Integrated Project: Industrial and Urban Systems

Integrated Project: Industrial and Urban Systems

Many sustainability challenges are related to urban systems and industrial systems. The way urban and industrial environments and their infrastructures are built and transformed, and how people live in them and work in them has an impact on greenhouse gas emission, resource depletion, pollution and the generation of waste.

In this course, we approach urban environments and industrial systems from an ecosystem perspective. We focus on three important flows: energy, water, construction materials, and resources. Analysing these flows reveals the complexity of urban and industrial environments. The flow systems are related in multiple ways. An intervention to improve one flow can have a negative impact on another flow. Spatial interventions hold potential for synergies, for example between improved local water management and more livable green spaces for local inhabitants (urban track), or industrial symbiosis within industrial clusters (industrial track).

To understand and work with this complexity, we start with a careful analysis of a provided urban plan or a provided industrial network, that can be described as an eco-industrial park or a circular economy region. The performance of the system and each flow are analysed and modelled. The outcomes are combined into an integral sustainability assessment of the provided urban plan or provided industrial network.

In the second part of the course, the assessment forms the base for improvements in the provided urban plan or industrial network. The shape and position of the buildings and open spaces are adjusted where needed, and flow-related improvements are translated to spatial interventions. Or in the case of the industrial network, the outline of the process, the flowsheet, or the value chain are translated to design interventions. These elements can lead to conflicts between different interventions. Therefore, trade-offs are identified and negotiated while synergies are sought and strengthened. Here, aspects such as spatial qualities, cluster behaviour, livability and ecology are taken into account as well, leading to an integrated new urban plan or industrial network.

This new plan or network is then considered within its institutional context. Stakeholders that are relevant for successful realisation of the plan are identified. The final outcome is an improved, integrated and implemented sustainable urban development or sustainable industrial development. For acting successfully in the complexity of urban environments and industrial environments, collaboration and communication are crucial skills. Therefore, this course also draws on these skills. For the purpose of knowledge exchange, both tracks have several joint moments and also two excursions for all students of both tracks during the education period (one with more focus on urban development, the other one with more focus on industrial site visits).

This course is part of the joint degree MSc Industrial Ecology, offered by Leiden University and Delft University of Technology. More information about the course is published in the online study guide of Leiden University