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Introduction: Without community-based, data-aggregation tools, timely and meaningful local input into brownfield management is not tenable, as relevant data are dispersed and often incomplete. in response, this project lays the groundwork through which constructive dialogue between community members and local officials can be facilitated.Materials and methods: a Brownfield engagement tool (Bet) is envisioned as a means by which non-experts can use disparately held open data streams to collect, analyse, and visualise brownfield site data, better understand aggregate health risks, and provide direct input into remediation and redevelopment decisions. By raising awareness and providing knowledge about brownfield related issues, the Bet is intended as a means to encourage community member participation in public debate. this concept is demonstrated for a 113-hectare Brooklyn, New York neighbourhood with a long history of industrial and mixed-use development resulting in 18 brownfields. the proposed remediation prioritization strategy offers a systematic analysis of the sites’ size, contaminants, and proximity to gathering spots and demographics.Results: the Bet proposed in this paper offers a novel approach for community-based management of brownfields done at the census tract level and based on factors that most affect the local community. By combining publicly-available, municipal, state, and federal data in the Bet, a set of easy-to-understand metrics can be generated through which a community can compare and rank existing brownfields to prioritize future interventions and can be used as a support system for raising funding and investments to address neighbourhood issues. this type of approach is the first of its kind with respect to brownfield redevelopment. 

Unlike aboveground utility systems, for which very detailed and accurate information exists, there is generally a dearth of good-quality data about underground utility infrastructures that provide vital services. To identify key strategies to improve the resilience of these underground systems, this paper presents mechanisms for successful engagement and collaboration among stakeholders and shared cross-sector system vulnerability concerns (including data availability) based on the innova- tive use of focus groups. Outputs from two virtual focus groups were used to obtain information from New York City area utilities and other stakeholders affected by underground infrastructure. There was strong agreement among participants that (1) a trusted agency in New York City government should manage a detailed map of underground infrastructure that would allow stakeholders to securely access appropriate information about underground systems on a need-to-know basis; (2) environmental risk factors, such as infrastructure age and condition, as well as location should be included; and (3) improved mechanisms for collaboration and sharing information are needed, especially during non-emergency situations. Stakeholders also highlighted the need for a regularly updated central database of relevant contacts at key organizations, since institutions often have a high employee turnover rate, which creates knowledge loss. The focus group script developed as part of this research was designed to be transferable to other cities to assess data needs and potential obstacles to stakeholder collabora- tion in the areas of underground infrastructure mapping and modeling. 

A utilidor is a ‘system of systems’ infrastructural solution to the ‘subsurface spaghetti’ problem resulting from direct burial of utility transmission infrastructure beneath the public right of way (PROW). The transition from direct burial to utilidors in older, dense American cities has generally not occurred, despite the potential to increase system performance in a long-term, !nancially and environmentally sustainable manner, because it would require reform of local planning practices and of utility pricing to support !nancing within a complex regulatory system. Utilidor adoption in New York City (NYC) would be a signi!cant local infrastructure transition, amplifying the need for localitybased research, that would occur while each utility sector undergoes its own infrastructure transitions, thereby increasing the level of regulatory complexity. This paper applies transitions analysis, recursive collective action theory, and capacity to act analysis to NYC’s experience with its PROW subsurface spaghetti problem and utilidor implementation to demonstrate a placebased methodology that identi!es speci!c sources of resistance to innovative subsurface design and feasible pathways for resolving them. This methodology would be transferable for application to other American cities or classes of American cities to supplement the limits of generalised subsurface and subsurface resource integration research for practitioner application.