Measuring site-level success in brownfield redevelopments: A focus on sustainability and green building

Abstract

This research has met the following four objectives within the broader research topic of characterizing and quantifying success in brownfield revitalization: (1) to define 40 total indicators that define and determine the success of brownfield redevelopments in four categories: environment-health, finance, livability, and social-economic; (2) to use these indicators to develop a partially automated tool that stakeholders in brownfield redevelopment may use to more easily assess and communicate success (or failures) in these projects; (3) to integrate “green” building as an important aspect of successful brownfield redevelopments; and (4) to develop this tool within the framework of a specific multi-attribute decision method (MADM), the analytical hierarchical process (AHP). Future research should include the operationalization and application of this tool to specific sites. Currently, no such indicator framework or automated tool is known to exist or be in use. Indicators were chosen because of their ability to reduce data into comprehensible measurements and to systematically measure success in a standardized fashion. Appropriate indicators were selected based on (1) interviews with prominent private developers and national leaders in brownfield redevelopment, (2) a review of the relevant literature, (3) objective hierarchies created in this project, and (4) the ability for each indicator to serve goals in more than one of the four categories described above. These were combined to form the Sustainable Brownfields Redevelopment (SBR) Tool. A survey was conducted to serve as a preliminary assessment and proposed methodology for judging the validity of the SBR Tool. Professionals in the academic, private, and public sector were asked to provide an evaluation of the management tool and a weighting of the relative importance of each indicator and each of the four categories listed previously. Experts rated the tool at 7.68 out of 10 suggesting that this framework will be useful in evaluating these redevelopments upon completion and in formulating initial site plans and building design.