After reviewing the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government planning guidelines for Landscape Character Assessments (LCA), the intentions of these documents are clear . These guidelines provide a template for producing consistent reports that include input from professionals and non-professionals. These reports focus on the landscape and encourage community orientation from landowners, county councils and also affected municipalities. LCAs provide a comprehensive guide to the identity of landscapes and share valuable information to aid land development whilst being aware of the various values ​​the landscape can offer. As Landscape and Landscape Assessment has emphasised, "we have inherited our current landscape" and in doing so it is important for us to protect it in the most appropriate way whilst ensuring that we do not lose any historical, social or cultural value. In this essay I will examine the main guidelines for evaluating an LCA and the various categories within it, taking counties Meath and Carlow as examples. The main objectives in producing an LCA are as follows; enhance the positive attributes of the county by denoting what to preserve, improve or develop, denote all landscape features within the county, to ensure that all future changes keep the vitality of the landscape at its core and foster future sustainable development. The two LCAs I will look at cover counties Meath and Carlow. Both counties are focused on agriculture with forestry plantations in both. The landscape is systematically addressed by focusing on three classification guides; characters, values ​​and sensibilities. Landscape character can be defined as a landscape having identifying characteristics, values ​​are th...... middle of paper ......h is the Boyne Estuary and associated river corridor. This would be considered a high sensitivity area. Whilst within the Carlow LCA the focus is on lowlands beneficial to agriculture, without ignoring the River Slaney and surrounding river corridors. In conclusion, a landscape character assessment creates a reliable and easy to follow document that is aimed at both the working profession and the lay person with an interest in the landscape and its sustainability. I believe an LCA works well with the Irish landscape as it looks at how to preserve, conserve and support the landscape by developing it where possible. There is a strong focus on the character and values ​​of the landscape which keeps the best intentions at the heart of the development. It is a very flexible document as it looks at the historic site and development through settlement and sustainability.