Specific Skills and Adapted Support

Although urban brownfields hold significant inherent potential, especially in limiting urban sprawl, a large number of sites are still awaiting a regeneration project. Moreover, many of these projects only partially or superficially address sustainability principles. Hence, concrete courses of action are required to support the evolution of current practices towards increased sustainability. These courses of action, which rely on specific skills and adapted supports, require a complementary approach. In other words, strategies should be conducted consistently at the territorial, metropolitan, and project levels. In this regard, the present chapter provides a series of courses of action to be implemented at these levels. Our aim here is to foster the sustainable transition of metropolitan areas, and more precisely brownfield sites, into lively neighbourhoods.

Urban Brownfield Regeneration Projects: Complexities and Issues

Because of urban brownfields’ inherent complexity related to their very nature, as well as their intermediate scale—the neighbourhood—regeneration projects are not a spontaneous process. Indeed, an urban brownfield regeneration project may encounter several issues, which can be obstacles, barriers, or resistance, that we classify in four types: sociocultural barriers, governance involved by the multiplication of actors, legal and regulatory constraints, and deterrent costs. While these issues contribute in turn to complexify brownfield regeneration projects, they are not insurmountable. Finally, to overcome urban brownfield regeneration projects’ complexities and issues, we argue that there is a need to implement real project dynamics. To this end, we provide four potential approaches to foster the creative development of tailored solutions.

Introduction

The regeneration of brownfields in European metropolitan areas represents an important potential to mitigate urban sprawl by increasing density within the existing built fabric and to revitalize portions of cities at the neighbourhood scale. Although research and projects on urban brownfields are active, several issues still need to be overcome, especially regarding the sustainability transition challenge. Based on this observation, we introduce the present book, which proposes an integrated and theoretically grounded approach to highlight how urban brownfield regeneration projects—and the neighbourhood scale that they entail—can effectively contribute to the urban sustainability transitions of metropolitan areas. It is structured in two parts that are both distinct and complementary: the first part aims to clarify the framework of the investigations with definition and analysis and the second part presents a deep analysis of processes, project dynamics, and sustainability assessment approaches of urban brownfield regeneration.

Urban Brownfields: Origin, Definition, and Diversity

Brownfield is a polysemic notion that encompasses a whole range of diverse spaces. Although there is no official definition at the European level, an emerging consensus has arisen around the urban character of brownfields and the need for intervention. Indeed, their location within metropolitan areas represents a strategic opportunity to densify and rejuvenate the urban fabric at the neighbourhood scale. Hence, we propose a definition of urban brownfields that is flexible enough to optimize the potential development of abandoned sites and precise enough to enable framing the discussion. Then, we take a look at the diversity of urban brownfields in European metropolitan areas by briefly explaining the factors that cause a site to become a brownfield and then attempting to classify different types of urban brownfields. The proposed classification aims to create a non-exhaustive reference framework by offering in-depth knowledge of the urban brownfield and regeneration projects phenomenon across Europe, without setting its meaning in stone.

Conclusion

The inventory of urban brownfields in post-industrial European metropolitan areas and the study of regeneration projects highlight the absolute necessity of these resources for the sustainability transitions of urban territories and the undeniable complexity of this type of process. Given the complexity of the variables involved, there is no simple and unambiguous recipe to make urban territories evolve towards more sustainability. In a synthetic way, we recall how this book examines the strategies and methods of regenerating urban brownfields through the lens of sustainability at the neighbourhood scale. Then, we question how the urban brownfield phenomenon will evolve in the decades to come. Finally, we argue that it is through inter-disciplinarity of approaches that neighbourhoods in transition can contribute, on their scale, to the mutation and adaptability of urban territories.

The Multiple Potentials of Urban Brownfields

The phenomenon of urban brownfields is significant throughout European metropolitan areas. In this chapter, we assess, both in qualitative and quantitative terms, the inherent potential of urban brownfields to provide a relevant and substantial densification strategy for metropolitan areas. First, we explore the various opportunities for improvement of the built environment offered by urban brownfields in terms of environment, society, and economics, which are the core principles of sustainable development. This analysis is, inter alia, a juxtaposition between urban brownfields and the compact and polycentric city model, adapted to the metropolitan area. While brownfield regeneration appears to be a relevant densification strategy, it nevertheless implies that a sufficient reserve of land is available to engage policymakers. Thus, we attempt to estimate the urban brownfield stock in three countries: the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and France. The data subsequently serves as a basis for our calculation of the theoretical construction potential of brownfield sites.

Afforestation of Urban Brownfields as a Nature-Based Solution. Experiences from a Project in Leipzig (Germany)

In Leipzig, despite strong growth, reurbanization and re-densification, in the last decade it has still been possible for the city to green brownfields with a new type of green space: urban forests. The background to this was of course the city’s decades of shrinkage and the emergence of numerous brownfields. The city of Leipzig started urban redevelopment in 2001 and pursued the strategy “more green, less density” in its planning. This included the creation of traditional and new green spaces as well as temporary uses. New green space concepts were also experimented with, including pocket forests and urban forests on larger, inner-city brownfields. This pursued several objectives: the forest was meant to contribute to improving the urban climatic and air-hygienic situation, to enhance the value of adjacent areas, create new recreational opportunities and contribute to increasing biodiversity. Another aspect is also the financing, for instance, the afforestation of brownfields is the cheapest way to create greenery. As a result of almost ten years of interdisciplinary monitoring of the project, it can now be stated that urban forests fulfil the objectives and are accepted and used by the population. Urban forests do not constitute an independent or new type of nature-based solutions they create new ecosystems from existing abandoned, brownfields, or neglected area.

Evaluating suburban brownfield redevelopment incentives

Suburban contaminated property (brownfield) redevelopment projects in peripheral or lower-density municipalities often do not have the same expected returns as urban brownfields in dense cities like Toronto, which are aided by high residential sale prices. A survey (n=17) of stakeholders’ opinions found that brownfield redevelopment costs and complexity had increased since changes to environmental and planning regulatory frameworks were made. Existing financial incentives for brownfield redevelopment were reviewed in selected Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) municipalities. A pro forma analysis of a hypothetical mid-rise residential construction scenario was developed to test the current incentives against current market conditions (condo sale prices) in these municipalities, which were often not sufficient to make a project feasible in areas of low condo sale prices. A combination of incentives was found to be effective, and was recommended to be implemented by the Town of Whitby, which has many brownfields but no financial incentives

Evaluating suburban brownfield redevelopment incentives

Suburban contaminated property (brownfield) redevelopment projects in peripheral or lower-density municipalities often do not have the same expected returns as urban brownfields in dense cities like Toronto, which are aided by high residential sale prices. A survey (n=17) of stakeholders’ opinions found that brownfield redevelopment costs and complexity had increased since changes to environmental and planning regulatory frameworks were made. Existing financial incentives for brownfield redevelopment were reviewed in selected Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) municipalities. A pro forma analysis of a hypothetical mid-rise residential construction scenario was developed to test the current incentives against current market conditions (condo sale prices) in these municipalities, which were often not sufficient to make a project feasible in areas of low condo sale prices. A combination of incentives was found to be effective, and was recommended to be implemented by the Town of Whitby, which has many brownfields but no financial incentives