Geopolitical Brownfields: introducing a new terminology for brownfields within conflict zones

Traditionally brownfield sites are one of the impacts of deindustrialization and suburbanization within urban environment, however many sites around the world became abandoned and derelict as a result of geopolitical conflicts by means of internal and/or international conflicts of interests between powers over space. As a matter of fact many post-conflict and post-war reconstruction approaches have been developed to deal with these sites, but the question is if these abandoned sites stay abandoned for long period of time, or the conflict extends with an open ended solution, what is the best way to deal with these abandoned and possibly contaminated lands? The main aim of this paper is to introduce and propose a new perspective on dealing with these abandoned sites throughout the concept of the proposed term “Geopolitical Brownfield”. As the main methodological approach of this study, a documentary investigation will take place, in addition to references and evaluations on the case of Cyprus Buffer Zone. This paper concludes with a conceptual definition as introduction to the new proposed terminology as geopolitical brownfields.