School of Urban and Regional Planning

Biography:

Research Interests

Brownfield redevelopment policy and practice
Sustainable development, sustainability reporting and project assessment
Parks and open space

Teaching Interests

Environmental planning, Sustainable development, Urban development

Christopher De Sousa is Associate Professor and new Director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Ryerson University.  Prior to joining Ryerson, he was the Chair of Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, as well as a member of the Geography and Urban Studies faculty.

Professor De Sousa’s research activities focus on various aspects of brownfield redevelopment, urban environmental management, and sustainability reporting in Canada and the United States.  He is currently involved in a collaborative research project examining best management practices in sustainable brownfields redevelopment funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency.  His earlier research has been funded by the USDA Forest Service, National Academies (HUD Urban Scholars Postdoctoral Fellowship), US Trade and Development Agency, Consul General of Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as well as by UW-Milwaukee and private foundations.  His recent publications include a book entitled Brownfields Redevelopment and the Quest for Sustainability published by Elsevier/Emerald Group and “Brownfield Development: A Comparison of North American and British Approaches” in Urban Studies co-authored with Dr. D. Adams and S. Tiesdell.  Professor De Sousa’s work has appeared in prominent journals in planning, geography, and urban studies such as Economic Development Quarterly, Landscape and Urban Planning, Environment and Planning B, the Professional Geographer, the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, and Urban Studies.

Professor De Sousa has been actively involved with government agencies and nonprofit groups in Wisconsin and Ontario addressing urban issues such as brownfield policy, sustainability, foreclosure prevention, comprehensive planning, and green building.  He is also the former Co-Director of UW-Milwaukee’s Brownfields Research Consortium and Co-Director of the Menomonee Valley Benchmarking Initiative (www.mvbi.org).

Representative Publications

Sustainable Redevelopment of Brownfields Case Studies (posted 2012):

• Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley: A Sustainable Re-Industrialization Best Practice
• Moran Center, Burlington, Vermont: A U.S. EPA Brownfields Sustainability Pilot
• Tabor Commons to Café Au Play, Portland, Oregon: A U.S. EPA Brownfields Sustainability Pilot
• June Key Delta Community Center, Portland, Oregon: A U.S. EPA Brownfields Sustainability Pilot

De Sousa, C. (2013) Publicly subsidized brownfields redevelopment. In White, S. & Kotval, Z. (Eds.) Financing economic development in the 21st century, 2nd Edition (pp. 150-167). New York: M.E. Sharpe.

De Sousa, C. and Ghoshal, S. (2012) Redevelopment of brownfield sites. In Zeman, F. (ed.) Metropolitan sustainability: Understanding and improving the urban environment (pp. 99-117). Cambridge: Woodhead
Publishing.

Berman, L., De Sousa, C., Linder, T., & Misky, D. (2012). From blighted brownfields to healthy and sustainable communities: Tracking performance and measuring outcomes. In R.C. Hula, L.A. Reese, and C. Jackson-Elmoore (Eds.) Reclaiming Brownfields (pp. 311-340). London: Ashgate.

De Sousa, C. (2011). Creating the green industrial district: Transforming Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley from a blighted brownfield into a sustainable place to work and play.” In M. Slavin (ed.), Sustainability in America's cities: Creating the green metropolis (pp. 45-68). Washington, D.C.: Island Press. (Based on research conducted for the case study above)

Adams, D., De Sousa, C. & Tiesdell, S. (2010). Brownfield development: A comparison of North American and British approaches. Urban Studies, 47 (1): 75-104.

De Sousa, C. (2010). From brown liability to green opportunity: Reinventing urban landscapes, Carolina Planning, 35, 3-12.

De Sousa, C., Wu, C. & Westphal, L. (2009). Assessing the effect of publicly supported brownfield redevelopment on surrounding property values. Economic Development Quarterly, 23 (2): 95-110.

De Sousa, C. (2008). Brownfields Redevelopment and the Quest for Sustainability. London: Elsevier Science/Emerald Group Publishing, Current Issues in Urban and Regional Studies Series, Volume 3.W