Across my forty years of experience as a Landscape Architect, I have been called upon to draft a range of Landscape and Visual Impact Assessments (LVIAs) / Cumulative LVIAs (CLVIAs) for a wide range of major projects, from renewable energy to housing, highways and trams. This article is a personal recollection of the emergence, development and evolution of the Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (GLVIA)
Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, 1995
GLVIA was first published in 1995. The Landscape Institute and the (then) Institute of Environmental Assessment were joint authors of the guidance and its aim was to “…set high standards for the scope and content of landscape and visual impact assessments…which will ensure integrity and consistency.” It went on to state that “…it is necessary to differentiate between judgement on the significance of change, which involves a greater degree of subjective opinion, and the measurement of magnitude of change, which is normally a more objective and quantifiable task. Judgement, should always be informed by clear evidence, reasoned argument and informed opinion.” Another principle established in GLVIA which has withstood the test of time is that landscape impacts and visual impacts should always be separate, but related, fields of study.
Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, 2002
The next edition of GLVIA was published seven years later in 2002, (GLVIA2) with the aim of updating the original edition in the light of the development of the Landscape Profession, changes in government policy especially in respect of sustainability, government guidance, and continuing variation in the quality and content of EIA. The main aim was to improve the consistency, credibility and effectiveness of LVIA. The main tenets of the assessment process, sensitivity and magnitude, remained the same, but as observed above, the reliance on matrices to help achieve judgement on the significance of change at the assessment stage was dropped.
Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, 2013
However, the gap between GLVIA2 in 2002 and 2013 when Edition Three (GLVIA3) was published, was a long one. During this period both the assessment methodology and the types of development which were being assessed, was constantly developing and evolving. When GLVIA3 was finally published in 2013, the main differences were a less prescriptive approach and more reliance on Landscape Architects’ professional judgment rather than setting protocols which could be followed without true understanding.
The main aim was to help landscape professionals help decision makers make better decisions and now, over five years on, I think it is fair to say that, although it still has some areas where improvement is required, GLVIA3 has gone a long way towards achieving this end, by building on the aspirations of the two editions which paved its way and GLVIAs period of emergence and its LVIA methodological predecessors over thirty years ago.
It can’t be long now before Edition 4 is mooted…