Landscape Approaches and Tools for Sustainable Development in the UK Rural Areas

The landscape concept provides a comprehensive, operational framework, method and tools for interpreting rural landscape and thinking about its multifunctional and sustainable future. From the perspective of landscape, the rural area has multiple values, involving multiple scales and stakeholders, and the management of its changes is complex. This paper focuses on the landscape paradigm shift of the rural policy, and the innovative landscape methods and tools of the UK, especially the development and application of landscape characteristics assessment. It carries out a systematic review and analysis of the needs and trends of the UK rural planning management policies, existing problems and challenges, and the exploration of new approaches. Multi-functionalism, reconstruction of landscape concept and the development of Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) have provided new ideas and methods for a broad, integrated rural landscape planning system.