• The Moorland Plateau is high, open and exposed, and dominated by extensive tracts of dwarf-shrub vegetation such as heather. This area contains the AONB's grouse moors and is internationally important for nature conservation.
• The Grassland Plateau is also high and exposed and predominantly agriculturally improved grassland and wet pastures enclosed by dry stone walls.
• The Upper Valley landscape includes the valley head basins extending into adjacent moorland. This landscape contains several of the AONB's reservoirs notably Scar and Angram.
• The Middle Valley occurs between the upland and associated moorlands upstream and the broader, flatter Lower Valley further downstream. The Middle Valley as at Pateley Bridge, for example, is a more wooded landscape with many broadleaved ancient woodlands alongside watercourses and on the valley sides.
• In the Lower Valley (around Birstwith for instance) drystone wall field boundaries are replaced by hedges and where damp grasslands, studded with individual trees, frequently occur.
• The Vale and Upland Fringe landscapes mark distinct zones of transition between the arable area of the Vale of York and the harsher, bleaker moorlands to the west.
• Wharfedale (northern side) is a predominantly pastoral landscape ranging from grasslands and woodlands bordering the river to 'in bye' nearer to the moor edges.

In 2003 Harrogate Borough Council undertook a more detailed assessment.  This work identified 40 distinct landscape character areas in the AONB.  This more detailed assessment is designed to provide guidance for local planning authorities and other organisations to ensure that landscape character is respected as the countryside changes in response to new challenges.