How do stakeholders and legislation influence the allocation of green space on brownfield redevelopment projects? Five case studies from Switzerland, Germany and the UK

Abstract

AbstractDisused railway sites have become a focus of redevelopment projects in many European cities. As sites that offer economically lucrative opportunities for building projects, as well as important habitats for threatened pioneer species, they are contested ground. We compared the allocation of green space in five urban development projects on disused railway sites from Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom. We show that the distance to the city centre, the involvement of the stakeholders and the current legislation are important in explaining the quantity and type of green space allocated. In particular, the farther away from the city centre, the higher the proportion of apartments planned and the higher the allocation of green space within the public space. Our comparison also illustrates that ‘conventional’ green spaces are of major importance for the public acceptance of urban redevelopment projects and are highlighted by developers as an important image factor. We identified three strategies to protect the valuable natural sites in such railway brownfields: protection of the pioneer habitats in situ, reinstallation of similar habitats on roofs (ex situ) and safeguarding of the natural process of succession. For future brownfield redevelopment projects we would encourage guidelines that take into account the special kind of nature on such sites and guarantee planning reliability for investors. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.