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Many Canadian cities are faced with the challenge of contaminated lands that remain vacant due to high remediation costs. Redevelopment of these lots to green space enhances the character of our cities and improves human and environmental health. Phytoremediation, the process of treating contaminated soil and water with plants, was explored as a plausible design application towards the re-use of contaminated vacant lands. Based on an integrative literature review synthesis and a phytoremediation example, design guidelines were formulated and then applied to three Canadian municipal sites. An expert panel, including phytoremediation specialists and municipal staff involved with open space planning and development, provided an evaluation of the guidelines. The results demonstrated that the design guidelines are an appropriate foundation for the application of phytoremediation as an interim strategy for transforming contaminated lands into usable green space within Canadian municipalities. / LACF (Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation), Latornell Graduate Travel Scholarship

Magister Artium - MA / The trend in metropolitan planning is to provide overarching objectives for development, leaving detailed interpretation at the local level. The unspecific nature of these guidelines, however, coupled by the parochial interests of constituent local municipalities, can result in development that is unfavourable in terms of the metropolitan vision. The aim of this research was to consider a more detailed basis according to which the metropolitan plan for the Cape Metropolitan Area, the Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework (MSDF), could possibly be promoted. The approach was to focus on vacant land since this will be the target of future development.

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Many cities in the US and around the world are facing a dual challenge of promoting both urban revitalization and urban sustainability. Increasingly, cities are exploring greening initiatives - through which vegetation is planted and maintained - targeting vacant land as a potential means of addressing both of these challenges. This research is a sustainability-based assessment of the impacts of a Philadelphia, PA-based program that uses greening as an interim management strategy for vacant land. I use quantitative spatial analysis techniques to measure economic, environmental, and social justice impacts of the Philadelphia Land Care (PLC) program, which `treats' vacant land by removing debris, bringing in topsoil, planting grass and trees, putting up a split-rail fence and providing regular maintenance during the growing season. The analysis is shaped by the concept of sustainability which posits that to be sustainable, development must incorporate and balance economic development, environmental preservation and social justice. This research seeks to answer a series of questions about the economic, environmental, and social justice impacts of the PLC program, ultimately assessing not only the extent to which it exhibits impacts along these three dimensions of sustainability but also whether or not the impacts vary for different locations, and also questions the extent to which there may be tradeoffs between the different potential impacts of the program. This dissertation addresses several gaps in the urban greenspace literature including an assessment of the effect of location on the impacts of greenspaces and an assessment of the extent to which temporary greenspaces have the same impacts of more permanent greenspaces. It also addresses questions in urban revitalization and sustainability about the potential role of greening programs in meeting these challenges. Ultimately, the PLC program is shown to increase surrounding property values, improve environmental conditions, and increase equity in access to greenspace in Philadelphia. These benefits are not uniform, however, and differ for neighborhoods across the city. The research indicates the potential for greening programs such as PLC to help cities address pressing economic, environmental, and social concerns, but highlights the need to understand the tensions and tradeoffs between different forms of program impacts. / Urban Studies

Eighty percent of the Canadian population lives in urban centres, where typical land use patterns negatively impact urban ecosystems and decrease quality of life. Current municipal Community Improvement Plans target urban vacancies for intensification efforts, which can increase fragmentation and degradation of the urban ecosystem. This project examines the urban environment: its vacancies, ecological patterns and human impacts. A strategy was derived from ecological principles aiming to design more sustainable urban landscape patterns. Applied to the Two Rivers neighbourhood in Guelph, Ontario, the strategy identified 19.5 hectares of land capable of contributing to more sustainable ecological patterns of which 12.41 hectares were brownfields. Results revealed 4.3% more high-quality land cover, in 53% more patches, 45 m closer together, but with increasing edge contrast. An area-wide strategic integration of vacant lands may provide previously unconsidered opportunities to improve urban ecological patterns and create a more sustainable urban environment.

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This thesis provides a theoretical framework for evaluating the causes of vacant land in shrinking cities. The focus of this thesis was New Orleans and St. Louis; these two cities were selected as the case studies because they are roughly of similar age, possess a common cultural and economic heritage, and have a geographic footprint which encompasses different environmental conditions. This thesis evaluated factors that contribute to patterns of land vacancy within these two cities. Factors included in this evaluation include employment and other economic and cultural opportunities, environmental and ecological conditions, social dynamics and conditions, governmental management decisions, and 'quality of life' stressors, such as proximity to major infrastructure and industrial development. The theoretical framework described in this thesis is intended to apply to other shrinking cities beyond the case studies. A geographic information system database using historical maps and population census data were created for each city and utilized to examine temporal patterns in the relationship between land vacancy and a variety of environmental, economic, and social factors. Maps from the time of the founding of each city were geo-referenced to create a depiction of the ecological conditions prior to European settlement at the sites of New Orleans in 1718 and St. Louis in 1764, respectively. Time-series data gathered from the United States population censuses were utilized to document spatial change of the two cities as they evolved. Homo sapiens like other species compete for habitat. Access to high quality habitat within the urban ecosystem is determined by contestation between individuals and social groups, through market mechanisms and through management decisions, both utilitarian and ideological. Corruption and violence may also be factors. Individual agency is a factor in this contestation but social and cultural structures can also work to limit individual choices, particularly for minorities and low income residents, and relegate many residents to suboptimum or marginal habitat. A data analysis of both New Orleans and St. Louis showed that the quantity and location of vacant land is primarily influenced by proximity to opportunities and by proximity to major risks which impact the quality of Homo sapiens habitat. The first of these is proximity to opportunities such as employment, education, and cultural resources. The second is the presence of natural hazards, such as flooding and geological hazards, as revealed by the analysis of the historical ecology of the city. The third is the impact of local government management decisions and social planning which has spatial implications, including racially-based zoning, racial covenants, redlining, and isolation from public services and facilities such as the segregation of public schools. These decisions are often the reflection of ideology and power relationships. A fourth driver of land vacancy is proximity to risks, notably industrial lands, but also the intrusion of major infrastructure projects such as the development of the railyards and rail corridor of St. Louis, the construction of the Industrial Canal in New Orleans, and the construction of Interstate highways through both cities. In some circumstances, such drivers that include the unintended consequences of utilitarian decisions. The fifth driver include socio-economic factors and the neighborhood effects of crime, and poor education. These five drivers act in different proportions in each city to influence land values which, in turn, drive levels of vacancy. This comparative investigation revealed that the impact of geophysical factors on land vacancy varies greatly between New Orleans and St. Louis. While much of New Orleans lies below sea level and is often subject to flooding and hurricanes, little of the vacant lands of St. Louis are impacted by geophysical factors. In contrast, management decisions and social planning have contributed significantly to the concentration of poverty and, in turn, land vacancy in both cities. While some of these management decisions are utilitarian in nature and intended to provide the greatest benefits for the most number of people, others are ideologically driven or reflect power relationships and in the case of both New Orleans and St. Louis, racism. Proximity to risks, such as active railroad tracks, major highways, and industrial development, also has a strong relationship to land vacancy in both cities. Land vacancy also has a strong spatial relationship with areas of low income, poor education, and crime and neighborhood effects. While an understanding of environmental history can provide a useful guide to vacant land policy, efforts to address the challenge of vacant lands must consider not only the symptoms but the underlying causes of vacancy, particularly economic and social factors. This thesis is addressed to planners, architects, urban designers, landscape architects, and elected and appointed government officials who work to address the challenges of shrinking cities. Though this thesis examined the causes of vacant land in two shrinking cities, future research should examine the application of the theoretical framework presented here to cities experiencing growth as well.

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