Characterising Historic Seascape
Historic Seascape Characterisation (HSC) maps and describes those historic cultural influences which shape present seascape perceptions across all of England’s marine areas and coastal land
HSC provides an archaeological understanding of time depth in the present seascape. It draws on a breadth of sources to assess the dominant cultural processes that shape the present. Many sources are map-based with national coverage, others include documentary and artistic references.
Many sources were not created with a cultural perspective in mind so need reinterpretation or re-emphasise and draw out their cultural implications. This is often true of ‘semi-natural’ environment datasets, where HSC focuses on the ‘semi-cultural half’.
From these sources, HSC assessors take a generalising approach to assess the character of historic cultural influences on our seascape and its variation in type and time depth as one moves from area to area.
They also record previous changes in cultural character where evidence exists. The character assessment and its supporting detail are mapped using a Geographical Information System (GIS) and documented in accompanying texts, using non-specialist language to assist communication. GIS mapping can respond to many differing queries on its content: HSC is truly a database rather than simply a map.
All landscape perceptions draw on known associations of place to give meaning to the visible. So too, seascape perceptions draw widely on what we know from across the spectrum from sea surface to sea floor: HSC’s interest in past human activity and its effects extends beyond merely the visible sea surface.
That broader scope is obvious at wreath-laying events over sites of past maritime disasters or when pilots guide shipping across the seemingly innocuous surface of dangerous waters. Accordingly HSC extends to land settled by people after the last Ice Age but now submerged, including that sometimes termed ‘Doggerland’ beneath the North Sea.
Most material remains from past marine and coastal activity lie on or beneath the seafloor as marine archaeology or forming our rich coastal heritage. HSC’s interest also extends to the areas of activities that produced those remains, for example historic naval battles or former maritime trading routes serving places whose port functions have long since ceased.
The past also reaches to the present, encompassing modern installations, for example, for oil and gas extraction and telecommunications. HSC has relevance to many modern issues too: past fishing activity has had considerable effects on present marine biodiversity.
HSC’s seascape perspective also covers coastal land which possesses a distinctly maritime character. Often this corresponds with a landward perspective but not always. Many churches on coastal headlands served as position-finders for mariners before satellite navigation.
A cultural understanding can enrich everyone’s favourite seascape wherever that may be. HSC’s use of GIS mapping also enables ready engagement with other map-based environmental data, for example from Natural England’s approach to multi-themed seascape assessment.
Further information is available on the roles and applications of HSC.
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