ABSTRACT
Brownfield sites have frequently been regarded as liabilities rather than assets. Many brownfield sites are contaminated, derelict, remote, inaccessible or, perhaps more importantly, poorly regarded by both the development industry and the public policy community. This chapter presents a review of a number of the difficulties that are encountered in attempting to define brownfield and some suggestions are made with regard to ways in which brownfield can be classified and modeled. It provides a synopsis of the views of the stakeholders who are involved in brownfield redevelopment and illustrates at local level some of the difficulties and development potentials associated with brownfield sites. One of the major problems associated with understanding and developing brownfield sites is a consequence of the considerable range of types of site referred to as brownfield. For public policy makers the study has demonstrated that much of the brownfield resource is “hidden” due to problems of identification and definition.
