Brownfield infrastructures

Abstract

Contrary to 'greenfield' -that is, farmland, forest, or pasturelands that have never seen development (Adams & Watkins, 2002) -the concept of brownfield seems to have two main derivations, from United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US) planning strands. On one hand, the Article 55 "Meaning of development and new development" of the UK Town and Country Planning Act 1990 defined brownfield as previously developed land that is currently not in use (Alker et al., 2000). On the other hand, the United States Environmental Protection Agency's definition incorporated the contamination of land -"abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination" (Johnson, 1996) -which implied that all brownfields are contaminated. Contaminated or not, since the early 1990s many studies have tried to identify the main features of brownfield sites through a wide range of definitions, interpretations, and perceptions, as well as to propose different typology according to criteria of localization and purpose (Alker, 1998; De Sousa, 2008;Hollander et al., 2010). Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to the meaning of brownfield in terms of 'infrastructure' in the urban environment.The exploration of the meaning of 'brownfield infrastructures' may be an innovative way to understand how different types of abandoned infrastructures can enable urban transformation processes. In order to do this, it is necessary to also examine the notion of infrastructure and, more generally, the relationship between infrastructure and the development processes. The definition of infrastructure -that is, the basic systems and services that are necessary for a country or an organization to run smoothly, such as buildings, transport, and water and power supplies (Vitiello, 2017, 325) -goes beyond the engineered systems that provide energy, information, irrigation, sanitation and water. This definition also covers facilities -such as barracks, hospitals, and schools -and utilities such as electric, gas, telecommunication, wastewater, and water, along with streets, railway roads and highways. Infrastructure may be hard or soft 1 and works at many scales, from decentralized solar systems to highly organized global networks, such as logistics and shipping. Its meaning has recently been extended to digital infrastructure in reference to computer systems and the internet (Halegoua, 2020).Infrastructure systems have largely shaped and reshaped urban form and urban life over time, being key innovators in planning (Neuman & Smith, 2010). Communication, energy, transportation (including ports) and water and waste man-This is a draft chapter. The final version is available in: M. Finger, Y. Numan (Eds.) The Elgar Companion to Urban Infrastructure .

Research on the Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Provincial Urban Network from the Perspective of Local Governance—Based on the Data of the Top 100 Enterprises in Four Categories in Fujian Province

“…At present, in terms of an urban analysis, research has been performed from the perspective of global cities to analyze the problems of urban gentrification and capital concentration in the process of capitalist urban revival [37][38][39], from the perspective of urban design and public space transformation to guide the transformation of the city to a healthy city [40][41][42], from a historical perspective to explore the issue of infrastructure construction guiding the future of the city [43] and from the background of urban sprawl to discuss the issue of brownfield/urban open space mixed use [44,45]. However, there is still a lack of research on the characteristics of the network between cities and the governance of the flow space in general.…”

The Population Flow under Regional Cooperation of “City-Helps-City”: The Case of Mountain-Sea Project in Zhejiang

“…[33]. Urban redevelopment, e.g., on brownfield infrastructure, needs to be cautious to the neoliberalism and its unequal and exclusionary impacts [34].…”

Digital Technologies and Public Policies Applied to Green Cities

“…Urban commons represent the idea that urban communities should have access to and be able to use public spaces, urban land, and infrastructure to produce and support a variety of commodities and services essential for the sustainability of those populations, particularly the most vulnerable populations. However, the dismantling of infrastructure systems, which may be in line with current neoliberal urban regeneration trends, has consequences for society's wellbeing [10]. Another dimension that should be addressed is gentrification [11].…”