Gauging the outcomes of US brownfields revitalisation: A review of the impacts

Abstract

This paper reviews the existing literature on the beneficial effects of reusing brownfields to promote urban regeneration and renewal in North America. Studies included in the review represent a range of scales from the national to the local level and cover several methodological approaches. In addition to discussing shortcomings in this literature in differentiating economic benefits and impacts and measuring social welfare changes for guiding public policy, it suggests directions for improving the estimation of beneficial effects. These include the adoption of a wider variety of metrics, increased emphasis on the distribution of these effects, and a more transparent, broader area accounting perspective.