Post-industrial landscapes as drivers for urban redevelopment: Public versus expert perspectives towards the benefits and barriers of the reuse of post-industrial sites in urban areas

Generally located in advantageous locations near city centers or along waterfronts and supported by existing infrastructure, post-industrial landscapes constitute environmentally impaired resources that need to be returned to productive uses, and reintegrated into the surrounding community. However, the complexity of any post-industrial redevelopment project, evident in the number of different ways in which it is described both in the literature and by designers and developers who work and/or analyze these landscapes make post-industrial redevelopment difficult to accomplish. Considering the purpose of the present research, it was necessary to use several methods throughout the investigation, including quantitative and qualitative research methods divided in two main sections: literature review and case study research. Considering the collected data and the performed statistical analysis, it is possible to conclude that, thought there are strong relationships between several of the identified benefits and barriers, the survey revealed distinct perceptions about the benefits and the barriers associated to post-industrial redevelopment between the general public (i.e. redeveloped post-industrial site users) and redevelopment experts, idea which is of utmost importance considering that designers tend to be primarily focused on aesthetics, leaving society's other main goals to secondary status, and that planning and landscape redevelopment activities are increasingly becoming less the result of design and more the expression of economic and sociocultural forces. Moreover the performed analysis showed that while for the general public the main barriers to post-industrial redevelopment are the potential for biological, physical and chemical impacts, and the uncertainty about liability and cleanup issues; for experts the main barriers are the high redevelopment costs; and the challenges in obtaining financial support. Regarding the main benefits while for the general public, the creation of open green spaces and the creation of jobs are the most important ones, for experts they are associated with the possibility to reduce urban sprawl, and encourage recreation and connectivity. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.