Visual Resource Stewardship—An International Perspective

Abstract

This paper provides an international perspective on visual resource stewardship. It examines the long history of Britain’s love affair with its landscapes and its abandonment of measuring the subjective element of landscape quality, focusing instead on landscape character, which could be objectively assessed. This paper summarises the development of the European Landscape Convention, which has been embraced across much of Europe, and which follows Britain’s emphasis on landscape character. Programs in a range of European countries are reviewed. The recognition of outstanding landscapes under the World Heritage Convention, the UN List of Protected Areas program which includes landscapes, and National Scenic Area programs, are briefly summarised. The key message of this paper is that most of the provisions summarised focus on the character of the landscape and not its quality. Because it has been alleged, particularly in Britain and Europe, that it is too difficult to measure scenic quality, landscape character has become the subject instead of scenic quality.