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Stakeholders’ perspective on strategies to promote contaminated site remediation and brownfield redevelopment in developing countries: empirical evidence from Pakistan

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Abstract

Due to the potential of reducing negative outcomes of brownfields on environment and contribution to urban sustainability, brownfield redevelopment (BR) gained considerable recognition in the more recent era. Comprehensive literature shows that many studies proposed strategies to promote BR in developed nations; however, studies focusing on developing economies are scarce. Therefore, this study intends to identify significant strategies to promote BR in developing countries by taking the case of Pakistan. A comprehensive literature review and expert opinion were commenced to identify potential strategies. Data were collected from the main stakeholders involved in BR process through an empirical questionnaire. The findings revealed that “Low-interest loans and subsidies with the collaboration of government and financial institutions,” “Standardized definition, guidelines, and simplified brownfield process,” “Development of technical and infrastructure support,” “Create investors interest,” “Strengthening remediation technologies R&D” were the five most important strategies to promote BR in Pakistan. Theoretically, the novelty of the current study is to highlight the key strategies to promote BR in developing countries. Practically, the study facilitates governments, urban policymakers, environmentalists, and stakeholders to propose and implement appropriate strategies for promoting BR. Future studies can consider modeling the interactions between strategies and their impact on BR adoption.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully thank Natural Science Foundation in Shaanxi, China, for ostensibly supporting this study through the project “Research on Risk Allocation and Income Distribution Mechanism of Public-Private Partnership for Brownfield Regeneration Project” (2017JM7002).

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  1. School of Management, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Naveed Ahmad, Yuming Zhu, Jing Shao & Hongli Lin

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  1. Naveed Ahmad
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Ahmad, N., Zhu, Y., Shao, J. et al. Stakeholders’ perspective on strategies to promote contaminated site remediation and brownfield redevelopment in developing countries: empirical evidence from Pakistan. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 14614–14633 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-07990-3

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