Natural England in 2006, JCA descriptions later evolved into a body of evidence that is collectively known as the National Character Area (NCA) Profiles.

The study also sought to answer two key research issues:

• to resolve the way in which change in countryside quality should be conceptualised and represented in the form of an indicator; and
• whether the data resources available at national scales were sufficient for the indicator to be constructed.

The project indicator successfully showed where changes in the condition and extent of attributes that contribute to countryside character occur and if these changes matter in conserving and enhancing landscape character. The CQC study made the first assessment of change for the period 1990 to 1998 (published in 2004). The assessment was supported by a series of regional consultations.

For the first assessment the JCAs were classified as experiencing:

• Marked change inconsistent with character
• Some change inconsistent with character
• Limited or no change consistent with character

The first assessment showed that for the period 1990-1998, about 42% of landscapes were either stable or showed changes that were consistent with existing character area descriptions. For 26% of our landscapes the changes were marked and inconsistent with these descriptions. In the remaining 32% of our landscapes the changes were inconsistent with existing descriptions, but they were of less significance in terms of their impact on overall character. A summary map is shown below.

Overview results from CQC 1990-1998

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Countryside Quality Counts: Tracking Change in the Character of the English Landscape 1999-2003

Natural England and Haines-Young, R.H. (2007)

Read the full Tracking change in the English Landscape 2nd assessment 1999 – 2003 report.

The second (and final) CQC assessment published in 2007, looked at changes between 1999 and 2003. As per the first assessment, CQC focuses on the Joint Character Areas (now the NCAs) of England. The study determined whether the scale and direction of change suggests that their character has been maintained, enhanced, neglected, or diverging from current character.

The second assessment of change expanded the evidence base and placed even greater emphasis on consultation with local stakeholders (particularly the professional landscape community).

As a basis for this work, a revised set of statements about countryside change were collated from a number of sources which included landscape visions or statements about the threats and opportunities present in any given JCA.

CQC reported findings in terms of Maintaining, Enhancing, Diverging, Neglected. The CQC phase 2 results showed around 40% of NCAs being in a Diverging/Neglected ‘state’ as shown below.

CQC Headline Indicator 1999-2003

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Character and Quality of England’s Landscapes (CQuEL)

Defra/Natural England (2010)

Read the full Character and Quality of England’s Landscapes 2010 report.

From the outset, CQuEL was intended as a successor to, and improvement upon, the Countryside Quality Counts (CQC) Project. CQuEL provided Natural England with the opportunity to address concerns, acknowledged by the CQC method, about notions of quality and relevant assessment criteria, and to incorporate the then emerging ecosystem goods and service approach agenda.

CQuEL aimed to provide place-based evidence about the character and function of landscapes and the provision and quality of selected ecosystem services delivered by the natural environment and provide an enhanced and up-to-date understanding of Natural England’s contribution to enhancing and improving the condition of the natural environment and provide data to key partners.

A Methodological Testing Phase ascertained that whilst the findings were encouraging, they were tempered by resource limitations and timing; most notably being implemented prior to the completion of a full set of updated NCA profiles including the Statements of Environmental Opportunity (i.e. objectives against which to evaluate data). However, the transferability of the insights and knowledge gained from undertaking of both the Detailed Planning Phase (2009 – 2010) and the Methodological Testing Phase is a valuable legacy and has informed subsequent landscape monitoring approaches, notably this project and the agri-environment monitoring work.

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England’s changing landscapes: A review of landscape change in England from 1940 to 2010

Natural England (2013)

Read the full England’s changing landscapes: A review of landscape change in England from 1940 to 2010 (NECR109) report.

This report provides an overview of landscape change in England since 1940, using existing evidence and analysis. By examining the key forces which have had an impact on the landscape such as development and environmental policy, the report also reviews how these changes have affected the character of England’s distinct landscape types.

Various sources were used to inform the report, starting with the development of a baseline from land use surveys from the start of the study period, including the Land Utilisation Survey for Great Britain (1933-1948) and later surveys such as the UK CEH Land Cover Map 2000. Although many of these datasets were not intended for understanding landscape change, they provided key information on the evolution of landscape use and change. Quantitative data in the form of population census, annual agricultural surveys, and land use change statistics were reviewed. The Countryside Quality Counts project was another key source on landscape character, providing contextual descriptions of historic change for each of the NCAs (‘Joint Character Areas’ at the time of writing). The New Agricultural Landscapes project (1972, 1983, 1994, 2005) also provided key information, assessing the impacts of agricultural change on rural character over time.

Through this review process, key landscape changes were identified and organised according to different landscape types within England. The report uses Broad Landscape Types as the spatial framework for this work, but simplifies the original 19 types into nine, by combining similar types. The result is a report which lays out key landscape changes and drivers for change across nine different landscape types, cross-referenced to the time-periods.

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Cumulative impact of Environmental Stewardship on landscape character

BD5303, Defra/Natural England (2013)

Read the full Cumulative impact of Environmental Stewardship on landscape character – BD5303 report.

This study developed a sampling framework that allows the landscape effects of agri-environment schemes to be assessed from the national to the local level. It developed rapid, consistent, repeatable and rigorous methods to evaluate the landscape effects of Environmental Stewardship (ES) and subsequent agri-environment schemes across 18 different survey locations (each comprising four to five survey squares). This detailed survey method laid down a baseline and explored the different landscape effects of ES in the field.

The information collected through these different forms of analyses provided comprehensive evidence on the landscape effects of agri-environment schemes, particularly ES. The study confirmed that ES meets the objective of maintaining and enhancing landscape character and quality. By collecting different spatial scales of evidence, this study provided a much better understanding of ES uptake and its subsequent effects on landscape quality and character. This was useful in terms of informing local and national advice to ensure the cost benefit ratio is maximised.

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Framework for monitoring environmental outcomes in protected landscapes (2014)

NERR055: Natural England/Defra

Read the full Framework for monitoring environmental outcomes in protected landscapes (NERR055) report.

This partnership project was set up to produce a framework that provided a national structure for environmental monitoring in protected landscapes. Several stages were undertaken to create the framework, including stakeholder workshops, research into existing monitoring projects, piloting draft frameworks, providing initial statistics, and refining the framework’s outcomes and measures via a questionnaire. All of which was overseen by a project board formulated of Defra, Natural England, the National Association for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (NAAONB), English National Park Authorities Association (ENPAA) and English Heritage.

• The previously mentioned stages produced the subsequent crucial outputs:
  • An environmental monitoring framework that uses the best available range of existing national statistics to:
  • Guide protected landscape bodies as to how a variety of statistics can lead to separate outcomes.
• Provide structure for outcome-related statistics at a national level for protected landscapes.
• National statistics for the identified environmental outcomes from a variety of organisations.
• Local statistics for identified environmental outcomes.
• Assistance notes on specific datasets, and on using the framework, including assisting in monitoring outcomes concerning natural beauty.

This framework aimed to provide a sustainable means of monitoring environmental outcomes in protected landscapes, which will help to improve National Park Authority (NPA) and AONB (now National Landscape) management planning and reporting as well as contributing ‘useful evidence that will help all those working or influencing activities in England’s protected landscapes so that the best possible outcomes can be achieved for these unique and special places. Running until 2021, MEOPL has now been replaced by the Protected Landscapes Targets and Outcomes Framework.

High-level analysis of selected MEOPL indicators was undertaken in 2019 by University of Plymouth on behalf of the MEOPL partnership. This analysis considered indicator trends over the period 2013-19.

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Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment (MENE) Survey

Natural England (2009-2019)

Read about the Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment (MENE) programme.

Since 2009, Natural England and Defra have utilised the Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment (MENE) survey to collect data to explore relationships between nature connectedness, nature contact, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours.

The data enables users to:

• Understand how people use, enjoy and are motivated to protect the natural environment.
• Monitor changes in use of the natural environment over time, at a range of different spatial scales and for key groups within the population.

A working group titled ‘the nature connection working group’ was organised and overseen by Natural England. From reviewing existing literature and determining that current methods for measuring nature connectedness were not suitable, the group sought to develop a simple approach to report nature connectedness. As a result, a simple, short, 6-item scale for nature connectedness was developed creating a new ‘Nature Connection Index’.

The information collected through the new index found that a positive relationship existed between individuals’ nature connectedness and their pro-environmental behaviours and wellbeing. Additionally, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours were highest in individuals with a high visit frequency to natural environments.

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Monitoring the Impact of Stewardship on Landscape Character, Quality and Resilience

NCA Indicators and Thresholds. Defra/Natural England (LM0429, 2013 and LM0483, 2018)

Read the full 2013 Developing Indicators and Thresholds for Monitoring the Landscape Impacts of Environmental Stewardship at the National Character Area Scale – LM0429 report.

Read the full 2018 Monitoring the impacts of AES on landscape character, quality and resilience – LM0483 report.

This study provides an evidence base that assesses the effectiveness of Agri-environment Schemes (AES) (Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship) in maintaining and enhancing landscape character, quality and resilience. The study also provides in-depth analysis to explore how agri-environment schemes (AES):

• effect landscape character (one of the objectives of AES and a key element in the Defra Environmental Improvement Plan).
• can contribute to the creation of resilient landscapes (a future focus of Natural England’s work).
• explore the effects of AES within nationally designated landscapes.

The results help to evaluate the effectiveness of AES in delivering landscape benefits, in line with the European Commission Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF). The results provide a baseline against which the landscape benefits of current AES (and subsequent agri-environment schemes) can be judged in the future.

Resilience was addressed at a high level with respect to the comparison with climate change data and reporting; rather than a full consideration of landscape resilience at NCA level.

Using the results of this assessment it is possible to:

• Identify those parts of the country, and those types of landscape, where AES is having the most and least beneficial effects on the landscape.
• Identify those landscape themes that are best and worst served by AES in different parts of the and in different types of landscape.
• Drill down through the results to identify those individual objectives where the thresholds are, and are not, being met in individual NCAs or in different Agricultural Landscape Types (ALTs).

In this way, the results of this project provide an assessment of the current landscape effects of AES across the country and a baseline against which future effects can be assessed. An overview of the results in both 2013 and 2018 are shown below.

The 2013 assessment found that AES (namely ES) were having:

• A Strongly Positive effect on the landscape of 21 NCAs (13%)
• A Positive effect on the landscape of 102 NCAs (64%)
• A Neutral effect on the landscape of 36 NCAs (23%)

The 2018 assessment found that AES (namely ES and CS) were having:

• A Strongly Positive effect on the landscape of 15 NCAs (9%)
• A Positive effect on the landscape of 89 NCAs (50%)
• A Neutral effect on the landscape of 64 NCAs (40%)

Overall landscape effects by NCA 2013 and 2018

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Rapid Field Survey

Defra/Natural England (2014 – 2016)

Read the full Monitoring the impact of Environmental Stewardship (ES ) on Landscape Character and Quality: 2015 Survey – LM0456 report.

This study evaluated the landscape effects of features that fell under England’s main agri-environment scheme at the time, Environmental Stewardship (ES). The findings of the project aimed to enable spatial targeting of effective options in order to further improve their contribution to landscape character and quality. Data from this study also contributed to the implementation of the Countryside Stewardship (CS) schemes, which replaced ES.

The Rapid Survey project was part of a response for quick and simple means of surveying landscape impacts of ES. The survey method assigned simple quantitative score judgements, rather than more subjective qualitative descriptions. This approach also reduced the risk of surveyor bias, or different interpretations of the impact of ES. Additionally, the use of computer tablets for the survey period allowed greater efficiencies, through data collation, collection and analysis stages.

Findings from the study indicated that there was a close relationship between the way that ES affects landscape character and the condition of the features under option. Additionally, for options that involved the creation of new features, ES contributed positively to landscape quality.

Limitations of the survey method were also identified, including the risk of over-simplification. By using objective scoring methods, there is a corresponding loss of contextual detail, as the landscape characteristics are not fully explored as part of the survey. Additionally, the survey did not involve any counterfactual investigation.

An update of the rapid field survey is underway in 2024.