Designing SIA - Technical infrastructure

Infrastructure for passenger and goods transport:

A sustainable infrastructure provision is based on a well-designed site master plan, which includes roads capable to accommodate the foreseeable development of traffic as well as bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, access points and parking areas to manage the stationary traffic. Apart from the general road transport, the entire logistic of goods entering or leaving the park has to be taken care of. This includes the management of entry points like harbours, train terminals, warehouses or other types of logistic hubs, transport facilities like pipelines for gases and liquids, conveyor belts for bulk material and respective storage, loading and pumping facilities. To assure reliable, safe, comfortable and affordable commuting towards and within the industrial area an efficient passenger transport system is required. It should consider all means of transport (pedestrian, bicycle, scooter, car, bus, tram, metro), but from the ecological point of view, it should give priority to public mass transport systems (bus, tram, metro).

Provision of energy:

Energy supply and distribution needs to be based on an integrated system of incoming energy from outside the park and energy generation including utilisation of waste energy in the park. The management company has various options to supply energy to its customers at favourable prizes. It may buy energy in large quantities from external suppliers or generate energy internally from conventional fuels, renewable energy sources and waste or utilise waste energy, heat and steam coming from the resident companies. This requires of course an integrated electricity, gas and steam distribution network operated by a single entity, ideally the management unit itself.

Provision of water:

The scarce resource "water" should be addressed in a holistic water and wastewater management approach. Responding to the different demands for drinking and process water needed by the companies in the industrial area, several water qualities must be offered, ideally in a cascading way based on re-use concepts to save water. An analysis of the water distribution system forms the basis for identifying the requirements of the industry and existing water saving potentials. Advice and support to reduce water consumption and reuse wastewater is given to companies to raise awareness in the industry. Rainwater harvesting should be practiced on park facilities, and the collected water should be made available (after conditioning) to the companies for production purposes.

Surface and wastewater management:

Generally, measures have to be introduced to prevent wastewater generation and to reuse wastewater (after treatment) as best as possible before disposal options are considered. Due to the different levels of contamination wastewater treatment needs to be accommodated to the releasing industries as well as to the requirements of the companies reusing wastewater. Companies that generate intensively polluted wastewater need to install a pre-treatment facility before they are allowed to discharge their wastewater into the common sewer. Wastewater of the common sewer is treated in common effluent plants. A good functioning wastewater and surface water system needs clean and proper designed drains. Depending on the magnitude of expected rainfalls it might be advisable to separate the surface water from the industrial wastewater to not overload the effluent plants.

Waste collection, treatment and disposal:

Waste management in sustainable industrial areas should follow the principles of the waste management hierarchy which gives avoidance of waste, reuse, recycling and conversion into energy priority to incineration and disposal. In order to set up such a system, the park management needs to offer advice on how to prevent, minimise and separate the waste within the companies. Furthermore, it provides joint service facilities at park level for the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of the different types of waste including those which are

hazardous. To design an appropriate waste management system the waste flows in the park have to be analysed. For those waste components which are considered a resource ecological and economic sound solutions have to be offered to use these resources within the area (e.g. within networks of industrial symbiosis or loops of circular economy) or to market them as secondary raw material.

Social infrastructure:

Basic social infrastructure should cover catering, small shops or kiosks and communication facilities. Especially for risky work conditions adequate medical services are necessary. Educational and training institutions specialised to train apprentices and employees of the industry sectors settled in the park are very important and may be one key success factor. If many workers live with their families close to or on the premises of the park, the question of schools for children needs to be addressed. Adequate child care facilities are required, in particular to enable mothers to work. If the park is regarded a development zone, the basic facilities need to be complemented by further shopping and banking facilities as well as recreational and sports facilities. In providing a cultural infrastructure (e.g. cinema, cultural events, and congregation space) the areas can play an important societal role.