Margaret Dewar’s research is in the broad areas of economic development, housing and community development, urban environmental planning, and urban land use. Her current projects address remaking cities following abandonment, strengthening deteriorated neighborhoods, and reducing the harm residents experience from disinvestment in their city. She analyzes how planners can address issues facing cities that have experienced substantial population and employment loss. For instance, she has studied how to transition land use from derelict structure through demolition to green stormwater infrastructure and therefore to reuse vacant land productively in ways that enhance neighborhoods. She has investigated how people remake places in the most abandoned areas of cities. In all her research she works with people who can use her findings to make changes in planning and policy practice.