Twentieth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

The social dimension of sustainability, despite being acknowledged, is often overlooked in sustainability appraisal tools used within the field of environmental remediation. This study responds to the lack of empirical research on the inclusion of social sustainability into the management of contaminated sites through the application of an asset-based community development approach, namely the Community Capitals Framework. The framework is applied to one case study in Italy and one in Belgium through a multi-modal qualitative research design, consisting of document analysis and interviews with community members and technical experts. Results from this study open up new opportunities for the applicability of the framework that go beyond its original theoretical formulation.