Search Results (48)

The strategic prioritization of inefficient industrial land (IIL) redevelopment is critical for directing capital allocation toward sustainable urban regeneration. However, current redevelopment prioritization suffers from inefficient identification of IIL and ambiguous characterization of redevelopment potential, which hinders the efficiency of land resource allocation. To address these challenges, this study develops an AI-driven redevelopment prioritization framework for identifying IIL, evaluating redevelopment potential, and establishing implementation priorities. For land identification we propose an improved YOLOv11 model with an AdditiveBlock module to enhance feature extraction in complex street view scenes, achieving an 80.1% mAP on a self-built dataset of abandoned industrial buildings. On this basis, a redevelopment potential evaluation index system is constructed based on the necessity, maturity, and urgency of redevelopment, and the Particle Swarm Optimization-Projection Pursuit (PSO-PP) model is introduced to objectively evaluate redevelopment potential by adaptively reducing the reliance on expert judgment. Subsequently, the redevelopment priorities were classified according to the calculated potential values. The proposed framework is empirically tested in the central urban area of Ningbo City, China, where inefficient industrial land is successfully identified and redevelopment priority is categorized into near-term, medium-term, and long-term stages. Results show that the framework integrating computer vision and machine learning technology can effectively provide decision support for the redevelopment of IIL and offer a new method for promoting the smart growth of urban space. Full article

With the acceleration of the global urbanization process, more and more industrial plants are being abandoned, which puts great pressure on urban ecology and land resource management. These abandoned industrial spaces not only lead to persistent pollution problems, but also exacerbate the urban heat island effect, leading to a worsening microclimate. To address these issues, the concept of green infrastructure (GI) has emerged as a sustainable ecological restoration strategy, and it is an important tool for urban renewal and industrial land transformation. In this study, the landscape environment of the industrial site of Henrichshutte in Germany and the surrounding industrial plant was taken as an example, and ecological restoration and plant landscape design were carried out using the GI concept. Two climate simulation tools, ENVI-met and WindPerfect DX, were comprehensively adopted to simulate the environment of the site in detail. Based on an analysis of the potential temperature, PMV, wind speed, and UTCI data of the site, it was demonstrated that the plant landscape improved the microclimate of the industrial plant. The results show that the reasonable allocation of plants can effectively reduce surface temperature and building temperature, increase air humidity, alleviate the local heat island effect, and enhance the thermal comfort of the human body. The simulation results highlight the practical application value of the GI concept in improving the ecological benefit, social function, and landscape aesthetics of industrial land. This study provides a new idea for the ecological restoration and environmental optimization of urban industrial land through the combination of green infrastructure and plant landscape design, and emphasizes the important role of green infrastructure in alleviating the urban heat island effect and promoting the sustainable development of urban landscape spaces. Full article

In the context of land scarcity and high-density urban areas, the adaptive reuse of abandoned historical industrial buildings plays a critical role in achieving sustainable development goals. This study proposes a sustainability assessment framework for the adaptive reuse of industrial buildings as exhibition spaces within the context of high-density urban development, addressing multiple dimensions of sustainability, including the building’s physical structure, economic factors, environmental impact, social considerations, and governance. The framework consists of 55 design indexes, categorized into 15 subcategories and 5 main categories. We conducted a survey of experts with experience in high-density urban renewal design and implemented a weighting analysis to identify priority intervention measures for industrial building redevelopment in the era of urban stock. Finally, a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation was carried out on ten cases in Shenzhen where industrial buildings were converted into exhibition spaces over the past 12 years. The findings reveal the following: (1) “Reuse of old architectural spaces” is the most critical category to prioritize, and, at the indicator level, “adaptability and efficiency of building reuse”, “public participation in the renewal process”, “cooperative operation structures”, and “planning vision” are identified as the four key influencing factors. (2) The functional layout, historical value, and richness of public amenities in the transformed industrial buildings have a significant positive impact on the evaluation results, while the building’s construction time and floor area do not significantly affect public post-evaluation. (3) Younger and more highly educated groups tend to view the transformed exhibition spaces as tourist attractions, particularly expressing satisfaction with the repurposing of the Kinwei Brewery and OCAT B10 New Hall, and consider the adaptive reuse of industrial buildings to promote sustainable urban renewal (SUR). This study provides concrete policy recommendations and practical guidance for the adaptive reuse of both new and existing industrial buildings, contributing to the creation of sustainable urban environments. Full article

In the municipality of La Granja d’Escarp, for over thirty years, an important natural cement factory was in operation. In 1876, the Girona family, who were businessmen and bankers from Barcelona, opened the factory with modern industrial facilities. It included kilns, mills, and crushers, alongside warehouses, a small railway for internal transportation of the various materials used, and even a housing area for workers. The neighboring Ebro River allowed distribution by river transport at first. Later, with the use of railways, transport to consumption points was possible. This industrial complex became a center of significant importance in Catalonia in the production of cement, which was used for building hydraulic and civil works. During the first decade of the twentieth century, the factory stopped its activity and the facilities were abandoned. Nowadays, this industrial heritage site is in a state of neglect, without any kind of protection or maintenance. In turn, this has caused the collapse of some buildings in recent times and the loss of historical value of the architectural ensemble. We have carried out initial geomatic research, which has highlighted the constructive properties of the kilns. We have also tested five samples from different buildings using XRD and TGA/DSC, which showed the use of lime mortars in their construction. This is the first study to be carried out at this site, with the aim of showing the historical importance of the ensemble. The goal of the study was to highlight the value of this industrial heritage site and illustrate that it was once a pioneer in the production of natural cement and a driving force for Catalonia. Full article

In recent decades, in Italy, as in the international context, the phenomenon of disused industrial buildings has acquired considerable dimensions, with inevitable social, urban and economic repercussions. At the same time, the cultural debate has increased awareness of the problem and the strategic role that disused industrial sites can play in meeting new needs. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the abandoned Montedison industrial complex in Porto Empedocle, Sicily. It examines the history, current state, and potential future uses of this former industrial site. The research is well-documented, incorporating historical context, architectural details, and considerations for urban redevelopment. This paper effectively discusses the broader issues surrounding the reuse of abandoned industrial areas, making it relevant beyond just this specific case study. Insights are drawn from qualitative research, with evidence derived from document sources, archival records, direct participants, and semi-structured interviews. The main objectives achieved are as follows: expanding knowledge of the decommissioned site; proposing; from a quality and sustainability perspective; a model for managing the decision-making process; identifying some project ideas to initiate the decision-making process. The understanding of historical industrial buildings is relevant to the present and enables the implementation of urban transformation processes consistent with contemporary challenges. Full article

Resource-oriented cities are faced with the problems of the decline of traditional industries, exhaustion of resources, and wastage of space. Faced with these problems, urban renewal has become an important role and is widely used in the reuse of old and abandoned spaces. As a historical witness of the industrial revolution and urbanization process, coal mine industrial heritage not only has the value of material heritage but also carries rich historical and cultural information. However, with the adjustment of industrial structure, much coal mine industrial heritage has gradually lost its original production function and become neglected idle space in cities, and industrial buildings and equipment in these spaces have been abandoned or dismantled. The study takes the Wangfeng Mine site in Jiaozuo City, Henan Province as an example, combined with the urban development history and current situation of Jiaozuo city, it discusses the remodeling strategy of industrial heritage space from the perspective of urban renewal. Firstly, through case analysis, historical data sorting, and field research, the study integrated the historical development context of the Jiaozuo coal mine site and its impact on the urban spatial pattern, secondly, discussed the practical problems in the reuse process of industrial sites, and finally proposed specific spatial remodeling strategies based on the conjugation theory. This included determining how to deal with the three pairs of conjugated relations between protection and development, function and ecology, and history and modernity so as to make the spatial remodeling strategy of industrial sites more scientific and sustainable. To promote the sustainable and healthy development of urban industrial heritage space. Full article

The ongoing effects of climate change have led to a rise in global temperature, significantly reducing snow cover and resulting in the abandonment of numerous ski areas across Switzerland. As a result, many ski lifts have been decommissioned and left to deteriorate due to lenient local regulations. To address this issue, this paper presents a case study approach to repurposing steel trusses from abandoned ski lifts for a new structural application within the building industry. The design, sourcing, and construction of a new load-supporting column are described, focusing on reusing the ski lift steel trusses as a whole, without dismantling them into their components. After collection, these elements are adapted to comply with current building standards. By pouring out the hollow structure with the recently developed building material Cleancrete ©, a new load-bearing structure is developed. A comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) demonstrates the environmental performance of the steel–Cleancrete hybrid construction, which achieves a global warming potential (GWP) of 536.58 kg CO₂-eq. In comparison, alternative designs using wood and concrete exhibited GWP values of 679.45 kg CO₂-eq, +26.6%, and 1593.72 kg CO₂-eq, +197.02%, respectively. These findings suggest that repurposing abandoned ski lift structures can significantly contribute to sustainable building practices, waste reduction, and the promotion of circular economy principles. The process outlined in this paper holds potential for future applications, particularly in the reuse of other steel components, ensuring continued circularity even as the supply of ski lift structures may dwindle. Full article

How to efficiently and greenly dismantle abandoned buildings and reuse them is a dilemma facing the building material industry’s low-carbon objective. However, relevant studies ignore the influence mechanism of altruistic preferences of enterprises on green dismantling technology in supply chains. Driven by filling this theoretical gap, this paper firstly integrates reciprocal altruism theory and the Stackalberg game method and constructs a construction and demolition waste (CDW) recycling supply chain system consisting of a recycler and a remanufacturer, in which enterprises’ altruistic preferences are considered. The main theoretical outcomes of this paper are as follows. (1) In the case of unilateral altruism, enterprises’ altruistic preference behaviors help in increasing the green dismantling technological level and the amount of CDW recycling. Under the mutual altruism model, the influence of the recycler’s altruistic preference degree on the amount of CDW recycled hinges on the remanufacturer’s altruistic preference degree. (2) The utility of the enterprises and the green dismantling technological level are optimized under the mutual altruism model. (3) In a system of unequal power, unilateral “goodwill” by the follower will have a negative effect on their own interests; the leader plays a crucial role in facilitating equal cooperation and realizing win–win situations. This paper enriches the reciprocal altruism theory in waste management. It also helps in providing guidance for the recycler and remanufacturer in making operational decisions. Full article

In accordance with the programme of closure works and the implementation of ecological spatial rehabilitation in the area of the Slovenian coal mine Trbovlje–Hrastnik (RTH), there is a great opportunity to exploit shallow geothermal energy from water and ground sources. In the RTH area, there is great energy potential in the utilisation of underground water and heat from the earth. In our research, we have focussed on the use of geothermal energy with heat pumps from groundwater (water/water system) and from ground collectors and wells up to a depth of 150 m (rock/water system). With the water/water system, we have an average of 2.7 MW of thermal energy available, with the rock/water system having 7.5 kW of thermal energy from a 150 m deep well. With the rock/water system in particular, the development of an industrial zone in the RTH area can also provide for a greater demand for thermal energy. The thermal energy obtained in this way is utilised via heat pumps to heat and cool commercial, residential and industrial buildings. The utilisation of shallow geothermal energy can make a major contribution to carbon neutrality, as the use of geothermal energy has no negative impact on the environment and causes no greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of the methods used to analyse heat storage in aquifers of abandoned coal mines, to represent these storages in RTH with a basic mathematical–statistical inventory of what is happening in the aquifer, and to investigate the possibility of using shallow geothermal energy with the help of modelling the use of shallow geothermal energy. The results and analyses obtained can make an important scientific contribution to the use of geothermal energy from abandoned and closed mines. Full article

Marble has been a prominent natural stone exploited since ancient times, commonly employed as a building material and ornamental stone. However, the disposal of waste generated from marble extraction, particularly fine sludge, poses significant environmental challenges for the dimensional stone industry. The difficulty in managing and recovering these materials, exacerbated by local regulations and the absence of suitable recovery protocols, often leads to landfilling. This issue is exemplified by the Carrara Marble Basin in the Apuan Alps (Tuscany, Italy), where more than half of the extracted marble remains as quarry waste or debris. Modern cutting technologies have intensified the production of finer materials and sawing residue, known as “marmettola”, ranging in size from fine sand to silt. The disposal of these materials, commonly through landfilling or abandonment, has profound environmental repercussions. This research primarily aimed to carry out a preliminary physical, mineralogical, and morphological characterization of the fine waste and sludges generated from Carrara Marble exploitation. The findings reveal the high granulometric uniformity of the materials, and a nearly pure carbonate composition, suggesting potential for reuse in various industrial sectors such as paper, plastics, and pharmaceuticals production. Full article

This manuscript attempts to classify typical errors occurring during the design, production, and use of prefabricated and prestressed concrete girders and slabs manufactured in Poland for industrial buildings since the 1950s. Although the cases discussed concern Poland, most of them have a universal character, and as such are also found in other countries. The defects and errors are illustrated with examples and the causes of their occurrence are also discussed. A method of classifying flaws based on the period of their occurrence was proposed. Most of the examples discussed were encountered by the authors during their professional work. In most of the presented cases, repair was possible, enabling further safe operation. This paper shows how important it is to periodically check the technical condition of prestressed structures and how common and at the same time trivial mistakes may be made by designers and contractors of this type of structure, despite the experience of over 70 years of their mass use. The quality of modern prestressed structures is undoubtedly higher. Using the experience of previous generations, designers and contractors abandoned the less durable post-tensioned concrete lattice girders. Errors, if they appear, are most often at the stage of implementing new products or are the result of poor workmanship or disregard for unfavorable weather conditions. Full article

Mine heat hazards have resulted in large amounts of high-quality coal resources in deep that cannot be mined. The mining industry is paying more and more attention to the extraction and utilization of geothermal energy in mines, while at the same time reducing the underground temperature to realize co-extraction of coal and heat. In addition, coal mines tend to burn large amounts of coal to heat mine buildings and provide hot water for workers’ daily baths, creating operating costs and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, it is of great significance to investigate the feasibility of extracting geothermal energy to provide the daily heat load for mines. Currently, there is little research on the feasibility of geothermal energy extraction and utilization in productive mines instead of abandoned mines. In this study, according to the actual situation of Xinhu mine in eastern China, a combined geothermal water system and heat-pump heating system is proposed, aiming to effectively realize mine cooling and geothermal exploitation and utilization. The geothermal storage capacity in the area is analyzed, and an economic analysis is developed. The economic analysis indicates that the main factors affecting the feasibility of the system are the number of mine users, the distance from the geothermal production well to the mine buildings, and the coal price. The research shows that the economic efficiency of the system is better when the heating scale is larger and the distance is smaller. As coal prices rise, the combined geothermal water and heat-pump heating system will be more economical than traditional coal heating. If a mine has 2000 workers, the application of this system can prevent 334.584 t of CO₂ emissions per year. Full article

This article borrows Heri Lefebvre’s space production theory to discuss the cultural governance of East Asian cities and how culture is used as a means of spatial organization in a structured way. Text analysis, field investigation, and comparative analysis are used as the main research methods to explore the specific social production process of Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and Hong Kong’s The Mills. The social production processes of these cultural spaces took place in the same period, having some similarities, and they mostly involved transformation from old factories and old buildings in urban areas. However, the cultural governance strategies in Taipei and Hong Kong are different. On the one hand, the Taipei government’s continuous cultural policy has spawned diverse cultural spaces rooted in factory renovations and unified under the authorities’ imagination of “Creative Taiwan”. A benign model of cultural heritage protection has been formed in terms of community participation, industrial development, and ecological conservation in Taipei. On the other hand, Hong Kong’s cultural governance pays more attention to landmark cultural projects from the perspective of tourism development. Mainly driven by private capital, The Mills completed the transformation from a factory to a cultural space. The Mills’ transformation process is also the epitome of the decline of Hong Kong’s textile industry. In addition, different cultural governance strategies and cultural policies in Taipei and Hong Kong affect the dominant forces in the social production process of cultural spaces. The main driving force of cultural spaces in Taipei is the local government, while the production of cultural spaces in Hong Kong involves more stakeholders, such as private developers, non-profit organizations, etc., and presents the characteristics of a multi-path and multi-participant historic building activation process. Moreover, at the regional level, the abandonment and reuse of industrial buildings in Hong Kong and Taipei are rooted in the migration of local traditional manufacturing to mainland China with cheaper labor and the upgrading and transformation of local industries. This comparative study complements the global picture of cultural space production and also provides references for other areas. Full article

The phenomenon of shrinking cities is a significant challenge faced by many cities today. To more accurately identify the leading factors driving urban shrinkage and develop rational recommendations, precise identification and classification of urban shrinkage has become an indispensable part of the process. This paper focuses on the typical population loss region of China’s three northeastern provinces, using 497 identified physical cities as the basic research unit. Based on multi-source geographical big data and utilizing the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model, spatial modeling of population in the three provinces of northeast China was conducted, resulting in spatialized population data, followed by identification and classification of shrinking cities among the physical cities. Cities with a total population change rate of less than 0 are defined as shrinking cities. In cities where the total population change rate is greater than 0, cities with both a city shrinking area ratio and a decreased population ratio greater than 5% are defined as locally shrinking cities. Based on this, 90 (18.1%) shrinking cities and 118 (23.7%) locally shrinking cities were identified within the three provinces of northeast China. The phenomenon of urban shrinkage is distributed throughout various regions, mainly in smaller cities located near larger cities. According to the standards of the urban shrinkage classification model, the spatial pattern of population loss regions was divided into four types, identifying 13 (6.3%) global type, 111 (53.4%) concentrated type, 64 (30.7%) perforated type, and 20 (9.6%) edge type. Analysis of shrinking cities based on their classification revealed that the main reasons for urban shrinkage are the decline and dissolution of large industrial enterprises, abandonment and neglect of buildings, and unreasonable design planning in cities. Economic development and inward population flow can be promoted in shrinking cities by creating job opportunities, improving living standards, developing transportation, adjusting urban planning or concentrating urban population, as well as vigorously developing urban center areas. These measures can provide support for the revival and development of shrinking cities. Full article

The transition from nearly zero-emission building (NZEB) to positive energy building (PEB) models is a new trend, justified by the need to increase the efforts to address the climate change targets and the ambition for a clean energy transition in the construction sector. In line with this scenario, this study assumes that PEB may be applied to meet climate change targets and promote new approaches to urban regeneration plans. It focuses on the functional and energy regeneration of abandoned buildings, considering that many abandoned European buildings are often located in a strategic part of the city. Therefore, the research question is as follows: to what extent can abandoned buildings be converted into a PEB? What would be the meaning of this new association? In order to answer this question, this study developed a procedure to transform an abandoned building into a PEB, implemented through a case study of a former Italian industrial site. Findings pointed out the variables impacting PEB configuration and were used to support a discussion, stressing how rethinking abandoned buildings as PEB may drive new trends to synchronise the socio-technical evolution of energy infrastructure and urban regeneration plans. Full article