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Industrial Ecosystems as Food Webs
Author(s) -
Hardy Catherine,
Graedel Thomas E.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of industrial ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.377
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1530-9290
pISSN - 1088-1980
DOI - 10.1162/108819802320971623
Subject(s) - industrial ecology , ecosystem , business , natural resource economics , environmental science , environmental resource management , ecology , sustainability , economics , biology
Summary Colocated industries exchange products and by‐products in ways reminiscent of the exchange of resources in biological ecosystems. To better understand these “industrial ecosys‐tems”, we have applied food‐web theory to a set of 19 actual and hypothetical eco‐industrial parks and integrated biosys‐tems. We find a linear relationship between number of industrial tenants and number of linkages among them and connectance values of 0.5 to 0.6 (typical of biological ecosystems). The results may provide initial perspective on designing eco‐industrial parks to maximize the utilization of resources and minimize the generation of wastes. Increased connectance in industrial ecosystems, however, does not necessarily imply increased stability or improved environmental performance.