Sustainable solutions to facilitate brownfield redevelopment projects in emerging countries – Pakistani scenario

• Published in: Land use policy 2021-10, Vol.109, p.105727, Article 105727
• Main Authors: Ahmad, Naveed, Zhu, Yuming, Ullah, Zia, Iqbal, Muzaffar, Hussain, Kramat, Ahmed, Rahil Irfan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brownfield redevelopment projects; Brownfields; Clean up; Delphi method; Developed countries; Developing countries; Industrialized nations; Land use; LDCs; Literature reviews; Local government; Municipalities; Redevelopment; Sustainability; Sustainable solutions; Urban policy; Urban sustainability
• ISSN: 0264-8377; 1873-5754
• DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105727

Considering the increasing number of brownfields across the globe, brownfield redevelopment projects (BRPs) have gained significant attention. Currently, most of the developed countries are welcoming BRPs and consider it an effective urban policy instrument. Whereas, the adoption of BRPs is in its beginning due to confronting challenges. Therefore, identifying sustainable solutions that could facilitate BRPs in developing countries is necessary. By taking a case of a developing country, Pakistan, this study empirically proposes a novel methodological framework composed of three steps in which sustainable solutions were identified from the literature review, filtered through the Delphi method, and later modeled and classified through ISM-MICMAC approach. The results found that ‘defining brownfields and simplifying BR process’, ‘BRPs benefits awareness in senior management’, ‘strategic support from developed countries’, ‘integration of policies, people and process’, ‘local municipalities focus on development of rules and regulations to avoid brownfields’ are major sustainable solutions. These results provide a sound understanding of sustainable solutions that could be useful to expedite the adoption of BRPs in developing countries. The government can create an active role by adopting these solutions to foster urban sustainability through BRPs. •This study identifies the main sustainable solution to facilitate brownfield redevelopment projects in the Pakistani context.•Developing a novel methodological framework composing of Delphi method, Interpretive structural modeling, and MICMAC.•Five major solutions were prioritized and compared with earlier studies.•The current study has guidelines for policymakers to facilitate BRPs in the Pakistani scenarios.