Somerset and Exmoor Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC)

The Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) project for Somerset and Exmoor National Park (NP) was carried out between 1999-2000 with funding from English Heritage by the Environment & Property Department of Somerset County Council. The project developed a method of identifying the historic landscape character of the present-day landscape, defining the landscape through a series of attributes, primarily the morphology of field boundaries, as well as processes of enclosure and measurement of past landscape changes. The Somerset method was based on the philosophy used in the Cornwall's Historic Landscape Characterisation, though the increased use of GIS and its adoption in the techniques of characterisation since that project allowed a more complex characterisation method to be used.