The design of agri-industrial ecological park: A case study of Zhengzhou national economic-technological development area

Along with the rapid process of industrialization and urbanization, the economic development of China was constrained by both increasingly scarce resources and contaminated environment. Eco-industrial park (EIP), as a significant practice of industrial ecology, has become one of the important carriers in China’s construction of circular economy and sustainable development. However, the traditional development chain of eco-industrial parks is so single that less attention is paid on agriculture, industry and services to seek a more extensive cooperation mechanisms, leading to the problems of a unclear and indistinct regional feature in current development tendency of eco-industrial parks. Therefore, the construction framework of agri-industrial ecological park (agri-industrial EIP) are proposed in this paper, including conception, development model, construction significance and principles of design. The conception of agri-industrial EIPs is defined as follows: agri-industrial EIPs are regional industrial symbiosis which are based on the core of industrial parks and composed of “social-economic-nature” complex involving the various types of agriculture-related enterprises, cooperative organizations, farmers, villages and farmland around the park. Then, according to the enterprise scale and scope of radiation area, it can be divided into three levels: (1) small level involving enterprise combined with farmers, (2) meso-level involving core parks combined with hinterland, (3) regional level involving. Meanwhile, the construction of agri-industrial EIPs can benefit in comprehensive utilization of resources in the surroundings and the logistics cost savings, competitiveadvantage of industrial symbiosis network will also be improved, the goal of “industry promotes agriculture, production promotes environmental protection will be achieved. In the view of system optimization method, the paper has put forward five principles for designing agri-industrial EIPs: transverse coupling, longitudinal closing, regional combination, functional orientation and employment increasing. Based on these conceptions and design principles, we take national economic- technological development area (NETDA) in Zhengzhou as a case study, which is the only state-level industrial parks in Henan province which is famous for the largest production of agricultural and sideline products in central regions, convenient transportation network and rich land resources. Combined with regional characteristics and resource advantages, NETDA was constructed as agri-industrial symbiotic industrial ecosystem by three product lines and a service chain,which are as follows:1) the first product chain, which focuses on the products of small or medium-sized and low-emission vehicles provided for farmers on back-land of the agri-industrial EIPs,2) the second product chain, in order to meet the demand of agricultural mechanization, which focuses on agricultural machinery provided by enterprises of equipment manufacturing in the park for the need of rural production in the surrounding hinterland, 3) the third product chain, which focuses on agricultural products produced in hinterland to strengthen the connection between food processing enterprises in the park with the rural in hinterland through the way of “order agriculture”,4) service chain, with the purpose of meeting technology and information demand for the rapid development of agriculture, which focus on technical guidance and information services provided for agricultural development in hinterland, rural residential environment construction, rural employment by the agricultural headquarters in agri-industrial EIPs.In conclusion, the construction of agri-industrial EIPs is not only the specific implementation of theory in the industrial symbiosis at the regional level, but also is an innovative application of compound ecosystem theory in the level of industrial parks.