Industrial Ecology in Port and Harbor Areas: an International Survey of Practices

Inspired by the way biological systems function, industrial ecology seeks to optimize local resource and waste management by increasing the density of interactions, and in particular flow exchanges, between stakeholders occupying the same geographical area.

This article proposes to consider port territories, as platforms for the circulation and transformation of the main flows of materials and energy, as relevant laboratories for the implementation of industrial ecology. Its aim is to present the challenges of industrial ecology for port territories, providing specific examples of port industrial ecology initiatives in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America.

The aim is to present the diversity of technical approaches (types of synergies) and organizational approaches (types of governance) in port territories, in order to offer an overview of international practices and French experiences. Elements for assessing the environmental and socio-economic benefits of these initiatives will enable us to appreciate the value of industrial ecology for resource management and the economic development of industrial port activities. Conversely, this international and national overview of port-based industrial ecology initiatives will help us to argue in favor of the role that port territories can play in the global implementation of industrial ecology, in the local, or even regional, management of resources, and in the circular economy in a globalized network of resource exchanges.