Brownfields

"Brownfield sites are abandoned or underused industrial and commercial facilities available for re-use. Expansion or redevelopment of such a facility may be complicated by real or perceived environmental contaminations. In the United States urban planning jargon, a brownfield site (or simply a brownfield) is land previously used for industrial purposes or certain commercial uses. The land may be contaminated by low concentrations of hazardous waste or pollution, and has the potential to be reused once it is cle
aned up. Land that is more severely contaminated and has high concentrations of hazardous waste or pollution, such as a Superfund site, does not fall under the brownfield classification. Mothballed brownfields are properties that the owners are not willing to transfer or put to productive reuse." (http://en
.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownfield_land)

(Example of brownfields, image author: Dumelow)

Brown fields are lands used to be used as industry field or commercial field and are lightly polluted. Some highly polluted lands are not brownfiles. Brownfields are not abandoned lands. They are potential developing land and can be of great value if developed successfully. Usually brownfields are located in the suburban industrial districts, and sometimes may be located in old residential districts when the lands are polluted by some service facilities.

Now more and more designers are trying to explore methods to reuse and redevelop urban brownfields because of the limitation of available lands. Redeveloping the brownfields can decrease the developing pressure of urban green fields. Usually developing brownfields need a longer progress time because it takes time for the fields to recover.

(Example of the reuse of brownfields project, image author:Scott Ehardt)