The Hampshire Landscape - a Strategy for the Future
A rich and beautiful landscape
Hampshire has a rich, diverse and beautiful landscape. Its character has evolved over thousands of years as a result of complex interactions between nature - in the form of geology and climate - and human activity, in the form of land use, land management and social and economic forces. These interactions have created differences in the landscape which set each area apart from its neighbours and make all of them special to the people who live, work and visit them. To respect the variation in landscape character, we need to understand how the many influences on it combine to give different areas a unique ‘sense of place’.
We
cannot preserve the landscape without change. It is dynamic. Change is both
inevitable and necessary. The countryside of the future will serve many
different purposes in a rapidly changing world. Forces in the global economy
are likely to alter agriculture and the rural economy in the years ahead, with
consequences for the landscape. The landscape can be transformed very quickly,
for example, by climatic and economic forces. People have the power to change
it dramatically and over night. While change can enhance and enrich the
environment, it can sometimes erode the character of the landscape and cause
the loss of many wildlife habitats. There is a growing awareness of the impact
of human action on the natural environment, and this has led to widespread
public concern.
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This page is part of the Hampshire Landscape Strategy (summary) - for specific enquiries about the strategy or to request your own copy, please contact landscape@hants.gov.uk |
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