Zoltán Kovács

The large-scale withdrawal of military forces from urban areas represents one of the most significant drivers of land-use change in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. Based on a national database of former military sites in Hungary, this study investigates changes in the residential population and social environment of these sites resulting from brownfield regeneration. The research combines the analysis of occupational statistical data for the census years 2001, 2011, and 2022 with qualitative methods, including semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted across four case-study locations in three Hungarian second-tier cities. The findings reveal three active governance configurations producing distinct social trajectories: social exclusion under market dominance, social mix under sustained municipal involvement, and social upgrading including gentrification in a transitional model where the state eventually withdraws. Ultimately, the study concludes that the social outcomes of military brownfield regeneration are primarily shaped by the governance dynamic between municipal authorities and private market actors rather than site attributes alone. Consequently, early and sustained municipal engagement remains the key factor for achieving socially balanced regeneration outcomes.

The scarcity of resources is a major challenge for the livability of cities and sustainable urbanization. This study explores the socioeconomic dimensions of water scarcity in four low-income neighborhoods of Amman, the capital of Jordan, using a qualitative approach. The study investigates how water scarcity intersects with socioeconomic vulnerability, spatial injustice, and behavioral adaptation. The main research findings are that income, the quality of the neighborhood, and infrastructure access commonly shape residents’ coping strategies and perceptions of fairness. While households adopt a range of adaptive behaviors, limited affordability and institutional neglect intensify existing inequalities. Temporal shifts in service provision, spatial disparities within and between neighborhoods, and gaps in awareness and governance deepen the sense of water insecurity. The study concludes that water scarcity in Amman is not only a technical or economic challenge but a socially embedded problem that requires equity-oriented policies, participatory planning, and spatially targeted investments.

The large-scale withdrawal of military forces from urban areas represents one of the most significant drivers of land-use change in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. Based on a national database of former military sites in Hungary, this study investigates the changes in the residential population and social environment of these sites as an outcome of brownfield regeneration. The research combines statistical data analysis of occupational status for the census years 2001, 2011, and 2022 with qualitative methods, including semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted across four case study locations in three Hungarian second-tier cities. The findings reveal three active governance configurations producing distinct social trajectories: social exclusion under market dominance, social mix under sustained municipal involvement, and gentrification in a transitional model where the state eventually withdraws. Ultimately, the study concludes that the social outcomes of military brownfield regeneration are primarily determined by the governance dynamic between municipal authorities and private market actors rather than site attributes alone. Consequently, early and sustained municipal engagement remains the key factor for achieving socially balanced regeneration outcomes.

The scarcity of resources is a major challenge for the livability of cities and sustainable urbanization. This study explores the socioeconomic dimensions of water scarcity in four low-income neighborhoods of Amman, the capital of Jordan, using a mixed-method approach. The study investigates how water scarcity intersects with socioeconomic vulnerability, spatial injustice, and behavioral adaptation. The main research findings are that income, the quality of the neighborhood, and infrastructure access commonly shape residents’ coping strategies and perceptions of fairness. While households adopt a range of adaptive behaviors, limited affordability and institutional neglect intensify existing inequalities. Temporal shifts in service provision, spatial disparities within and between neighborhoods, and gaps in awareness and governance deepen the sense of water insecurity. The study concludes that water scarcity in Amman is not only a technical or economic challenge but a socially embedded problem that requires equity-oriented policies, participatory planning, and spatially targeted investments.

Introduction. Brownfields and blighted sites are present in all countries and represent significant environmental, public health, economic, and spatial planning challenges. Military, war, and post-war brownfields are becoming increasingly important in the context of contemporary armed conflicts and post-war recovery, particularly in Ukraine. In response to these challenges, experts from the United States, Canada, Romania, and Ukraine established the United States – Eastern European Brownfields Working Group in 2015 to promote community-engaged land reuse and public health-oriented redevelopment approaches. The purpose of this study is to analyze the formation and development of the International Brownfields Collaborative as an interdisciplinary platform for addressing military, war, and post-war brownfields through international cooperation, sustainable redevelopment, environmental security, and public healthoriented approaches. Methods. The study applies a qualitative collaborative case-study approach based on workshop activities, expert discussions, educational initiatives, and interdisciplinary knowledge exchange conducted within the framework of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) Achieving Sustainability in Ukraine through Military Brownfields Redevelopment. The research examines the evolution of the initial working group into the International Brownfields Collaborative and analyzes its scientific, educational, and organizational activities related to sustainable land reuse and post-war recovery. Results. The ARW became a platform for expanding the initial working group of five experts from four countries into the International Brownfields Collaborative, which currently includes more than 20 members from 15 countries. The Collaborative united researchers, planners, environmental and public health professionals, educators, and practitioners working in brownfields redevelopment, environmental security, sustainable development, urban resilience, and spatial planning. The study highlights the growing significance of war and post-war brownfields as distinct categories of degraded territories formed by military activity, infrastructure destruction, environmental contamination, and socio-spatial transformation. The Collaborative contributed to disseminating interdisciplinary approaches to brownfields revitalization through workshops, publications, educational initiatives, and Environmental Health and Land Reuse (EHLR) training activities implemented at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. These activities strengthened international academic cooperation, knowledge exchange, and sustainability-oriented competencies among graduate students and young researchers. Discussion and Conclusions. The experience of the International Brownfields Collaborative demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinary international networks in addressing environmental, socio-spatial, and public health challenges associated with military, war, and post-war brownfields. The study emphasizes the need to integrate sustainable development principles, environmental security, public health, and resilience-oriented spatial planning into post-war recovery strategies. The findings may support policymakers, planning institutions, and academic communities in developing integrated approaches to sustainable redevelopment and environmental recovery in conflict-affected territories.

Urban sprawl and brownfields are recognized as the main challenges for sustainable land use in post-industrial cities. Using a mixed methodology (GIS and interviews), this research aimed to examine the relationship between the redevelopment process of former Soviet military brownfields and urban sprawl in Hungary. Research findings highlighted the overall importance of the regeneration of military brownfields in urban development; however, not all the assessed projects appeared to be beneficial to densification objectives. We could identify two groups of brownfields lying within the boundaries of the compact city and outside the boundaries. The regeneration of military brownfields embedded in the built-up areas of cities can contribute to densification objectives and attract new functions and residents to abandoned areas. They can also support wider regeneration strategies of local governments, especially in run-down neighborhoods. However, a large number of military brownfields are located on the peripheries of metropolitan areas. The regeneration of such sites, as demonstrated by the case studies, can play a catalyst role in urban sprawl. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that local municipalities should make a careful strategic selection of military brownfield sites for redevelopment based upon their characteristics and location, as supported by the typology presented in this study, together with locally perceived socio-economic and risk factors.

The European Green Deal (EGD), a complex policy program meant to address climate change and ensure a “just, fair and inclusive” transition into a more sustainable and greener Europe, was launched by the EU in 2019. It was clear from the very beginning that the opportunities and costs of the ambitious green transition would be very uneven geographically, not only within the EU but also among its regions and locations. Regions with higher environmental stress and/or less technological and economic capacities will inevitably be disadvantaged. The EGD requires large-scale public acceptance, which comes with democratic innovations and participative practices, which are less embedded in many regions. The former socialist bloc still struggles today with establishing decent levels of public participation, as well as with adopting and implementing democratic community principles in practice. The main aim of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, we intend to give an assessment of where Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries stand in the process of the green transition and what the major focus areas affecting them are, based on the existing academic literature. On the other hand, we intend to give a clear overview of the causes for and aspects of the weakness of civil society in the post-communist bloc and reasons why the adaptation of democratic innovations is lagging in this region. For this purpose, a systematic literature search and bibliometric analysis was performed based on articles indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Altogether, 172 articles published in the region were filtered and systematically analyzed according to the main themes of the papers related to the EGD. Research findings show that the interests of researchers in CEE countries largely differ from those in the mainstream academic discourse. Research topics, high on the agenda in Western countries, are hardly present in the academic discourse in CEE countries. On the other hand, issues like energy efficiency, urbanization’s impacts on green growth and renewable energy development, and innovations towards a circular economy dominate the research agenda. This region started the green transition process with major handicaps compared to the West, connected to path dependency and the legacy of socialist structures. The paper analyses the bibliometric aspects of articles published on these topics and highlights the highly sectoral and country-focused approaches taken with regard to the EGD. In our paper, we highlight the importance of the region on a geographic scale, which goes beyond the initial framework and offers a different approach to addressing the issue. The paper proves that the presence of EGD-related participation processes is significantly lacking in academic literature in the CEE region. However, the most important finding of our paper is the identification of an academic gap regarding democratic innovations and deliberation, as well as regarding active involvement and participation of people in EGD-related programs. This gives an even more important base for the assessment of the region in terms of the EGD, which faces growing populism and advancing authoritarian regimes, such that public participation and citizen control have become vitally important for the implementation of the green transition.

Urban sprawl and brownfields are recognized as the main challenges for sustainable land use in post-industrial cities. Using a mixed methodology (GIS and interviews) this research aimed to examine the relationship between the redevelopment process of former Soviet military brownfields and urban sprawl in Hungary. Research findings highlighted the overall importance of the regeneration of military brownfields in urban development, however, not all the assessed projects appeared to be beneficial to densification objectives. We could identify two groups of brownfields those lying within the boundaries of the compact city and outside. Regeneration of military brownfields embedded in the built-up areas of cities can contribute to densification objectives, and attract new functions and residents to abandoned areas. They can also support wider regeneration strategies of local governments especially in run-down neighborhoods. However, a large number of military brownfields are located on the peripheries of metropolitan areas. The regeneration of such sites, as it was demonstrated by the case-studies, can play a catalyst role in urban sprawl. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that local municipalities should make a careful strategic selection of military brownfield sites for redevelopment based upon their characteristics and location, as supported by the typology presented in this study together with socio-economic and risk factors perceived locally.