Landscape and visual assessments are now required for a wide range of development projects, particularly those proposed within attractive or sensitive landscapes. 
 
Local planning authorities are now increasingly requiring the submission of an assessment of potential effects on landscape character for relatively small scale projects - JEC has undertaken assessments for developments as limited as a single storey building housing a swimming pool, within an enclosed rear garden. 
 
JEC has developed and refined a methodology for landscape and visual assessments, developed through work undertaken for the Highways Agency in updating their own Design Manual for Roads and Bridges, and in accordance with the Landscape Institute's Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (GLVIA).  This allows for the exercise of professional judgement while being robust and defensible. 
 
Landscape assessments have been undertaken recently for projects including large scale polytunnels and greenhouses in Kent, a proposed link road in Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire, new primary and secondary schools in Hertfordshire, new housing sites in Kent, Hertfordshire and Leicestershire, and motorway service areas in Yorkshire. 
 
JEC can also undertake similar assessments for urban areas, looking at townscape, rather then landscape, effects and this has included the assessment of effects on Conservation Area character, for sites in Reading, Woking and Watford.