ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we address participation and engagement in landscape planning through examining how the public are included in the landscape character assessment processes. Landscape assessment is the stage of planning where knowledge of a landscape is attained, synthesized, and communicated in order to inform planning and management of the landscape. The rhetoric of landscape planning increasingly points to the relevance of individuals and groups who experience a landscape and their centrality for developing an understanding of the landscape. Yet in practice, planning often falls short of these aspirations. Through this chapter, we focus on six aspects central to participation in landscape assessment: scope, timing, representation, convenience, influence, and knowledge transfer. Rather than presenting guidelines for undertaking participatory processes, we show these six aspects as a means to reflect on practice and consider what a participatory process can be.
