Brownfields, those ugly, contaminated urban eyesores and potential crime settings exist everywhere, from the smallest towns to the largest cities. They can be anything from a five-hundred-acre closed-down steel mill to a small abandoned corner gas station. Attracting vandals, open dumping and other illegal activities, Brownfields pose a threat to a community's well being, lower surrounding property value and contribute to urban sprawl as businesses relocate to farmland and open space.

For many years, nothing was done about Brownfields. The reasons were concerns about high cleanup costs and lengthy and complicated cleanup procedures, potential liability risk and government involvement.

While these concerns are still present, communities both in the USA and abroad have realized that responsible Brownfield redevelopment can transform environmentally impaired property into productive assets and can bring economic growth, improved public health and better quality of life, for it reclaims land from slag, water from sewage, turns private excess into notions of public space and devastated landscapes into habitable areas.

When redeveloped—and redevelopment of Brownfields is today a popular measure in urban communities, so many of which are in need of more living space—these former vacant industrial sites can remove ecological threats, bring a boost to a tired neighborhood, create new job opportunities, add income to the municipality's treasury and bring a sense of pride to its citizens.

Some state EPA's, (e.g. Illinois), together with the US EPA and other government bodies have developed a number of tools, resources and partnerships that are being used for successful redevelopment projects. These include financial incentives, consistency among cleanup objectives, releases from liability, a flexible voluntary cleanup program and public/private partnerships.

Initiatives for redevelopment can come from several directions: municipalities, community groups, ecology organizations, concerned citizens, builders, or from businesses wanting to expand.

Such development is usually mixed and multi use and includes residential, commercial, recreational, and sometimes light industrial components.

In the city of Pittsburgh, Pa., for instance, a number of large Brownfield properties are being energetically transformed into livable quarters, projects that involve hundreds of people and span dozens of different specialized areas. This type of project, which tackles the issues and problems of post-industrial sites, poses a mighty challenge to management strategy. It is a long, on-going process entailing many firms and private experts; it requires resourcefulness to resolve often-conflicting interests, and it needs flexibility to deal with unforeseen problems.