Two EMU professors are looking across Michigan to study how coastal brownfield sites – contaminated land in proximity to the state’s Great Lakes shoreline – can be cleaned or contained and made economically productive again. Brownfields are “abandoned, idled or underused industrial or commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.”

Professors Bill Welsh and Robert Jones, both of the Department of Geography and Geology, will study coastal brownfield redevelopment projects in order to help elected officials and other policymakers learn the keys to success. The professors will make specific use of geographic information systems (GIS) and other geography-oriented technology under a two-year, $298,000 grant from the Michigan Sea Grant College Program.

This project is based on a specific research model – integrated assessment – that examines the causes, consequences and potential corrective actions related to the clean up and redevelopment of coastal brownfields. Understanding factors of past successful brownfield redevelopment will help establish best practices.

Integrated assessment requires comprehensive research involving natural sciences, social sciences and policy and management perspectives, and focuses on solutions that are scientifically and technically sound as well as practical.

“The idea is to learn from past experiences in order to improve future redevelopment efforts. We want to see where we’ve been and what worked and what didn’t, and then create tools that will help us improve redevelopment success,” Professor Welsh said.

A database of sites was acquired from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality based on projects that have received funding over the past 20 years from various state brownfield redevelopment programs, Professor Welsh said.

Michigan has 41 coastal counties with hundreds of brownfield sites that can benefit from cleanup and redevelopment. Currently, no one in Michigan has done this type of work on this level to collect and analyze data about brownfields. To the best of their knowledge, no one has ever undertaken such a comprehensive examination of coastal brownfields in Michigan. The project will help to address how the state spends its money and how it uses its limited resources, said Professor Jones.

Brownfields represent a complex challenge faced by many urban communities in Michigan. Redevelopment of these sites reduces pressure on non-urbanized land, which is especially valuable along the Great Lakes shoreline.
Currently, Professors Welsh and Jones are compiling and analyzing data, researching background on brownfield redevelopment projects in Michigan and assessing how to store and make accessible the information. Once completed, the results of the project will be made available to researchers and policy makers in other states.