Network analysis of industrial metabolism in industrial park – A case study of Huai'an economic and technological development area

Abstract

Industrial park is an industrial activity concentrated area driving the regional economy. It however results in serious problems and contradictions between economic development and environmental protection. Industrial metabolism could portray an industrial park's essence via flows among the nodes, and provide a basis for optimizing the process and improving the overall environmental and economic performance in industrial park. Comparing with the traditional metabolism analysis methods, applying ecological network analysis to industrial metabolism could reveal more detailed insight into the industrial system. In our study the flows are converted to solar emergy value using the emergy method. This paper constructed a framework based on ecological network analysis and applied it to conduct an analysis on Huai'an economic and technological development area. This study mainly depicts the qualitative and quantitative ecological relationships between compartments interacting with each other in the study park. Results show that Huai'an economic and technological development area presents mutualism and synergism overall. Integral flows reveal ultimate mutual relationships between system compartments and they are presenting positive sides for the stability of the whole system. Environment and new energy vehicles and parts manufacturing are the most dominant parts in the system, which shows improving resources efficiency and energy-saving level is the primary task park faces. The industrial metabolism of the study industrial park can be viewed as an evolutionary system with high efficiency, but this may be achieved at the expense of higher resilience. This study could reveal the processes and properties of the industrial metabolism in industrial parks, and may provide a basis for optimizing the management of industrial parks.