Reversing Urban Sprawl: A Reclaimability Index Approach for Reviving Downtown Brownfields

摘要

A key step to promoting urban revitalization is the reclamation of abandoned or underutilized contaminated sites, also known as brownfields. Effective brownfield redevelopment approaches require environmental, socio-economic and urban planning dimensions to be integrated into policies. The most common approach to incorporate such dimensions is to evaluate specific redevelopment projects for a single site and decision support tools have been developed for that purpose. In this study, we present a decision support tool to prioritize brownfield redevelopment options based on their location characteristics as a basis for developing redevelopment priorities. This tool incorporates and aggregates location-specific variables into three indices: socioeconomic, smart growth and environmental. Its application to the city of New Haven, Connecticut as a case study demonstrates a general prioritization scheme that can be used by urban planners and public agencies to develop strategic plans for brownfield redevelopment, incorporating funding and local considerations.