Industrial Symbiosis and Land Use

Abstract

An industrial ecosystem can function analogously to a biological ecosystem. Part of an industrial ecosystem is industrial symbiosis, which engages “traditionally separate industries in a collective approach to competitive advantage involving physical exchange of materials, energy, water and by-products. The keys to industrial symbiosis are collaboration and the synergistic possibilities offered by geographic proximity.” Opinions differ among researchers on the need for geographical proximity for industrial symbiosis to succeed. Two models of industrial symbiosis exist: the self-organized industrial symbiosis model and the planned industrial symbioses model, which is an eco-industrial park. The paradigmatic example of the first model is the town of Kalundborg, Denmark, and the second model is a conscious decision to identify various industrial companies that can share resources at the same location. Whereas agricultural land use categories, which have shrunk to a smaller number of categories in modern times, have been precisely defined for centuries, such a precise classification for industrial areas is unknown. The basic categorization simply distinguishes between rural and urban land uses. A precise inventory of various industrial uses, which includes waste products, offers answers to where and to what extent cooperation between industries could take place. Land-use management can contribute to a developed holistic approach for industrial symbiosis, which promotes the instruments of land-use planning and adaptive management of the territory.