How on Earth...? What is brownfield and how can we regenerate it?

What is Brownfield land and how can we regenerate it?

Background and findings from the ROBUST project at Durham University

ROBUST was an EPSRC funded research project at Durham University (grant number EP/G028958/1) from 2009 to 2014. www.robustdurham.org.uk

The project leaders were Dr Karen Johnson and Prof Clare Bambra Partners included: Durham County Council The Easington Colliery Regeneration Partnership Institute for Hazard, Risk and Resilience Northumbrian water Ltd. CL:AIRE URS Ltd. Tarmac Ltd. Text and images by Steve Robertson ROBUST logo by Jonathan Asquith www.durham.ac.uk www.durham.ac.uk/ecs www.durham.ac.uk/ihrr

If aliens visited “Earth� they would think we chose a strange name for our planet.

Even without their advanced technology, they would spot that only 29% of the planet is dry land.

The fact that we named our planet after the dry bit would tell them that the land must be important to us.

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If they looked closer, they might be even more puzzled.

Some of the land looks cared for...

...but some of it looks like it’s been abandoned.

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Their sensors would show that some of the land was actually toxic to humans, plants, animals and other living things - including aliens!

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Listening in to our communications, they might hear people talking about something called “brownfield land” and wonder what all the fuss was about.

If they listened very carefully, they would spot that people with different accents mean slightly different things when they talk about “brownfield land”Ŝ 4

In some places (like the USA), when people say “brownfield land”, they automatically mean that the land is contaminated too.

In other places (like the UK), brownfield land isn’t the same thing as contaminated land, even though some brownfield land is contaminated.

This can be confusing!

Brownfield land isn’t necessarily brown either...

If it has plants growing on it, it can actually be very green and good for wildlife.

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Wherever we live, “Brownfield land� definitely means land that needs work doing before it can be used again. This is usually because the site has been used for something else first.

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Some research has shown that there seems to be an association between living in areas with large amounts of brownfield land and poor health.

Because we know that some brownfield land is contaminated, it might be the case that contaminants cause the problems.

Another possibility is that living near lots of “wasteland” can affect people’s mental health and sense of wellbeing.

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Fortunately, because there’s so little land on earth, lots of brownfield sites get re-used or re-developed.

High value sites are usually re-developed very quickly. This often includes sites in the centre of big cities.

Unfortunately, low value sites in less popular locations often wait a long time to be regenerated.

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Some brownfield sites are also contaminated (but only some!) and there are lots of different types of contamination that might be present‌

Any contamination will usually be discovered and cleaned up when a brownfield site gets redeveloped.

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Engineers have lots of different ways to deal with contamination, but they can be expensive.

The options include using bacteria to eat the contamination, burying contaminated soil safely, or even washing the soil to remove the nastiest bits!

This means that it’s only worthwhile to use most methods on higher value or more contaminated sites.

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That might leave our friends wondering what happens to all of the smaller, lower value sites where traditional methods are too expensive?

And the answer?

Is often...

...not a lot.

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The ROBUST project at Durham University is trying to change things.

It’s investigating cheaper ways to clean up small amounts of contamination...

£ £ ...and it’s also looking at the social and political impact of brownfield land.

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Once any small bits of contamination are cleaned up, small, low value brownfield sites could be brought back into use as parks or other green spaces.

That means we could see two sorts of health benefit from one piece of action.

Pollution down, wellbeing up!

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The ROBUST way of regenerating sites is simple but effective, and local communities work with councils, university staff and industry to regenerate a site.

Once a community has identified a potential site, they speak to their council and to the ROBUST team or other university researchers.

If a site might be suitable, the next step is to do some digging. That means digging on site for test samples and “digging� through historical records to find out more!

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If the investigations are positive, work can begin! Stage one removes any hard layers like tarmac or concrete…

…stage two creates an artificial soil from compost and clean, recycled industrial minerals that would otherwise be waste. The special mix can mop up any low level contamination too…

…and stage three adds grass seed before leaving things to settle in.

The end result is safe, useable green space!

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Our alien friends have crossed entire galaxies to investigate brownfield land, but for us humans, it’s now much easier to find out more!

Web: www.robustdurham.org.uk www.durham.ac.uk/ecs www.dur.ac.uk/ihrr email: karen.johnson@durham.ac.uk clare.bambra@durham.ac.uk 17