Redevelopment modeling for land suitability evaluation of the suburb brown-fields using fuzzy logic and GIS, northeastern Iran

The present study aimed to generate a redevelopment model of suitability evaluation in the suburb brown-fields of western Mashhad, northeastern Iran. Redevelopment model assists urban municipalities and environmental agencies through making a cleanup place and a healthy environment. In this regard, using fuzzy logic and GIS, a place making procedure was applied to analyze ten effective spatial variables including elevation heights, slope, aspect, geological units, soil units, land covers, ecological resources, rainfall, proximity to roads, and proximity to water wells. By combining layers using the normalized fuzzy membership functions in GIS, a final map of land suitability evaluation was produced. According to redevelopment modeling, the prone zones of faults and floods hazards were eliminated from the suitability map of the brown-fields. Therefore, fieldwork survey indicted rational requirements of the land suitability to regenerate designable uses and services in order to design an upper hand redevelopment plan to conduct regional and local place makings. Estimation of model accuracy revealed a strong relationship (R-2) between suitability classes and real estate inventory using scatter plot equal to 0.83. Hence, the redevelopment model represented an appropriate accuracy in predicting the redevelopment expansion in the brown-fields of the study area.