A framework for landscape assessment

Abstract

The primary aim of the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects (NZILA) conference on landscape assessment, held at Lincoln University on 12-14 March 1999, was to identify the key elements of an assessment framework suitable for use in implementing the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA91). The conference, Landscape Assessment - Means and Ends, followed a series of professional development workshops, that had identified a range of concerns about current assessment practice. Foremost among these was an apparent inconsistency in the definitions and procedures of landscape assessment under the RMA91. The aim of the final session of the conference was to identify the basic elements that must be specified in any and every landscape assessment. This was intended to provide a procedural framework that can be shared by all landscape architects. Participants in the final session identified seven key elements, which can be summarised as follows: • terms of reference; • policy context; • landscape description; • landscape interpretation; • landscape evaluation; • assessment of effects; and • implications: policy options, mitigation, monitoring.