Toward Sustainable Brownfield Redevelopment Using Life-Cycle Thinking

The redevelopment of brownfields has become an important issue, as the number of contaminated sites has been increasing. However, a comprehensive regulatory framework is lacking that includes urban planning and a sustainability plan at the national level to support brownfield redevelopment in Taiwan. Few studies have explored sustainable management objectives to reduce the environmental impact of increasing economic value of the proliferating redeveloped brownfields. This study proposes a feasible definition for “brownfield” in Taiwan and analyzes the remediation goals to enable their inclusion in future land-use categories for urban planning. In order to rank the various options for brownfield development by sustainability, this study evaluates the external costs and benefits based on the environmental impact. Finally, the brownfield sustainability index (BSI) was developed to determine the feasibility of sustainable redevelopment relevant to the different land reuse scenarios. For the selected study site, the option of green land with solar energy (ground P-Si panels) was determined to be the best choice compared with the commercial, residential, and industrial scenarios. This study provides a framework for planning brownfield assessment strategies to address the current soil and groundwater remediation and land use policy issues in Taiwan.