A Landscape Strategy for Lancashire - Landscape Character Assessment
Glossary
Landscape Technical Terms
With an explanation of how the terms are being used in the context of the Landscape Assessment and Strategy.
Analysis - the process of breaking the landscape down, usually in descriptive terms, into its component parts in order to understand how it is made up.
Approach - the step-wise process by which a landscape assessment is undertaken.
Assessment - an umbrella term used to encompass all the many different ways of looking at, describing, analysing and evaluating landscape.
Character - a distinct pattern or combination of elements that occurs consistently in a particular landscape.
Character Area - a unique geographic area with a consistent character and identity, which forms part of a landscape character type.
Character Type - a generic term for landscape with a consistent, homogeneous character. Landscape character types may occur in different parts of the county, but wherever they occur, they will share common combinations of geology, topography, vegetation or human influences.
Characteristic - an element that contributes to local distinctiveness (eg narrow winding lanes, vernacular building style).
Classification - a process of sorting the landscape into different types, each with a distinct, consistent and recognisable character.
Description - verbal description of what a landscape looks like. This is usually carried out in a systematic manner, but it may also include personal reactions to the landscape.
Element - a component part of the landscape (eg hedges, roads, woods).
Feature - a prominent, eye-catching element (eg wooded hilltop, church spire).
Landcover - combinations of land use and vegetation that cover the land surface.
Landform - combinations of slope and elevation that produce the shape and form of the land surface.
Landscape - the term refers primarily to the visual appearance of the land, including its shape, form and colours. However, the landscape is not a purely visual phenomenon; its character relies on a whole range of other dimensions, including geology, topography, soils, ecology, archaeology, landscape history, land use, architecture and cultural associations.
Other Technical Terms
Aeolian processes a term pertaining to the wind. Wind-borne,wind-blown or wind deposited materials are referred to as aeolian.
Ancient woodland - woodland area which has had a continuous woodland cover since at least 1600 AD and has only been cleared for underwood or timber production. It is an extremely valuable ecological resource, with an exceptionally high diversity of flora and fauna.
Backland - an enclosed space within an urban block.
Beck a local term in the north of England for a rapidly flowing stream.
Biogeography - the study of plant and animal distributions together with the geographical relationships with their environments over time.
Blanket bog upland peat bog formed under conditions of high rainfall. It drapes over the moorland plateaux and obscures most topographic features. Depending on management the vegetation can vary from wet sphagnum dominated communities to moorland grasses and ericaceous shrub communities.
Brownfield site - a development site which is re-using land previously developed.
Bund - man-made mound, usually intended to provide a visual screen, often in conjunction with planting.
Cairn - a mound of rough stones built as a monument or landmark - the most common examples being clearance cairns , when stones were cleared from a field in preparation for cultivation, and funerary cairns covering graves or burial chambers.
Carr woodland marsh or fen woodland in waterlogged terrain. Characteristic trees include alder and willow.
Chert - a hard silicaeous rock, which occurs as bands or layers in sedimentary rocks. Flint is a variety of chert.
Clough - a local north England term for a small, steep-sided valley.
Cobble skear - cobble bed in inter-tidal zone.
Conurbation - extensive urban area, where two or more settlements have become linked.
Coppicing - the traditional method of woodland management in which trees are cut down to near the ground to encourage the production of long, straight shoots, which can subsequently be harvested.
Crenellated - a building with battlements or loopholes (narrow vertical slits in high walls).
Dendritic - branching, often a term applied to a network of streams which have formed on relatively uniform terrain where faulting is insignificant. An entirely random network develops due to the absence of structural controls.
Drumlin - a streamlined, elongated egg-shaped hillock of glacial drift formed under a moving glacier during the ice age. The long axis of the hillock is aligned parallel to the direction of the ice flow. Drumlins usually occur in swarms or fields.
Erratic - a large rock fragment which has been transported by moving ice away from its place of origin and deposited in an area of dissimilar rock types.
Esker - a narrow sinuous ridge of partly stratified coarse sand and gravel formed by a sub-glacial stream.Eskers frequently bear no relation to the modern drainage pattern.
Eutrophic - the state of a water body when it has an excess of nutrients usually derived from agricultural fertilisers. The process by which a water body becomes overloaded with nutrients is known as eutrophication and leads to a dense plant population, the decomposition of which kills animal life by depriving it of oxygen.
Fault - a rupture or fracture of rock strata due to strain.
Flush - an area of soil enriched by transported materials, either dissolved mineral salts or rock particles. Wet flushes are found surrounding springs and rivulets and appear as bright green, rushy areas on a hill slope.
Fluvio-glacial - a term referring to the processes and landforms related to the action of glacial meltwater.
Geomorphology - the scientific study of the origin of landforms based on a cause and effect relationship.
Ginnel - a narrow alleyway between terraced houses, to access the backyard.
Gley soils one of the seven major groups in the soil classification of England and Wales. The are characterised by being affected by periodic or permanent saturation by water in the absence of effective artificial drainage.
Gryke - a deep cleft in a bare limestone pavement, formed by solution along a line of weakness.
Laithe house - a dwelling which incorporates a barn under the same roof.
Limestone pavement - a glacially planed and smoothed surface of bare limestone which has subsequently been dissected by vertical joints (grykes).
Marl pit - small pit resulting from the extraction of marl (a calcareous clay or mudstone) which has often subsequently been filled with water to form a small field pond.
Mere - a natural lake.
Mesolithic (c. 8,000-4,000 BC) an archaeological term meaning middle stone age and used to describe the culture achieved during the early Post Glacial. It was a period of transition in the early Holocene when mankind had moved from the hunting gathering practices of the Palaeolithic of the last glaciation, but had not yet adopted the farming practices of the Neolithic.
Mill race - a narrow man-made channel used to divert water to power a water-mill.
Mosslands flat low-lying, peatlands, derived from former bogs and mires, typically drained by a network of ditches and supporting intensive agriculture. Relict areas of former natural vegetation are rare.
Motte-and-Bailey Castle - the earliest form of Norman castle established along key communication routes after the Conquest. An inner courtyard was protected by simple earth and wood defences.
Neolithic (c. 4,000-2,500 BC) an archaeological term used to mean new stone age which describes the period of antiquity in which people began to use ground stone tools, cultivate plants and keep domesticated livestock.
Open-field system - an area of arable land with common rights after harvest or while fallow. The fields date from the medieval period and are usually without internal divisions (hedges, walls or fences).
Outcrop - the emergence of a stratum, vein or rock at the surface.
Outlier - an area of younger rocks occurring in a detached location, away from the main body of similar older rocks. The intervening rocks have been removed by erosion.
Outwash sands - the extensive sands and gravels deposited by meltwater streams beyond the margins of ice sheets and glaciers .
Oxbow lake - a crescent-shaped lake occurring on a river floodplain. It originated as a river meander, but has since been abandoned after there has been lateral erosion at the neck of the meander and the river has changed course.
Palaeolithic (c. 500,000-8,000 BC) an archaeological term meaning old stone age covering the period from the first appearance of tool-using humans to the retreat of the glacial ice and emergence of the Mesolithic.
Peat hag - mossland that has formerly been broken up; it could be a pit, break, gap or chasm in the moss, or an area of turfy or heathery ground which rises out of the peat bog.
Pedology - the scientific study of soils
Permian - the last geological period of the Palaeozoic era, extending from about 280 to 240 million years ago. In Britain continental conditions prevailed for much of the time and thick layers of red sandstone were formed.
Pleistocene - the first geological epoch of the Quaternary period, extending from about 2 million years ago to 100,000 BP. It was marked by great fluctuations in temperature with glacial periods followed by interglacial periods.
Podsol or (podzol) - a type of soil formed in cool, seasonally humid conditions where leaching is the dominant process. A true podsol is characterised by a thin layer of raw humus (organic matter) at the surface, and a black or dark brown lower section, which often contains re-deposited iron, clay or aluminium. The process by which a podsol is formed is known as Podzolisation.
Pollarding - a traditional woodland management practice in which the branches of a tree are cut back every few years to encourage new long, straight shoots for harvesting. Differs from coppicing because the cuts are made at sufficient distance from the ground to prevent them from being eaten by animals. Willow trees are often pollarded.
Quaternary - the most recent geological period of the Cenozoic era extending from about 2 million years ago to the present day and comprising the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. This period contains evidence of many present day species of plants and animals including modern humans.
Reef knoll - a dome-like mass of limestone which has grown upwards from a reef (line of rocks in the tidal zone of a coast) in order to keep pace with the deposition of surrounding sediments. The reef knoll may be exposed by denudation and, because of its poorly developed joint system and its shape, it tends to resist erosion and to form a cone-shaped hill.
Ridge and Furrow - a distinctive form of up-and-down ploughing of long narrow strips on medieval or Saxon open-field land. The soil was thrown towards the centre of the strip, producing a high ridge surrounded by a deep furrow.
Riparian habitat - riverbank habitat
Saltpan - a shallow salt lake occurring in a small, enclosed basin.
Semi-natural vegetation - any type of natural vegetation which has been influenced by human activities, either directly or indirectly.
Triassic - the first geological period of the Mesozoic era, extending from about 240 million years ago to about 195 million years ago. It succeeded the Permian and preceded the Jurassic. In Britain it consists mainly of shales, bright red desert sandstones, marls and pebble beds. This period witnessed the evolution of the reptiles and contains the earliest known dinosaur remains.
Turnpike road - a gated road on which a toll must be paid to allow access. Turnpikes were administered by turnpike trusts, which were authorised by a private act of Parliament to levy tolls for maintenance of the highway.
Vernacular buildings constructed in the local style, from local materials. Concerned with ordinary rather than monumental buildings.
Veteran tree - a tree which is of great age for its species and of interest biologically, culturally or aesthetically.
Abbreviations
AOD - above ordinance datum
AONB - Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
BAP - Biodiversity Action Plan
CCA - Countryside Character Area (refers to the broad landscape character areas described on the Countryside Agencys Character Map of England)
LNR - Local Nature Reserve
RSPB - Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
SSSI - Site of Special Scientific Interest