Publication Details
Models for renaturing brownfield areas [Chapter 19]
Publication Toolbox
- Download PDF (1738730)
- This publication is available only online.
Year Published
2010
Publication
In: Hall, Marcus, ed. Restoration and history: The search for a usable environmental past. New York, NY: Routledge: 208-217.
Abstract
While the term "restoration" is widely used in the United States and Europe, many projects and activities falling under this rubric might more appropriately be labeled "renaturing." Restoration often aims to recreate presettlement conditions (in the United States) or some other chosen point in the past. We are not alone in questioning this focus; many of the authors in this volume challenge and evaluate the use of a single historical point to frame restoration activities. We find that "restoration" is especially problematic in urban situations, where the settlement activity impacts soils and nutrients, fragments land cover, alters hydrology, and can change human values for the land and thereby seriously restrict hopes of returning a site to historic conditions with any degree of authenticity.
Citation
Westphal, Lynne M.; Gobster, Paul H.; Gross, Matthias. 2010. Models for renaturing brownfield areas [Chapter 19]. In: Hall, Marcus, ed. Restoration and history: The search for a usable environmental past. New York, NY: Routledge: 208-217.