159 Use of Landscape Sciences for the Assessment of Environmental Security, 159-168 Petrosillo et al. © 2007 Springer. Printed in the Netherlands. LANDSCAPE CHARACTER AS A FRAMEWORK FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE ROY HAINES-YOUNG * , TOBIAS LANGANKE AND MARION POTSCHIN Centre for Environmental Management, School of Geography, University of Nottingham Abstract. In the context of widespread changes in European rural landscapes we underline the importance of considering threats to landscape functions relating to a sense of place, exemplified using the concept of landscape character. Illustrating our argument with examples from the English CQC (Countryside Quality Counts) Project we strongly suggest to move ‘beyond data’ in the strategic assessment of environmental change. Supplementing data on the extent and quantity of changes with contextual information against which to judge “whether these changes matter” in a particular location is vital for the practical use of change data in policy support and environmental assessments. Keywords: Landscape character; Land-use change; Environmental Assessment; Joint Character Area. 1. Introduction Rural landscapes in Europe are changing due to a combination of complex cultural, economic, environmental and social drivers that act at a number of spatial and temporal scales (Palang et al., 2004; Westhoek et al., 2006). This trend reflects the rapid and extensive changes in global land cover and associated degradation of ecosystem services at global scales, highlighted by ______ * Corresponding Author: Prof. Roy Haines-Young, School of Geography, NG7 2RD University Park, Nottingham, England; e-mail: Roy.Haines-Young@nottingham.ac.uk