Case Study-Based Integrated Assessment of Former Waste Disposal Sites Transformed to Green Space in Terms of Ecosystem Services and Land Assets Recovery

Growing global production leads to continuing generation of waste, part of which still ends its life cycle in landfills and dumps. Despite the efforts of waste reuse and recycling and waste self-degradation, existing and old landfills and dumps remain a huge challenge for the future. The majority of landfills can be identified as non-sanitary and can be designated as existing or former dumps, meaning hills or fields of abandoned garbage and degraded inert waste masses without any or with little aftercare maintenance. In contrast, the term ‘landfill’ refers to legally organized waste disposal sites created in a controlled manner, according to modern environmentally responsible standards. The paper gives a case study-based integrated assessment of closed and revitalized waste disposal sites that have undergone a functional change from ‘lost territories’ to primarily green space beneficial for society and the urban environment, in terms of ecosystem services estimation based on the criteria evaluation approach and monetary assessment of land assets value recovery potential. The chosen four case studies (in the United States, Australia, Poland and Estonia) serve as successful examples of a sustainable degraded site revitalization gateway indicating opportunities for accelerating land value through the prism of ecosystem services estimations and spatial planning criteria. Beneficial value of land assets after site revitalization is assessed in monetary terms.