Date of Award
2008
Publication Type
Doctoral Thesis
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Keywords
Applied sciences, Brownfield sites, Redevelopment
Supervisor
Dr. Edwin Tam
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Significant economic, legal and environmental concerns present obstacles to the redevelopment of thousands of brownfields in Canada, which have the potential to stimulate economic growth, community revitalization, and urban renewal. Individually analyzing the threats and opportunities associated with redevelopment of each single site results in spending of significant amounts of resources. To overcome this limitation, the dissertation has developed a methodology for effectively classifying brownfields on the basis of a broad set of factors including contaminants, infrastructure and ecological conditions, revenue opportunities, community pressure and anticipated land uses, so that they can be analyzed categorically. Building on a review of existing classification systems, this dissertation provides a structured means for integrating the objectives of multiple stakeholders (e.g., municipality, developer, regulator, community) in a comprehensive manner. The classification system is designed to be transparent and straightforward and accounts for different redevelopment opportunities. The brownfield sites are evaluated based on attributes of the site and their suitability towards various potential redevelopment opportunities. Even though the system is applicable to all the stakeholders, municipalities are given a special emphasis as they represent a balance among various stakeholders' interests in any brownfield revitalization effort. The applicability of the developed classification is demonstrated using an illustrative example of a site entitled ABC automotive service garage with detailed calculations and flow diagrams. This classification methodology enables the greater understanding of issues specific to different brownfield scenarios, encourages the effective use of policy and resources, demonstrates the tradeoffs and has the potential to serve as an educational and communications tool.
Recommended Citation
Dasgupta, Shovini, "A classification system for promoting and assessing redevelopment of brownfield sites" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 8038.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/8038