The Comprehensive Evaluation Of Brownfield Redevelopment Project In Ethiopia

In the 21st century,most African countries are supporting their growing population and urbanization by implementing an industrial-led economy,which inevitably leads to the large use of many types of hazardous chemicals.Accidental leaks of these chemicals can lead to environmental pollution,which in turn turns the contaminated land into brownfields.As a result,the sustained growth of population and economy in Ethiopia has led to the acceleration of urbanization,and the need for brownfield redevelopment as Ethiopia's strategy to encourage sustainable urban development has become increasingly strong.Brownfield redevelopment achieves environmental sustainability by reducing environmental pressures and urban land scarcity.There is no general consensus on brownfields and its basic concepts in academia.However,the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency initially carried out a study on brownfield,which was defined as "due to the occurrence or predictable environmental pollution,it is very difficult to redevelop underutilized land".Brownfields exist in very huge numbers posing serious environmental and health risks in both developed and developing countries.Therefore,the problem of brownfield has attracted the attention of governments at all levels,policy makers,researchers,real estate developers,investors and scholars.According to the European soil data center,the potential number of brownfield in Europe is more than 2,500,000 in the United States is between 500,000 and600,000,and in Germany it is about 362,000.From the perspective of developing countries,brownfields are caused by waste materials from air pollution control facilities,sewage treatment plants,community activities,agricultural production,mining,commerce,industry and other interrelated issues such as urban expansion and residential segregation.Although developed countries have begun to assess and rehabilitate brownfields,developing countries have not yet realized the importance of reusing and regenerating brownfield sites.Therefore,unlike in the industrialized world,the concept of brownfield is not fully recognized in Africa,especially in Ethiopia.However,as population growth,urbanization and economic growth continue to intensify in Ethiopia,the redevelopment strategy of brownfield will be one of the strategies to encourage sustainable urban development in Ethiopia.Thus,the main objective of this thesis is to evaluate comprehensively brownfield redevelopment Projects(BRP's)in Ethiopia from the prospective of sustainability.Thus,the main studies and contributions of this thesis are mentioned as follows:1.The establishment of evaluation index system for brownfield redevelopment projects for Ethiopia from the perspective of sustainability: This objective focused on developing an evaluation index system for brownfield redevelopment project(BRP's)for Ethiopia in order to solve the improper urban planning.Thus,the established evaluation index system for BRPs provides users with informative reference values by employing the same process to obtain their own evaluation index system.Furthermore,the index system provides best opportunity for Ethiopia by devising an urban land policy and creates a strategy to contribute social,economic,financial,and environmental benefits.At the same time,it provides a foundation to solve environmental issues by involving all major stakeholders,including community citizens,environmentalists and government agencies so as to :(1)Satisfy community health concerns;(2)Make sites with poor ground conditions economically viable;(3)Minimize overall environmental damage;(4)Restore the land as a contributing element of the local ecosystem;(5)Return positive economic benefits to the local ecosystem(6)Prevent future contamination.2.Establishing grey system based model for BRP's evaluation: This objective focused on the application of grey-incidence decision making approach so as to deal with the implementation of brownfield redevelopment project in the remediated sites.Thus,under the umbrella of grey incidence decision making model and with the consideration of multiple-stakeholders,tight environmental and economic constraints,the proposed hypothetical scenario integrates different criteria from economic,social,environmental,technical and risk aspects into grey incidence decision making model and gives a useful guidance to manage brownfields in Ethiopia.3.Policy and suggestions for handling brownfield issues in Ethiopia: This objective focused on handling brownfield issues in Ethiopia from the perspectives of sustainability.The increasing Ethiopian population and economic growth leading to urbanization continue to increase the need to redevelop brownfields as a strategy of encouraging sustainable development of cities in Ethiopia.Thus,the understanding of sustainable development implies that redevelopment of brownfield not only solves the problems of site pollution and underutilization but also contributes to the future development of the social economy.Furthermore,brownfield redevelopment can make productive use of idle property,increase the value of surrounding property,and make the community sustainable.For that very reason,classification brownfield sites,pollution control methods of brownfield redevelopment,design principles of brownfield redevelopment from the perspectives of sustainability,and,brownfield redevelopment from the perspectives of sustainability in Ethiopia are studied.Finally,policy recommendation for brownfield redevelopment is proposed.Therefore,this thesis emphasizes the importance of urban structure for sustainable development,as well as the need to consider redeveloping brownfield sites and to establish a specific government policy framework.It also serves as guidelines to transform brownfields into greenfields.Finally,it contributes to achieve the 2030 UN sustainable development goals(SDGs),in particular,SDG 3,SDG 11,and SDG 13.The results of this study will help Ethiopia to understand the value of brownfield redevelopment projects from the perspective of sustainability.Therefore,this thesis has made new contributions to the development of BRP's knowledge system in developing countries,especially in Ethiopia.Further research is needed to summarize the current research results in Ethiopia and Africa at large.