Assessment of potential dominant factors for brownfield landscape regeneration: A case study in Xi'an, China

Rapid global urbanization has made brownfield reuse a vital issue for sustainable urban development. However, the regeneration of brownfield landscapes is a complex and lengthy process that requires a combination of factors to be considered. Their landscape regeneration must be planned and prioritized to utilize brownfield sites and achieve positive social benefits. Therefore, an urgent need must be established to establish an assessment framework and system for various types of brownfield landscape regeneration dominant factors to find different brownfield landscape regeneration dominant factors. This research developed an assessment model using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), covering five brownfield types: industrial, mining, military, transportation, and landfill in Xi'an, China. The potential assessment factors in three levels were analyzed for weighting to explore the dominant factors for the potential regeneration of brownfield landscapes in Xi'an. The results showed that, firstly, among the five first-level assessment factors, the physicality factor was the most important. Secondly, among the 16 second-level factors, the spatial and physical features of the visual landscape were the most critical. Finally, among the 40 three-level factors, spatial features were the primary factor. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to provide a specific assessment system and data analysis methods and ideas for the dominant factors of urban brownfield landscape regeneration in China and other regions based on the assessment framework with strong adaptability proposed by the AHP method, which can be flexibly adapted in the different areas and countries, to realize the sustainable development of cities in various regions.