The vulnerability of industrial symbiosis: A case study of Qijiang Industrial Park, China

China is promoting the National Demonstration Eco-Industrial Park Program through the establishment of national eco-industrial parks (EIPs) founded on the concept of industrial symbiosis (IS). However, IS networks can be vulnerable to unanticipated perturbations such as sudden collapse/drop-out of an enterprise or the variations in waste quality, which constrain the sustainable development of EIPs. In such cases, we used Qijiang Industrial Park in Chongqing, China, as the case to construct a material and energy exchange network, and the evaluation indicator of vulnerability is put forward based on traditional topological metrics such as node/edge betweenness and global efficiency. We then conducted simulation experiments including single node failure and edge failure considering cascading failure to measure each enterprise's and energy/material flow's destructive effect on the entire network. The result imply that the statuses of enterprise and energy/material vary considerably. Enterprises located in further upstream have relatively large influence in general, and the upstream exchange of energy/material influence the IS system to a large extent. Additionally, synergetic exchanges with larger amount have larger influence on the IS system. Based on our findings, we recommended design and management strategies, such as enterprises adopting a more flexible sourcing and production strategy for various wastes/by-products, increasing the connectivity of EIP, and promoting informationization, to lower the vulnerability of IS system.