County Durham Landscape Strategy
The landscape of County Durham is one of our greatest assets. It has evolved over centuries as our predecessors have shaped it to meet their needs. Change in the landscape is both inevitable and natural as we continually adapt it in response to new technologies and new economic, environmental and cultural forces.
In the decades ahead the changing European and global economy will pose new challenges for agriculture and the rural economy. Changing patterns of work, transport, housing and recreation will bring pressures for new development in the countryside. Climate change is likely to have a fundamental, if as yet uncertain, impact on our environment.
The County Durham Landscape Strategy sets out an agenda for managing change in the future to help us conserve and enhance what we value most about the landscape while allowing it to evolve to meet these new challenges.
It was formally adopted by the council in 2008 and was written to be viewed and used primarily through this website.
The following sections give more information on the broad issues with over-arching issues and cross-cutting themes like climate change and biodiversity, issues arising out of, or affecting, land management activities or new development and also contains an analysis of the assets and attributes of the County Character Areas, the trends and pressures affecting them, key issues for action, strategic objectives and spatial strategies.
Downloads
The County Durham Landscape Strategy 2008 can also be downloaded below: