Publications

Policy Brief: Making the most of brownfield sites in the Baltic Sea Region

Baltic Urban Lab Policy Brief - Making the most of brownfield sites in the Baltic Sea Region reveals the challenges and opportunities related to brownfield redevelopment as well as presents public-private-people partnerships as a solution to tackle these challenges. This policy brief also presents the key recommendations based on Baltic Urban Lab lessons learned and results. They include policy and action points for more efficient and inclusive brownfield development processes, based on support for public-private-people partnerships at local, national and cross-border levels.

Towards integrated and partnership-based planning of brownfield areas

Brownfield redevelopment is a complex process and requires good cooperation and commitment from all involved parties. This guide is targeted to urban planners and other experts interested to learn more how to develop brownfield areas in cooperation with citizens, NGOs, land-owners, developers and other stakeholders.

The guide is divided in two main sections:

Developing brownfields via public-private-people partnerships - Lessons learned from Baltic Urban Lab

During Baltic Urban Lab the project cities have explored different methods for stakeholder involvement and participation. Experiences and lessons learned from cities have been now gathered and analysed in one publication “Developing brownfields via Public-Private-People partnerships” published by Nordregio. The report is based on observation and analysis of the methods for stakeholder involvement and participation that project cities Norrköping, Tallinn, Turku and Riga have tested. The main approach has been to observe what can be done to involve private actors, local inhabitants and other public departments in the planning process, as well as to understand what can be gained by applying a 4P-approach to the planning of brownfield areas around the Baltic Sea. 

The report introduces each brownfield development site and the most important stakeholders in the respective planning project. Furthermore, each stakeholder involvement method is analysed using the democracy cube introduced in the report.  Finally, the report gives space for reflection and key messages about the 4P approach implemented by each city.

The report is targeted to local planners and other experts seeking to include various stakeholders and establish close cooperation between them. The project outcomes may also be of interest both to students and researchers, as well as to EU programmes that support urban planning projects.

Developing brownfields via Public-Private-People partnerships. Lessons learned from Baltic Urban Lab

Baltic Urban Lab definition for brownfields & recommendations for improving national policy approaches on integrated brownfield redevelopment

There is a high demand for redeveloping brownfield areas to make European cities grow in a more sustainable manner. However, the Central Baltic region does not have a long tradition of national policy approaches to brownfield redevelopment. Nor there is a commonly agreed European definitions on what a brownfield is. Baltic Urban Lab has published a definition for brownfields based on the discussion in the project.

Baltic Urban Lab eUpdate Collection

As part of project communication activities, project eUpdates have been created and sent out to all interested stakeholders. Read previous eUpdates to find all relevant project news in a compact form. 

Planning Systems and Legislation for Brownfield Development in the Central Baltic Countries

Brownfield redevelopment is an important topic in Europe, where many countries and cities are experiencing rapid urbanisation. The aim of this brochure is to enable experiences of brownfield redevelopment to be exchanged between the Central Baltic countries (Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Sweden) by providing knowledge about the conditions for brownfield redevelopment in each country. The brochure presents the planning systems and principal legislation and policies related to brownfield redevelopment. It specifically highlights the aforementioned key challenges of cooperation between actors and the remediation of contaminated land, and looks at how domestic legislation and policies promote or hinder meeting those challenges.

Project Leaflet

Creating and testing new integrated planning and partnership models for brownfield regeneration to help cities revitalize urban space and support the development of smart, sustainable city districts with high-quality living and working environments.

Working Paper: Public-Private-People Partnerships in urban planning

This Working Paper "Public–Private–People Partnerships in Urban Planning" is one of the deliverables of the Baltic Urban Lab project (Central Baltic INTERREG), and it discusses the potentials and challenges in Public–private–people partnerships and presents examples of methods for partnership and participation.

Working Paper: Public-Private-People Partnerships in urban planning