Towards sustainable regeneration of disused urban areas : a monitoring tool to integrate assessment into the projects dynamics

Regeneration of disused urban areas, such as industrial brownfields or abandoned infrastructural zones, has received considerable attention in the context of post‐industrial European cities. Due to the inherent complexity of these projects, a holistic integration of sustainability objectives is far from being an automatic process. It depends upon a proactive search for global quality, integrated in a participative way in the project dynamics and a structured and continuous assessment of environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainability, tailored to the specificities of such projects. Specifically focusing on these challenges, the ongoing research presented in this paper aims at developing a monitoring tool entitled SIPRIUS+. This new generation tool is a hybrid between a sustainability indicator system adapted to the issues raised by the regeneration of disused urban areas and a user‐friendly, web‐based monitoring software. SIPRIUS+ is designed to provide a strong basis to key stakeholders involved in the management of these projects and facilitates communication and participation with various public or private actors. This paper gives an overview of these objectives and a description of the steps of the tool’s design. Preliminary findings leading to future adaptations are presented through a case study: the Gare‐Lac neighborhood, a large disused urban area located in the city of Yverdon‐les‐Bains (Switzerland).