The Encyclopedia
of World Problems
& Human Potential

Derelict industrial wastelands

Name(s):

Unallocated industrial land

Unfinished industrial site

Degraded industrial land

Abandoned industrial sites

Brownfields

Incidence

Large cities have the legacy of vast areas of prime urban land occupied by abandoned industrial buildings built in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The intense debate over restoration or demolition often disables action. Social historians and certain architects want to preserve these sites as industrial heritage; for others the crumbling or rusting factories are worthless.

Claim

To raze the factories of our past is like clearing a cemetery or church for its land value. These are temples of labour, site of poetic urban value.

Broader

Unused land

Dereliction of the built environment

Aggravated by

Uncontrolled industrialization

Insufficient local industry planning

Increasing proportion of land surface devoted to urbanization

Strategy(ies)

Promoting study of industrial archaeology

Developing brown field sites

Value(s)

Reference(s)

Hutnik, Russell and Davis, Grant: Ecology and Reclamation of Devastated Land

Bradshaw, A D and Chadwick, M J: The Restoration of the Land: the ecology and reclamation of derelict and degraded land

Type

(E) Emanations of other problems

About the Encyclopedia

The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential is a unique, experimental research work of the Union of International Associations. It is currently published as a searchable online platform with profiles of world problems, action strategies, and human values that are interlinked in novel and innovative ways. These connections are based on a range of relationships such as broader and narrower scope, aggravation, relatedness and more. By concentrating on these links and relationships, the Encyclopedia is uniquely positioned to bring focus to the complex and expansive sphere of global issues and their interconnected nature.

The initial content for the Encyclopedia was seeded from UIA’s Yearbook of International Organizations. UIA’s decades of collected data on the enormous variety of association life provided a broad initial perspective on the myriad problems of humanity. Recognizing that international associations are generally confronting world problems and developing action strategies based on particular values, the initial content was based on the descriptions, aims, titles and profiles of international associations.

About UIA

The Union of International Associations (UIA) is a research institute and documentation centre, based in Brussels. It was established in 1907, by Henri la Fontaine (Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 1913), and Paul Otlet, a founding father of what is now called information science.

Non-profit, apolitical, independent, and non-governmental in nature, the UIA has been a pioneer in the research, monitoring and provision of information on international organizations, international associations and their global challenges since 1907.

www.uia.org

You are here

Derelict industrial wastelands

About the Encyclopedia

About UIA