Potential Application of Influence Diagram as a Risk Assessment Tool in Brownfields Sites

Brownfields are vacant, abandoned, or underutilized commercial and industrial sites and facilities where real or perceived environmental contamination is an obstacle to redevelopment. These sites are vacant because they often do not meet the strict remediation requirements of the Superfund Law. The sites are accessible locations with much of the infrastructure, albeit deteriorated, in place. Thus they also represent an opportunity to slow down suburban and rural sprawl. As a liability, the concern stems from the environment liability of both known and unknown site contamination. Influence diagrams are tools used to represent complex decision problems based on incomplete and uncertain information from a variety of sources. The influence diagrams can be used to divide all uncertainties (Brownfields site infrastructure impact assessment) into subfactors until the level has been reached at which intuitive functions are most effective. Given the importance of uncertainties and the utilities of the Brownfields infrastructure, the use of influence diagrams seem more appropriate for representing and solving risks involved in Brownfields infrastructure assessment.