GIS for Landscape & Environment

SCGIS in Landscape & Environment

Providing a variety of GIS services in support of a range of landscape and environment related activities

National Landscapes / AONBs

Since 2021, SCGIS has been working with Resources for Change and Alison Farmer Associates on Natural England's programme protected landscapes on projects to assess the potential for a new AONB in the Yorkshire Wolds and for an extension to the Surrey Hills AONB.  Providing GIS data management and mapping services, including a website, online maps and map-based stakeholder engagement surveys, SCGIS has supported the process of potential designation from the outset.  In 2023 SCGIS started work with Gillespies and Camargue, on a third national landscape project - a potential new AONB in the Cheshire Sandstone Ridge area.

Valued Places

Through late summer 2023, and to coincide with their closing Celebration Day, SCGIS supported the Westmorland Dales Landscapes Partnership with repeating a Valued Places Survey conducted initially, at the beginning of the scheme, which had been funded for 5 years.  SCGIS produced a map-based survey, which was open to the public for around a month, then analysed, mapped and reported on results, including comparisons with the 2018 survey.

Landscape & Visual Impact Assessment 

SCGIS produced a suite of maps and 3D visualisations in support of the Landscape and visual impact assessment for a wind energy site in North Wales. Working alongside David Hares Landscape Architecture, the project consisted of the developments zones of theoretical visibility and cumulative models, in line with the guidance produced by The Landscape Institute and the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment. Receptor/Effect overlays were also produced for the impact upon important landscape features, such as the given visual and sensory assessment or the visibility along a national trail.  

Landscape Character Assessment

Working again with with David Hares Landscape Architecture, SCGIS coordinated the collection & creation of spatial datasets required for the LCAs listed below and produced the maps & figures used in the reports.

• Landscape Character Assessment of the Wandle Valley, London

• Landscape Character and Sensitivity Assessment of Findon, West Sussex

HRA Visitor Survey Analysis

SCGIS completed analysis of a visitor survey for a Special Protection Area (SPA) in the north of England.  Working closely with UEEC Ltd., SCGIS provided complex spatial and statistical analysis of visitor information to inform the Habitats Regulations Assessment of the emerging Core Strategy for a district council.  The project required working with an MS Access database to map and analyse survey results, digitise survey respondent routes and produce information on the relationships between visit types, frequency, distance travelled and use of the SPA.