Rehabilitation of Brownfields in Budapest

Abstract

The brownfield belt of the Hungarian capital comprises an area of 68 square kilometres where once large industrial production sites were located. Some patches of this zone already show signs of rehabilitation, but generally speaking, any effort of the Budapest brownfield rehabilitation faces formidable challenges. The level of environmental pollution, including soil pollution, is high, housing estates are in bad condition, and the Hungarian state railway system still owns many unused, obsolete, empty and ruined buildings and other real estate within this brownfield area. Spontaneous functional changes are good signs, but they are not part of a planned process and represent often only interim solutions. In addition, they utilise only small parts of the brownfield area. However, this area could be promising for metropolitan development and become an important economic factor in the future. City planners and researchers agree that the time has come to find practicable solutions to change the colour of the brownfields.