Brownfield (Re)development and Climate Change Implications—Conflicting Dynamics between Pressure(s) to Reclaim and Capacity to Reclaim Contaminated Land

Dear Colleagues,

Due to heightened demands driven by government policies, planning authorities, communities, and evolving legislations, there is increasing pressure to reclaim land through redevelopment, with a shift from greenfields to potentially contaminated brownfields. Anthropogenic activities continue to generate new brownfields and contaminated sites, compounding the existing legacy from the industrial revolution. However, contaminated lands, such as landfills, pose a multi-dimensional pollution threat, affecting all four environmental spheres through gas and leachate emissions, creating a complex dynamic that can hinder reconstruction efforts on brownfields. This contradiction underscores the dilemma of whether to utilize or avoid contaminated brownfields for redevelopment. The use of risk assessment and management tools emerges as a crucial approach to navigate these conflicting pressures and identify suitable brownfield sites for redevelopment. Adding complexity to this dynamic is the influence of climate change, particularly its impact on water bodies. Brownfields and contaminated sites often exist near rivers, estuaries, and coasts, making water a vulnerable factor and a primary pathway for pollution transport. Climate change alters the water regime, with changes in precipitation patterns, increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, and shifts in drought and flood patterns. Consequently, the decision-making process regarding rebuilding or avoiding brownfields becomes even more intricate. Hence, the conflicting pressures to rebuild and not to rebuild on brownfield/contaminated lands is becoming even more complex, thereby necessitating risk assessment and management approaches to be rendered even more inclusive, holistic, and integrated than they have been to date. This Special Issue welcomes contributions from diverse disciplines and areas on any of the aforementioned challenges and implications.

Dr. Talib E. Butt
Guest Editor

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• contaminated land
• brownfields
• land reclamation
• redevelopments
• environmental risk assessment
• risk management
• climate change impacts
• climate change adaptation