An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area
zoned
Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...
and planned for the purpose of
industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a
business park or office park, which has offices and
light industry, rather than
heavy industry. Industrial parks are notable for being relatively simple to build; they often feature speedily erected single-space steel sheds, occasionally in bright colours.
Benefits
Industrial parks are usually located on the edges of, or outside, the main
residential area of a
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
, and are normally provided with good transportation access, including road and
rail. One such example is the large number of industrial estates located along the
River Thames in the
Thames Gateway area of
London. Industrial parks are usually located close to transport facilities, especially where more than one
transport modes
Mode of transport is a term used to distinguish between different ways of transportation or transporting people or goods. The different modes of transport are air, water, and land transport, which includes rails or railways, road and off-road t ...
coincide, including
highways,
railroads,
airports and
ports. Another common feature of a
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
n industrial park is a
water tower, which helps to hold enough water to meet the park's demands and for
firefighting
Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter.
Firefighters typically ...
purposes, and also advertises the industrial park and locality, as usually the community's name and logo are painted onto its surface.
This idea of setting land aside through this type of
zoning has several purposes:
* By concentrating dedicated
infrastructure
Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...
in a delimited area, to reduce the per-business cost of that infrastructure. Such infrastructure includes roadways, railroad sidings, ports, high-power electric supplies (often including
three-phase electric power), high-end communications cables, large-volume water supplies, and high-volume
gas lines.
* To attract new business by providing an integrated infrastructure in one location.
* Eligibility of Industrial Parks for benefits.
* To set apart industrial uses from
urban areas to try to reduce the environmental and social impact of the industrial uses.
* To provide for localized environmental controls that are specific to the needs of an industrial area.
Benchmarking
For the manufacturing companies located in industrial parks, the performance of industrial park operators is important, as the costs for infrastructure and services charged by the industrial park operator is a serious factor for the competitiveness of the manufacturing companies.
Criticism
Different industrial parks fulfill these criteria to differing degrees. Many small communities have established industrial parks with only access to a nearby highway, and with only the basic utilities and roadways.
Public transportation options may be limited or non-existent.
Industrial parks in developing countries such as Pakistan face a myriad of additional difficulties. This includes the availability of a skilled workforce and the clustering together of radically different industrial sectors (pharmaceuticals and heavy engineering, for example), which often leads to unfavorable outcomes for quality centered industries.
Variations
An industrial park specializing in
biotechnology is called a biotechnology industrial park. It may also be known as a bio-industrial park or eco-industrial cluster.
Flatted factories exist in cities like
Singapore and
Hong Kong, where land is scarce. These are typically similar to
flats
Flat or flats may refer to:
Architecture
* Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries
Arts and entertainment
* Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch
* Flat (soldier), ...
, but house individual industries instead. Flatted factories have cargo lifts and roads that serve each level, providing access to each factory lot.
See also
*
Energy park
*
Industrial district
*
Mill town
A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories, usually cotton mills or factories producing textiles. Europe
Italy
* ''Crespi d'Adda'', UNESCO World Her ...
*
Industrial railway
*
Cyberpark
*
Organized industrial zone
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Industrial Park
Industrial Park