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REMOTE SENSING APPLICATIONS: SURVEYS OF URBAN 
OPEN SPACE USING COLOUR INFRA RED AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY 
Stamatis Sekliziotis 
Dr. W. Gordon Collins 
Remote Sensing Unit 
Dept. of Civil Engineering 
University of Aston in Birmingham 
England B4 7ET 
There has been a dramatic change in the U.K. government 
policy regarding the establishment of new towns. The 
emphasis is now on the redevelopment of existing cities 
rather than on building new ones. 
This has resulted in an urgent need to carry out detailed 
surveys of all aspects of urban land use in the metropolitan 
areas. 
This study of open space is being carried out with the 
support and co-operation of the Greek Government; the 
Department of Environment, London; and the Metropolitan 
County Planning Department of Merseyside County. 
In the first stage a comparison was made between 1:10,000 
scale black and white and 1:10,000 scale colour infra red 
aerial photographs, to compare the type and amount of open 
space information which could be derived from these sources. 
The substantial advantages of colour infra red are outlined 
and these are now being used for a detailed study of eleven 
sample areas in the Merseyside Metropolitan County. 
Using a 20m x 20m grid cell size 2,500 sets of information 
per Km? are recorded. The results are fed into a computer 
to compile the statistics and a calcomp plotter is being 
used to compile digital maps to indicate the spatial 
distribution of the various types and conditions of open 
space. This information will form part of the essential data 
store required by the planners for the urban redevelopment 
programme. 
The photographic material was provided by Merseyside County 
Council with support from the Department of the Environment.