Wudalianchi National Park, in the north (eastern) province of Heilongjiang, is acclaimed both nationally and internationally, being designated as a Biosphere Reserve under the Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB), as a Global Geopark and as an Important Bird Area (IBA). As a result of repeated monogenetic volcanic activity over a period of more than a million years, Wudalianchi supports a diverse range of vegetation types that demonstrate repeated colonisation and succession on newly formed volcanic terrain.

Lyndon Roberts (Landmark Senior Ecologist) accompanied Dr. Chris Wood, science advisor to the IUCN and Senior Lecturer in Heritage Conservation at Bournemouth University, on a visit to the candidate site in October, 2009.

Expert botanists and ecologists from China were invited to attend a 5-day Workshop, led by Chris and Lyndon, to review the scientific evidence and arguments in support of the Outstanding Universal Value of the nominated site. Following this visit to China, The Landmark Practice will be further involved in the final drafting of the formal nomination document.

Wudalianchi was added to the Tentative List (of World Heritage Sites) in 2001. Following its formal nomination in January 2010, an independent assessment will be carried out by advisory bodies, including IUCN.

Bernice with her 'South West Renewable Energy Champion’ award

Bernice Roberts, Principal Environmental Planner at the Landmark Practice was awarded a runner up prize at the Regen SW Green Energy Awards 2009, held on Tuesday 10 November at the Assembly Rooms, Bath. This annual event, hosted this year by the BBC’s Jonathan Dimbleby, is a celebration of the success of the South West’s renewable energy industry.

Bernice was nominated for the ‘South West Renewable Energy Champion’ category which recognises outstanding work of achievements of individuals that make a real difference to the development of renewable energy in the South West.

Wind turbine seminars

A short series of three half day workshops entitled ‘Supporting Planning Practice for Wind Turbine Developments’, held at the end of October at Government Offices South West in Bristol, have received very positive feedback and requests for repeat events

The workshops, organised jointly by The Landmark Practice, Regen SW and the RTPI, all focused on providing basic skills training to help local authority planning officers to address the specific demands of wind turbines in planning.

The seminars covered all aspects of wind turbine development, from drafting of planning policy, project inception, EIA screening and scoping and wind turbine technology basics, through an understanding of the developers perspective and dealing with community wind applications, to management of the development process and planning applications, wind farm conditions, dealing with appeals and sources of expert support.

Copies of the presentations made at the seminars will soon be avaiable at the RTPI Environmental Planning and Protection website.

Wind Tubines

The UK is subject to extremely challenging energy targets, which commit the country to producing 15% of all energy consumed in transport, heat and power generation from renewable sources by 2020, from a baseline of 2.25% in 2008.

The Government’s Renewable Energy Strategy (RES), published in July 2009, anticipates that on-shore wind generation will be required to provide a significant proportion of the new deployment to meet targets. This will represent a seven-fold increase in wind energy capacity.

The planning process to bring forward wind turbine development is potentially time consuming and costly to developers. The Landmark Practice specialises in preparation of Environmental Statements to inform applications for wind turbine developments.

We offer extensive experience of planning for wind turbines, and a one hundred percent success rate for the planning applications that we have managed to date. The Practice provides in-house capability in the following key disciplines:

• EIA Project Management
• Environmental Planning
• Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment
• Ecological Services

More information here

The three half-day sessions, led by The Landmark Practice, will be held over a period of 2 days.  Aimed at a

range of skill levels, the seminars will provide basic to technical skills training to help local authority planning

officers to address specific demands of wind turbines in planning. The workshops will provide technical information to planning officers preparing energy and sustainable development policy documents, and those dealing with planning applications for wind turbine developments; technical issues of wind turbine technology; key impacts e.g. aircraft radar, noise, telecoms, ecology; planning for community scale wind including understanding process, best practice and

liaison with support agencies; EIA screening & scoping; planning process & best practice, delivering mitigation, framing planning conditions.

For more information contact: Nicola Gough at network.manager@rtpi.org.uk, Gemma Melvill at

Gemma.melvill@thelandmarkpractice.com or Cheryl Hiles at chiles@regensw.co.uk

The University of Exeter has recently embarked on a programme of expanding and upgrading their student accommodation facilities. The Landmark Practice, and architects Willmore Iles, have been commissioned to provide detailed design as part of a design and build contract with Cowlin Construction.

Outdated buildings at Lafrowda

The project comprises development on 3 separate sites within the University Campus; Birks, Duryard and Lafrowda, covering a total area of around 6.5 ha. Over a period of 3 years, 19 new buildings will be constructed, together with associated landscape and open spaces, to provide in excess of 2,000 student rooms.

Key design constraints, which informed the design process, included the steeply sloping site at Birks; the proximity to a Grade II listed building on the Duryard Campus, and neighbouring residential properties. In addition, The University of Exeter is renowned for its beautiful campuses, and is a registered botanic garden and arboretum, providing 153 hectares of green space, home to some 11,000 trees. The University also houses the national collection of Azara, a South American evergreen plant, and also the wild conifer collection in association with the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. All three sites lie within areas which had been previously developed and most of the buildings and the landscapes which immediately surround them are now out dated and will benefit from comprehensive redevelopment.

Within the framework of these constraints and opportunities, and following close collaboration and consultation with the architect, other members of the design team, The University of Exeter, and Exeter City Council Planners, Landscape Strategies were developed for each site. These informed the Landscape Masterplans which combined the following principles:

Paving detail at Birks

• Creation of safe, welcoming and attractive environments for students, visitors and staff
• Creation of a series of different character areas throughout each campus, to provide students and staff alike with stimulating, seasonally dynamic and vibrant environments in which to study and work.
• Appropriate responses to existing trees and other vegetation providing significant character to the overall campus. This included maintaining and enhancing existing tree cover wherever possible.
• Provision of appropriate settings to the buildings in terms of layout, form, style and complementary materials

Lafrowda masterplan detail

• Creation of landscapes where pedestrian amenity is given greater emphasis than vehicle movement and parking.
• Reducing, as far as reasonable, any adverse visual impacts to surrounding residents, and to the wider landscape, by retaining boundary trees and vegetation and providing additional screen planting.
• Establishing a landscape which is practical, durable and cost effective to maintain.
• Enhancing connectivity with other areas of the campus, particularly through walking and cycling.
• Providing inclusive access to Disability Discrimination Act accommodation and key facilities wherever possible, within the limitations of the steeply sloping sites.

Detailed design at Birks

• Taking advantage of the mild climate to plant some more exotic species to continue the botanical tradition and strengthen the distinctive Southwest character of the landscape. Opportunities were taken to introduce new tree planting to strengthen the relationship of the proposed development buildings with their immediate parkland settings.
• Increasing wherever possible the biodiversity of the site and strengthening wildlife corridors.

• At Lafrowda, where possible, existing well established and high quality shrubs (which are located next to buildings to be demolished) will be selectively transplanted to a temporary holding area within the University grounds for transplanting at a later date into the planting layout of the proposed development.

Before/After photomontage

For the developments at Birks and Duryard, a brief Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA) was carried out, with the object of demonstrating to the LPA that full landscape and visual assessments to Landscape Institute guidelines were not required. To inform the LVIA, a photo-montage of the Birks proposals was constructed. During the planning determination period, the planners met on site and conducted a ‘balloon test’ which verified that our montage accurately predicted the proposed height and location of the buildings.

Planning permission has recently been granted for each site and construction is due to start on the Birks Campus this autumn.

An article written by Louise Redgrave, The Landmark Practice’s principal ecologist, has featured in this month’s edition of ‘In Practice’, the bulletin of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (IEEM).

The article describes the innovative great crested newt mitigation strategy that The Landmark Practice has developed along with David Wilson Homes at Marnel Park, Basingstoke

Download the IEEM article here

Wadi Dana, The Jordan Rift Valley

The Landmark Practice has been appointed to lead a year long pilot study of the impact of climate change on sensitive habitats in the Jordan Rift Valley. Working with internationally renowned climate change expert, Professor Sandy Harrison of Bristol University, Landmark will manage the project on behalf of the Jordanian Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature.

Jordan is vulnerable to climate change, with anticipated temperature increases of 1 – 2 °C, increased evaporation, reduced recharge of aquifers and shrinkage of grassland predicted to cause desertification of semi arid habitats. The objective of the pilot study is to inform strategic planning for conservation and management so that strategies for adaptation and mitigation of biodiversity loss can be designed and implemented.

The project will use computer-based models to predict ecosystem change. Simulations will be used to identify changes in major vegetation types and ecosystem adaptations, including in the distribution of dominant and indicator species. The pilot project will help to identify priorities for training local agencies in strategic planning, and practical measures to monitor and implement methods to manage changes in vegetation, carbon and water cycling.

Project manager and Principal Landscape Architect Chris McDermott commented

‘We’re delighted to be involved in work which adds to Landmark’s skills in addressing climate change in a positive way. This builds upon our land use planning and green infrastructure work and our experience in bringing forward renewable energy developments. This project will give us practical experience of the tools needed to contribute to the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP), to inform planning for climate change at a strategic and development management level.’

Photomontage of proposed wind turbines

The Landmark Practice’s recent success with wind power planning consents at Avonmouth has featured in Planning Magazine (10th April 2009 edition).

The article appears in the ‘Private Sector News’ section of the magazine.

Download article here

It was a challenging project due to the steepness of the site, the density of development and numerous protected trees, combined with the need to cater for students with a wide range of disabilities.

Luckily The Landmark Practice’s landscape architects like a challenge.

Intelligent tactile surfacing to aid partially sighted students

Working closely with the client and the design team, and with some hard work and ingenuity, we were able to provide deliverable designs of which we are very proud.

Please click here for more information about this project