National Character Areas
England has been divided into areas with similar landscape character, which are called National Character Areas (NCAs); previously known as Joint Character Areas (JCAs).
The 'Character of England Landscape, Wildlife and Cultural Features Map' produced in 2005 (see map below) by The Countryside Agency with support from English Heritage, was an update to a 1996 original. This map subdivides England into 159 NCA providing a picture of the differences in landscape character at the national scale.
Character descriptions for each of the NCAs were produced and published in regional volumes to highlight the influences determining the character of the landscape, for example land cover, buildings and settlements. The descriptions can be downloaded via the links below, each of the regional groupings breaks down into a longer list of NCAs sitting within each of the regional areas.
The NCAs are a widely recognised national spatial framework, used for a range of applications. Examples include the targeting of Natural England's Environmental Stewardship scheme and the Countryside Quality Counts project.
It is important to remember that the boundaries of the NCAs are not precise and that many of the boundaries should be considered as broad zones of transition. NCAs form part of the data gathered for a Landscape Character Assessment (LCA). LCAs provide more detailed descriptions at a local level within NCAs.
Updating the NCA descriptions
Natural England is currently working to update the NCA profiles and develop objectives for their future management. Part of the LiaNE project (Landscape – an integrating framework for Natural England) this work seeks to update the existing NCA descriptions to develop more concise and overtly evidence based profiles. It will also include new evidence on ecosystem services to define objectives for landscape quality and ecosystem services (called Integrated Objectives) which can then feed into CQuEL.
The wider LiaNE project seeks to address several important research questions:
What do we mean when we talk about biodiversity conservation at a landscape scale?
What does Natural England want to see happen to the historic environment and geology across England’s landscapes?
And how can we take a landscape scale and ecosystem-focussed approach to adapting to (and mitigating) climate change, so that we can retain value and function of different landscapes while accommodating inevitable changes?
National Character Areas map
- North East
- North West
- East Midlands
- East of England
- West Midlands
- South East & London
- South West
- Yorkshire & The Humber
