Contaminated sites and land use acceptability

Brownfield redevelopment provides opportunities to build sustainable cities for the future. However, potential benefits of brownfield redevelopment are underestimated whereas costs are overestimated; brownfields are therefore barelyreused. Besides, economic valuation methods are struggling to determine ex ante benefits and in particularly collective benefits and those which are related to non-direct use. In order to address these limitations, we develop an original methodological framework which combines economic valuation techniques that are available. Focus groups and discrete choice experiment are first employed to assess individual risk attitudes and preferences, and then multi-criteria decision analysis is used to compare individual preferences with collective preferences in order to determine a consensual solution in the case of a brownfield redevelopment project. This methodological approach should improve ex-antestakeholders’ involvement and hence social acceptability of land-use plans.