Brownfield and Redevelopment in China - Research Paper Example

Environmental Protection Agency). It is further defined as” a parcel of land contaminated by one or more hazardous substances, but has potential to be reused once it is cleaned up” (China Development Gateway, 14 January 2011) . In the past several years, hundreds of polluting enterprises have been relocated away from city centers in Beijing, Shenyang, Guangzhou and other large Chinese cities. As a result, a large number of abandoned industrial brownfield sites can potentially be "recycled" for contemporary urban use, appropriate to the safe levels achieved after the clean-up.

These could be anywhere from abandoned factories or manufacturing plants, factories or gas stations where substances were once used. The Brownfield become an obstacle for city expansion. Aside from this, Brownfield causes environmental risks due to possible pollutants that may still be present, yet redevelopment of these sites will contribute to urban development, create jobs, and develops green spaces and working land. Seeing the importance of these properties for development, China had to ask the World Bank for assistance in developing a sustainable program of development for these areas.

As an insight, the history of the problem will be presented, the types of hazardous elements and contaminants found in abandoned areas will be categorized, the actions taken by the government is shown, and the recommended solutions formulated by World Bank is presented. Brownfields started in the Great Leap Forward era of 1950s wherein many of the state-owned factories were constructed within the city perimeter. (Zhang Xian, January 22. 2011) Reports said that these factories used antiquated equipments and had improper management and inadequate environmental services.

As such, there was much pollution in the area, and in some instances pollution was 100 times higher than regulations permit. Report said that some underground organic pollutants have developed into non-aqueous phase liquids, which, if not dissolved in water, can be a source of new pollutants. It is also feared that contaminants can transfer in the underground water, thus leading to a widespread distribution of poison. Four types of contaminants were found in the Industrial brownfield areas, and these are: Heavy contaminated sites.

These come from steel, iron and smelting plants, ore tailings . Heavy metal contaminated sites. Typical contaminants are arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, and chrome. Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP) contaminated sites. China produces, and widely uses, pesticides such as DDT, HCB, Chlordane and Mirex. Although certain pesticides haven’t been used for many years, some remain in the soil. New pesticide-contaminated sites continue to be discovered in China, in addition to other types of POP contaminated sites, such as PCB capacitor dismantling and burial sites.

Organic contaminated sites such as petrochemical, coking etc. Substances include organic solvents, benzene and hydrocarbons, often mixed with other contaminants such as heavy metals. Electronic waste sites. Incorrect disposal of electronic waste can affect human health. The main contaminants are heavy metals and POPs (bromination flame retardants and dioxin). Source: Xie, Jian and Li Fasheng, 2011 In the past, there was little attention given to Brownfield areas and its harmful effects because of