Trading-off Economics and Sustainability in Optimizing Brownfield Redevelopment

The reuse of underused or abandoned contaminated land, so-called brownfields,is increasingly seen as an important means for the reduction of land consumptionand natural resources. For a long time decisions on suitable reuse options havebeen predominantly shaped by economic considerations. Recently issues of sustainabledevelopment have gained more and more importance, and have added complexity tothe topic. Using a novel simulation-optimization framework for spatially explicit planningand integrated assessment of brownfield redevelopment (BR) options, this study demonstrateshow the trade-off between economic goals and sustainable development in theregional context may influence what is chosen as the most appropriate reuse option.A multi-criteria genetic algorithm allows for determining optimal configurations of mixedland-use, given the constraints in terms of the targeted composition of land-use classes.The results of a case study at a former military site near Potsdam show that the significanceof weightings controlling the trade-off of objectives may vary with the settings ofthe optimization, namely with the given scope of planning.