REDEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL OF BROWNFIELDS: A-B-C CLASSIFICATION AND ITS PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Brownfields significantly influence the contemporary character of the majority of cities, towns and villages not only in the Czech Republic, but Europe wide. It is obvious that potential of individual brownfields to be redeveloped differs according to various factors. As a consequence of existence of thousands of brownfields classification of such sites has to be developed to enable their sorting and selecting for redevelopment. The majority of experts concerned with brownfields are familiar with the theoretical model of brownfield types A-B-C introduced by the Cabernet Project, funded by the European Union. This classification of brownfields according to their redevelopment potential could be applied in decision making on necessity of public funding for individual brownfields redevelopment projects. This proposal, however, has two caveats: The first one lies in the classification method used to sort brownfields into the individual categories. The second lies in applying the classification within the system of subvention programmes where regeneration has often different goals. This paper follows the theoretical debate on brownfields classification in its first part; the second part is devoted to analysis of the A-B-C model and its practical application on set of brownfields on the example of the South Moravian and Ústí Region (the Czech Republic). More than 20 various indicators were employed to evaluate redevelopment potential of studied brownfields.