Eco‐Evolutionary Pathways Toward Industrial Cities

Abstract

Industrial location theory has not emphasized environmental concerns, and research on industrial symbiosis has not emphasized workforce housing concerns. This article brings jobs, housing, and environmental considerations together in an agent-based model of industrial and household location. It shows that four classic outcomes emerge from the interplay of a relatively small number of explanatory factors: the isolated enterprise with commuters; the company town; the economic agglomeration; and the balanced city. Volume 19, Number 2 r What are the evolutionary pathways that settlements founded around industrial enterprises might follow? r Which factors explain commonly observed settlement patterns? r Do environmental factors play a role? From Enterprises to SettlementsThis investigation of how industrial enterprises sometimes evolve into industrial cities draws on three analytical traditions, including urban modeling, industrial symbiosis (IS), and jobsto-housing comparisons. Environmental Simplification in Urban ModelingThe classical traditions in location theory all employ a microeconomic logic. The land-use tradition originates with von Thünen (1966/1826) who argues that land uses in a preindustrial landscape follow a monocentric model that optimally locates dispersed agricultural production based on transport costs to a central market. Alonso (1964) updates this approach for the industrial city by determining the optimal distances of residential and commercial land uses from a central business district. Sasaki and Box (2003) replicate von Thünen's results in an agent-based model. The central-place tradition originating

Complexity in Industrial Ecology: Models, Analysis, and Actions

“…Several case studies have been presented integrating ABM with traditional IE methods, including LCA (Miller et al ), material flow analysis (MFA) (Bollinger et al ), and IS (Batten ). In this special issue, Hicks and colleagues () use ABM to evaluate the rebound effect of adopting energy‐efficient technology on energy savings; Chandra‐Putra and colleagues () model the emergence of industrial and household location in industrial‐urban systems using ABM. Interestingly, ABM was not used in these studies as an addition to improve another IE method; instead, it was used as the main modeling technique to address an IE‐relevant question.…”

“…Nevertheless, ABM has potential for addressing many long‐standing and emerging research questions in IE. As hinted by Hicks and colleagues () and Chandra‐Putra and colleagues (), using ABM as the main modeling technique instead of as an add‐on might be more effective in dealing with issues that emerge from the interaction of heterogeneous individual agents.…”

“…Chandra‐Putra and colleagues () take industrial cities as their object of research. They investigated “how the environmental characteristics of firms affect the evolutionary pathway of their host settlement,” and by careful analysis developed an agent‐based model to explore industrial and household location.…”

“…Agent‐based modeling (ABM) has been an important tool to bridge complexity science and IE. The fourth group of articles provided case studies using ABM to understand industrial‐urban evolution (Chandra‐Putra et al ) and rebound effect (Hicks et al ). In particular, Hicks and colleagues () develop an agent‐based model to understand the energy‐saving effects of adopting efficient lighting technology (light‐emitting diode and compact fluorescent lamp).…”

Agent‐Based Modeling of Temporal and Spatial Dynamics in Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment

“…ABM has been used both as a stand‐alone modeling tool to study IE (e.g., Chandra‐Putra et al. ; Hicks et al. ) and in combination with other IE methods such as LCA (e.g., Davis et al.…”