Evaluating the Significance of Criteria Contributing to Decision-Making on Brownfield Land Redevelopment Strategies in Urban Areas

Abstract: Brownfield land is one of the least exploited resources forurban development in a number of Eastern European countries. Establishing a rational strategy for redeveloping brownfields is an unambiguously complex task that requires considering a number of different economic, social, physical and environmental factors. The strategic decision-making has a long term impact on the quality of life, ecological balance and urban structure. Therefore, the paper is aimed at developing a comprehensive set of criteria that contribute to the redevelopment of brownfield land in urban areas. Itfocuses on six main development strategies that embrace creating residential, green, commercial, recreational activity and industrial areas or leaving land as a reserve. Geographic information system (GIS) tools are employed to collect thespatial information, obtain the initial set of criteria and derive the statistical data. Expert’s evaluations along with a statistical method of gauging the level of concordance of their opinion combined with Delphi method areusedfor determining significance of criteria within economic, social, physical (urbanistic) and environmental criteria groups. This studyestablishes the most significant criteria for implementing different scenarios of the brownfield land redevelopment in Vilnius, Lithuania.Developed framework will support the decision-making process in the brownfield land redevelopment aiding a sustainable urban planning