Advancements in Environmental Technologies for Sustainable Urban Regeneration: A Comparative Assessment

Abstract

The present study aims to appraise advancements in environmental technologies applicable to urban regeneration, with a special focus on urban brownfield redevelopment. The rapid literature review technique was employed as the research strategy, in the mixed method research design. Technological solutions proposed in the selected articles were comparatively assessed their practicality in an urban setting, in terms of cost, efficacy, physical space required and potential harm to the neighboring environment, by using a five-point scale scoring system. In this study, nanoremediation, thermal remediation methods (i.e. electrical resistance heating, thermal conduction heating and steam enhanced extraction), non-thermal physical remediation methods (electrokinetic remediation, non-thermal plasma technologies, air sparging, soil washing and replacement and passive treatment technologies such as permeable reactive barriers), chemical oxidation (advanced chemical oxidation and Fenton process), and naturebased solutions or bioremediation or gentle remediation technologies (biodegradation processes methods such as bioaugmentation, bioventing, bioprecipitation, biostimulation, landfarming, and phytoremediation methods such as phytostabilization, phytovolatilization and phytoextraction or phytomining and monitored natural attenuation) are presented. Each environmental restoration strategies provided has its own set of limitations, application possibilities and future development potential, as evidenced by this study. Nanoremediation, bioremediation and radio frequency heating in the current state of the art are found to be feasible for an urban area. Property developers and urban authorities could consider the application potential of these technologies in urban brownfield redevelopment in urban regeneration. An integrated approach for addressing the limitations of these technologies may be worth considering in research and developments in the urban sector.