Brownfields Redevelopment and the Quest for Sustainability

Concerns over urban blight, environmental degradation, climate change, inner-city unemployment, and a host of other socio-economic and environmental problems have forced policy makers, planners, and others interested in the future of our planet to take a closer look at ways to foster more sustainable urban development. Drawing on the author's extensive research, this book examines the role that brownfields redevelopment is playing and can play in our quest for sustainability, focusing primarily on efforts in the US and Canada to build better places for urban dwellers to live, work, and play. It commences by reviewing the nature and scope of the brownfields problem and puts it into a sustainability context, both theoretically and in terms of real costs and benefits. The book then looks at how brownfields are being used as spaces for developing an array of residential, recreational, and employment-oriented projects that have breathed new life into the urban environment. For a more sustainable future, however, the author argues that more still needs to be done to connect sustainability objectives and processes to redevelopment efforts. This is a study of the nature of urban brownfields redevelopment in North America over the last two decades. It outlines the reasons behind the emerging success of recent brownfields redevelopment. It critically examines how affected stakeholders have overcome the numerous challenges facing brownfields redevelopment.