21 March 2022This study focuses on social representations of nature in the case of contaminated brownfield sites in France. Data were collected using an open-ended questionnaire in a French national cross-sectional survey administered to people living in municipalities impacted by contaminated brownfields. We use lexical methods to examine how respondents perceive nature in the case of contaminated brownfields. Three complementary software for text analyses were used (IRaMuTeq, Hyperbase, and Tropes). This strategy allows us to identify and understand, in-depth, different dimensions related to nature in the case of contaminated brownfields. The results show that respondents associate different forms of nature, from wild gardens to more domesticated forms such as vegetable gardens and crop fields, with contaminated brownfields. Knowledge of these types of nature that are distinguished by respondents is important in designing brownfield redevelopment projects and in improving the management of urban green spaces such as brownfields, which are an important source of biodiversity in the city.