The Contribution of Economic Science to Brownfield Redevelopment: A Review

Urban planners increasingly perceive Brownfield redevelopment (BFR) as a strategic priority. BFR not only allows suppressing some of the nuisances caused by derelict and contaminated lands, it also contributes to revitalizing dense urban areas and preventing the undesired effects of urban sprawl. This literature review analyzes how economists have contributed to removing some of the barriers that prevent or restrict BFR. A first contribution was to demonstrate the economic benefits of BFR. Economists also contributed to the development of multidisciplinary decision support tools used to rank BFR projects in terms of long-term sustainability and social welfare. They contributed to the design of institutional arrangements, including regulatory and economic instruments, that can facilitate the engagement of stakeholders in BFR projects. Our literature search combines the use of a standard and a systematic literature review to identify relevant papers scattered in very diverse publications. We show that there is significant scope for better integration of economic analysis within the multidisciplinary mainstream of BFR literature and provide pathways for future research. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2020;16:184-196. © 2019 SETAC.