Proposal of a Conceptual Model to Represent Urban-Industrial Systems from the Analysis of Existing Worldwide Experiences

Carmen Ruiz-Puente
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Carmen Ruiz-Puente: INGEPRO Research Group, Department of Transport and Projects and Processes Technology, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-17

Abstract: The adoption of Industrial Symbiosis (IS) practices within urban areas is gaining interest due to the environmental impacts entailed by the development of cities. However, there is still a lack of knowledge about how the relationships between industrial and urban areas can be modelled. In this context, this research aimed at posing a conceptual model to understand and represent Urban-Industrial Systems (UIS). To this end, a set of worldwide previous UIS experiences were overviewed to identify the agents, dynamics, and collaboration opportunities that characterize them. The multi-perspective analysis of these cases indicated that UIS are complex systems, which means that they are autonomous, self-organized, responsive, nonlinear, and willing to consolidate their resilience. As such, Agent-Based Models (ABM) were suggested to be the most suitable approach for their representation.

Keywords: complex systems; industrial ecology; urban-industrial symbiosis; urban-industrial systems; urban metabolism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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