Abstract:
A GIS database for a study area (96 Km^) within the county of Bedfordshire
(southern England) was established to provide statistical and mapped information on
the distribution, extent and change through time of land-cover and landscape features
between 1968, 1981 and 1991. A major aim of the project was to investigate the
character of the countryside designation zones operating in Bedfordshire in terms of
detailed local landscape. The effectiveness of the policies for the countryside was
assessed in terms of the landscape changes monitored in each area.
To this purpose a census of landscape features was carried out by means of
aerial photographic interpretation and the differences between the three dates were
measured. The classification scheme included 19 land-cover types (area features), 6
linear features and 6 point features.
A Digital Terrain Model was used to analyse the land-fonn of the study area
and its influence on the distribution of land-cover types.
The countryside designation zones were digitised from the Local Plans and
processed with the land-cover maps.
The results of the project are represented by maps, tables and charts of
landscape features for each date and their changes between each date, in the study
area and in the countryside designation zones.
The study area is shown to be intensively managed since agro-pastoral and
developed land cover most of its area. Countryside designation zones showed a strong
agro-pastoral character, except for the Sites of Special Scientific Interest and the
National Nature Reserve. Generally, over the two decades analysed, both the study
area and the countryside designation zones suffered changes in landscape features.
