Building and monitoring a brown field database, assessment of opportunities for economic exploitation

In 2016, the Municipality of Budapest passed a resolution supporting the need for a brownfield cadastre.
The primary purpose of the cadastre is to facilitate the change of function of the brownfield areas in Budapest by organizing and displaying the urban architectural features of the brownfields and providing information on the possible sale of the areas.
The completed cadastre presents the endowments and development frameworks of the areas with a description of the current town planning legislation, frames the disused and underused areas of Budapest, analyses the development opportunities of urban fabric using the same criteria, but also describes the areas in terms of urban structure, location, infrastructure and environment.
Based on the elements collected in the database, it is possible to develop an information system that is essential for area management, which provides support in an interactive way to facilitate the utilization of vacant properties. Investors can more easily find the right locations for their purposes with applicable combined search options. One of the most obvious ways to achieve this is to build and operate a complex, goal-oriented interactive website.
As part of the monitoring, the areas in the database and their data are updated in the second half of each year since the approval in 2016 with the involvement of the district municipalities.
The fourth review of the database was last completed at the end of 2019.

Resources needed

own municipal sources applied – no details available

Evidence of success

The areas included are all under-utilized and disused areas, buildings that have significant development potential wedged into the city structure and their re-use requires some external intervention.
The cadastre
• systematizes the brownfield areas of the city,
• envisages the usability/development of the areas,
• database and map elements that can be connected to it serve as a basis for the development of an interactive information system,
• provides a combined search option.

Potential for learning or transfer

The practice is clearly structured and provides several opportunities for urban planners all over Europe to plan and implement coordinated development of brownfield sites.
The most important methodological elements of the cadastre are the recording of endowments, the provision of flexibility (the possibility of adapting to changes later, the structure that can be expanded at any time), the use of graphic elements for presentation and the provision of comprehensibility.
Essential elements for transfer: willingness and engagement of municipality, involvement of spatial planners, urban planners and stakeholders.
Project
Main institution
Municipality of Budapest
Location
Közép-Magyarország, Hungary (Magyarország)
Start Date
January 2016
End Date
Ongoing

Contact

Tunde Szabo Please login to contact the author.