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ABSTRACT
There is more than six thousands municipalities in Czech republic, more than half of which are municipalities with population under three thousands inhabitants. This article is concerned by the problematic of unused or underused brownfield areas in these rather small settlements. It shows on a number of example what form those areas typically for after mining region in Czech Republic, how other more valuable land can be and in the example presented has been preserved by reusing brownfield areas for new development
Keywords: brownfields development, small municipalities, land use
INTRODUCTION
Brownfield is a term, which has been associated with industrial cities and municipalities for several decades, as it is pointed out by e.g. [1], with structural changes, such as decrease in production in traditional manufactures, or in mining, etc. However, there are many more causes to these changes including a whole range of economic-political transformations.
In the past several authors e.g.[2] observed that the European legislation in effect did not contain any unambiguous definition of brownfields. However, many countries use their own modified definitions in planning and development documents. Most of these definitions are more or less based on one of the first official definitions. This definition of brownfields was conceived within the framework of a European working group CLARINET [3], and these same authors used the definition when preparing outputs of the CABERNET network.
Brownfield sites are defined as an area affected by past use or the past use of neighbouring lands, are abandoned and unused (or underused), have actual or potential problems with contamination, can be usually found in urban areas, but most of all, brownfield sites are sites, which require intervention in order to be effectively used again.
Brownfields cannot be considered merely as a problem associated with the surrounding land, but as [4] or [5] point out, it is necessary to consider many different phenomena extending beyond the boundaries of the affected area. Among these phenomena we can list the loss of social cohesion - those, who are mobile and able to work, move into better neighbourhoods, the population structure is falling apart. The value of real estate in the area decreases. This leads to the degradation of the neighbourhood. Very often, the negative impacts are felt more acutely...