Sustainable Urban Redevelopment: Assessing the Impact of Third-Party Rating Systems

Abstract

Prioritization of urban redevelopment to achieve sustainable neighborhood revitalization has received considerable attention. This study investigates whether a prescriptive approach to urban development, the third-party rating system, coupled with a business intelligence dashboard, as a data visualization tool to display the status of redevelopment can provide feasible and intuitive integration of data in which to prioritize redevelopment. This study presents a new framework and key sustainability indicators based on existing third-party rating systems to prioritize redevelopment. These assessments are introduced into a spatial decision support system using a dashboard as an interactive tool to gather and consolidate data and to present an evaluative means for decision makers. The tool allows identification of the highest-priority sites for long-term and short-term redevelopment of properties in Paterson, New Jersey. The study attempts to advance knowledge in sustainable urban redevelopment through developing a dashboard visualization tool coupled with a third-party rating system. Results indicate the proposed approach enables decision makers to explore relationships among social, environmental, and economic variables more efficiently. Depending on local development priorities, the proposed approach is also able to reveal brownfield locations that have the highest potential for successful redevelopment, recovery of lost revenue, and return to beneficial use.