Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
No longer was dereliction a narrowly defined
problem of industrial closures. In effect, the
fundamental economic and settlement
geographies of the older industrial nations were
being recast; the use of, and demand for, land was
changing profoundly, and as a consequence
derelict, vacant and otherwise waste land was
being created in many localities faster than it could
be dealt with. Large-scale movements, especially
out of the larger cities, left many inner urban areas
bereft of investment and with an accumulating
record of derelict and vacant land. This was an
intrinsic part of the 'inner city problem', which,
in Britain, was identified as one of the most severe
social and planning issues of the era.
that water pollution or significant harm is being,
or is likely to be, caused. 'Harm' refers to the
health of living organisms and the ecological
system of which they form part, to humans and to
property. Plans to establish public registers of
contaminated land were shelved for fear that this
might discourage development of brown-field
sites and cause land values to fall.
In broad terms, derelict, vacant or
contaminated land can present some or all of the
following problems:
A waste of a valuable resource. Allowing land to
remain unused may be both economically and
morally unjustifiable, especially where
development continues to take place on
greenfield sites.
An eyesore. Because of its topography and the
abandoned installations that often remain,
derelict and vacant land is invariably ugly. This
in turn can lead to further neglect or misuse.
A disincentive to development. Derelict sites blight
large areas, deter new investment and degrade
the wider environment for local communities.
A danger. This can include hidden shafts and
voids, flooded pits, unstable tips and a variety
of toxins with different levels of toxicity and
longevity.
THE NATURE AND SCALE OF THE
PROBLEM
Problems occur in trying to define the different
types of land embraced by this issue. Derelict land
in Britain is normally taken to be 'land so
damaged by industrial or other development that
it is incapable of beneficial use without treatment'.
However, this excludes categories such as land that
is 'naturally derelict' (e.g neglected farmland and
marshes), land that is damaged but subject to
restoration conditions, land still in sporadic use,
and vacant land. Vacant land is particularly
problematical. Although there is no statutory
definition, it was clear from the late 1970s onwards
that vacant (not necessarily derelict) land was a
serious problem in many cities (Civic Trust 1977;
Burrows 1978), a theme that was developed by
Coleman (1982) and later by Chisholm and Kivell
(1987) and Adams et al . (1988) in the context of
inner city redevelopment.
Subsequently, the related problem of
contaminated land became the focus of much
concern, and there was some legislative confusion
in the early 1990s. In Britain, contaminated land
was initially defined in terms of previous uses and
activities of a contaminative nature, but this was
changed in the Environment Act of 1995 to land
that appears to a local authority to be in such a
condition—because of substances it contains—
Related to these general issues are many specific
problems that may deter or delay the
redevelopment of individual sites. These can be
summarised as follows:
Land prices. Developers will normally base the
price they are willing to bid for a site upon the
value of the completed project minus their
development costs. Frequently, the price thus
calculated is below the price at which a vendor
is willing to sell, and sometimes the price is a
negative one. Government agencies have
applied a variety of subsidies and reclamation
grants to encourage development.
Cost of reclamation. Technically, most things are
possible; land can be reshaped and stabilised,
new drains can be laid, shafts can be capped
and toxins can be dealt with, but all of these
procedures are costly.
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