Its not unusual to meet clients who have been sold an LVIA too early in the design process when they have no scheme to assess, when a technical note or other initial due diligence advice would have sufficed, and been cheaper, so here is your handy guide to finding the right landscape horse for your course.
|
What is It? |
When Do you Need It? |
What Does it Do? |
Benefits |
Cons |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LVIA Landscape and Visual
Impact Assessment |
Planning applications EIA development Complicated / sensitive
sites with numerous receptor groups |
Uses
defined sensitivity, magnitude and significance criteria to define the
comparative importance of identified likely effects |
Clearly defined criteria
that can be compared |
Expensive Jargony Inaccessible Can be unnecessarily
lengthy |
|
LVA Landscape and Visual Appraisal |
Planning applications Non EIA development Less complicated /
sensitive sites |
Less clearly defined.
Similar to LVIA but simpler and doesn’t need to use assessment criteria although this varies by provider |
Simpler, cheaper, easier
to understand and more accessible |
No defined criteria to
make comparisons |
|
Technical Note |
Pre app discussions Representations on more
complicated sites where vision document alone isn’t ‘enough’ |
Identifies risks and
opportunities Makes recommendations to
masterplan design Helps define developable
area Tells the story |
Cheaper than LVA 'Does the job' |
Generally needs to be ‘upgraded’
for an application |
|
Scribbles and Emails |
Development of masterplan proposals When you need to understand potential developable area |
Identifies opportunities and constraints Helps give realistic idea of developable area Identifies red flags |
Very cheap 'Does the job' |
No formal outputs |
Thanks Wendy. I find this very interesting and fully support the message that you are sending. My experience is that most people do not know the difference between LVIAs and LVAs.
ReplyDeleteMy slight slant on this is that I am forever being asked for full LVIA’s for small jobs. It might be something to do with the area I am in which is predominantly covered by the Kent Downs AONB, which triggers an immediate reaction that all development within it needs one, even one-off houses, and non-major edge of settlement resi schemes.
I do maybe five or so assessments a year, so I class myself as competent at doing them rather than an expert, but I always try to advise clients that LVA’s are a better option in most cases. My challenge as the author is to make these LVA’s as concise as possible, and don’t just become LVIA’s with a few word changes such as changing ‘overall significance’ to ‘overall effects’, and instead really try to nail down the actual issues. I often feel this can be done on smaller jobs with one analysis drawing, a few simple annotated photos, and a page of bulleted points, as opposed to 40+ pages of regurgitated guff! That doesn’t happen often though as I guess its easier to follow the formulaic LVIA approach (or close to it) rather than trying to do simple bespoke LVA’s, that will be challenged by authorities/statutory bodies for not “technically” following the prescribed GLVIA.
Rant over and hope you are keeping well 😊