The long-term management of naturally developing vegetation can also help urban or industrial brownfields sites to be reused. However vegetation management must prepare these areas for new purposes in the future. As most of these purposes cannot be foreseen, one basic goal of vegetation management should preventing the growth of woodlands as this is an obstacle for further reuse.
At the same time, vegetation management can help to change the negative image of brownfields by developing stable and impressive vegetation structures. To reach this goal, vegetation management must also integrate design concepts (see below).
Design goals for vegetation management of new wilderness
Today most concepts for management of spontaneous vegetation do not include design goals. The appearance of the vegetation is just a side effect of the functional goals and conditions of management. However, aesthetic aspects are important for public acceptance of spontaneous vegetation (Keil 2002).
For this reason the following section will discuss the perception of new wilderness as a basis for design strategies.
Perception and acceptance of new wilderness in the periurban landscape
