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Abstract

Brownfields are dilapidated, and environmentally contaminated lands often found in urban areas that serve as a blight to the community. Although there are numerous benefits associated with brownfield redevelopment, there are many steps involved in brownfield redevelopment. These include, but are not limited to, identifying potential brownfields, choosing which sites deserve future investigation, and designing appropriate redevelopment proposals. This thesis sought to help with the second step of pinpointing which brownfields deserve additional attention, by creating a brownfield assessment tool that would focus on the potential impact of brownfield sites, should they be redeveloped. Since funding for brownfield sites is often the limiting factor in conversations for redevelopment, this thesis wanted to ensure that they are allocated in an impact maximizing manner. Furthermore, this thesis differs from other brownfield assessment tools by focusing on the pre-project phase of brownfield redevelopment. By creating a tool that can be used independent of a specific redevelopment plan, this thesis is able to accomplish an initial screening of brownfield sites. With these two main points in mind, this thesis developed an indicator-based methodology that was applied to several brownfield sites in New York City. It was found that the tool, although very accessible, suffered in terms of efficacy due to the choice of indicators. Additionally, although a project-independent methodology has its merits, project-mindfulness in brownfield redevelopment is to not be ignored. The results of this thesis highlight the iterative nature of indicator selection, as well as the collaborative nature of brownfield assessment tools.