The environmental legacy of past industrial and agricultural development can simultaneously pose serious threats to human health and impede reuse of contaminated land. This book recognizes that land and water contamination are now almost universally acknowledged to be key social, economic, and political issues and its central focus is how multiple societies have attempted to craft and implement public policy to deal with these issues. The volume is unique in that it provides a global comparative perspective on brownfield policy and examples of its use in a variety of countries.