A countryside character programme

The English countryside has been a source of inspiration and pleasure for many generations, yet no organisation has so far attempted to provide a comprehensive and celebratory record of this resource. The Countryside Commission has recently completed a pilot study which has established a method for mapping zones of similar character at the regional and local scales. This study is soon to be extended into a Countryside Character Programme covering the whole of England. This article describes the qualitative and quantitative techniques used in the exercise, and discusses the nature and significance of its expected outputs.