of the Derelict Land Grant from central 
government is now being increasingly geared 
towards the requisition of sites for housing 
and industry in priority areas. 
Any upsurge in the economy would now 
favour a move towards Hi-tech industries that 
would benefit both aesthetically and in terms 
of communications from a green belt locality. 
Necessarily this encourages migration from 
city centre areas, which are being reclaimed 
for housing, in itself a slow process. 
Dudley seems to have the least flexibility 
with regard to reallocation of its industrial 
land and premises. Cave's (1984) Planning 
Survey reveals that only 4% of existing 
industrial premises are less than 5 minutes 
'drive time' away from the motorway network, 
whilst 26% are more than 15 minutes away. 
Nearly 75% of Dudleys industrial sites are 
subject to this marketability of vacant 
property proportionally affected by 
accessibility. In as much as current market 
conditions dictate the need for an 
alternative use for vacant industrial land, 
over 50% of the properties surveyed in the 
Black Country appear to be unsuitable for 
residential development. 
A need is revealed for future trends in 
dereliction to be monitored carefully, 
especially since the WMCC which initiated 
policies to arrest the problems has now been 
abolished and therefore decentralized. In 
terms of monetary and temporal economy, 
opposed to traditional ground survey methods, 
remote sensing lends itself to such 
information gathering, presenting derelict 
land data in a site and situation context. 
The definition and classification of derelict 
land 
Derelict land is problematic in that it 
suffers from many different definitions. A 
precise definition has proved elusive for 
some time and many variations exist, 
(Oxenham 1966, Thomas 1966) . These are 
reviewed by Collins and Bush (1969), to 
arrive at 'land which has beens so damaged by 
extractive or other industrial processes that 
it gives offence to the eye, and is likely to 
remain so until subjected to special forms of 
restoration'. This definition has been 
refined by the DOE (1975) to 'land which has 
been so damaged by industrial and other 
development that it is incapbable of 
beneficial use without treatment'. 
Changing, and more specific, definitions 
affect classifiction formats; thus the 
revision and extension of the DOE's 1974 
classification of derelict land required 
further data collection. Many local 
authorities began to use aerial photography 
to cope with the extra information 
requirements. 
When reviewing local authority aerial 
surveys from 1968-1973, Denton (1973) found 
that 45% used aerial photography for derelict 
land surveys, and that this application was 
eigth out of nineteen listed uses. 
The Remote Sensing Unit at Aston has been 
awarded county contracts for aerial surveys 
of the West Midlands, Merseyside, Glamorgan 
and Nottinghamshire. The operational system 
that has evolved clearly demonstrates the 
effectivness of aerial photography in such 
surveys. 
It should be noted that the classification 
scheme used throughout this paper is that of 
the WMCC. They have departed from the DOE 
definition and consider 'any land without a 
beneficial use' as derelict. Waste land in 
rural areas is exempt, but potential future 
areas of dereliction, such as active 
extractions and tipping sites are included. 
Table 1 gives an example of how this 
definition affects statistical returns. 
Table 1 Comparison of how differing 
definitions affect classification figures. 
Derelict Land Classification 1974 1980/82 
(hectares) 
WMCC Derelict/Waste 
Land 
DOE classification 3793 4779 
WMCC classification 12029 10547 
Dudley Derelict/Waste 
Land 
DOE classification 951 1428 
WMCC classification 2841 2445 
The amount of derelict and waste land is 
underestimated with reference to the WMCC 
definition and classification by 31% and 45% 
in 1974 and 1980/82 repectively. Such 
diversity suggests that both definition and 
classification are in need of revision or 
standardization, and in consideration of the 
WMCC abolition, both the new district 
councils and the DOE should perhaphs pay heed 
to Dueker (1971) who states that 'if however 
decentralization is necessary due to budget 
considerations, compatible classification 
schemes must by utilized'. 
Method 
The methodology consists of several stages 
and has been developed to fulfil a two-fold 
application, with a preliminary 
classification by aerial photography being 
used to gauge the classification accuracy of 
satellite data: 
1. A review of data quality 
2. The definition of the study area 
3. Classification set-up for the aerial 
survey. 
4. Area classification from aerial 
photography for 1971 and 1980 
5. Change detection between 1971 and 1980 
6. Training site selection from aerial 
photography for satellite data 
7. Classify area with the satellite imagery 
8. Compare classifications and assess their 
relative accuracies. 
Accurate dyeline copy ground survey maps 
are available for the whole of the WMMC at a 
scale of 1:10000. These are the results of 2 
surveys; 
1. June 1980. Derelict Land in the WMCC; 
County Planning Department; AA Cave (1983). 
2. December 1984. Vacant Industrial Property 
in the Black Country; County Planning 
Department; AA Cave (1984). 
The sites, identified on field survey maps 
at a scale of 1: 2500, have been transferred 
to 1:10000 scale clear film maps, together 
with the site reference number. Site data is 
maintained on file on the WMCC mainframe 
computer, analysis is carried out using the 
FILETAB, GIMMS and SPSS packages. 
The aerial survey utilized 2 sets of low 
and medium altitude panchromatic aerial 
photography, totalling 78 prints, flown in 
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