Research ArticleSynergistic Evaluation and Constraint Factor Analysis on UrbanIndustrial Ecosystems of Traditional Industrial Area in China

Chengpeng Lu 123 Wei Ji1 Zhiliang Liu1 Shuheng Dong23 and Bing Xue23

1Institute of County Economic Development amp Rural Revitalization Strategy Lanzhou University Lanzhou 730000 China2Key Lab of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering Institute of Applied Ecology Chinese Academy of SciencesShenyang 110016 China3Key Lab for Environmental Computation and Sustainability of Liaoning Province Shenyang 110016 China

Correspondence should be addressed to Chengpeng Lu lcplzueducn

Received 15 May 2020 Revised 6 June 2020 Accepted 11 June 2020 Published 1 July 2020

Guest Editor Jun Yang

Copyright copy 2020 Chengpeng Lu et alis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licensewhich permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited

Industrial ecology is an advanced form and ideal model of modern industrial development in which the industrial ecosystem isthe core Based on the PSR model this paper builds a comprehensive evaluation index system for urban industrial ecosystemdevelopment and selects 14 prefecture-level cities in Liaoning Province of the traditional industrial area in Northeastern China ascases to calculate the development level of its industrial ecosystem during 2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and thento conduct a spatial visualization analysis Finally based on the ldquostress-state-responserdquo subsystem this paper diagnoses theconstraints for industrial ecosystem development which can provide a reference basis for decision-making in industrial ecology oftraditional industrial area represented by those in Northeast China e results show the following (1) From 2000 to 2018 theindustrial ecology of the 14 cities in Liaoning Province was at a medium level Except for Shenyang and Dalian with the rapiddevelopment the difference of industrial ecosystem development for other cities was relatively small (2) From 2000 to 2018 theindustrial ecosystem development of each city was in a status of ldquoeither increasing or decreasing or fluctuatingrdquo which generallyraised first and then decreased Regarding spatial difference the development exhibited a ldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern withShenyang and Dalian as the ldquodual-corerdquo that were increasingly strengthened with significantly high-level industrial ecology (3) Atsystem level PSR constraint grades for the industrial ecosystem development in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province were differentConstraint grades in the pressure subsystem the state subsystem and the response subsystem for the industrial ecosystem ofLiaoning were 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicating that the lack of human response to the ecological environmentand the pressure of human activities on the ecological environment during the industrial economy development were the mainconstraints affecting the process of industrial ecology in these cities (4) Due to the differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and local development contexts the major constraint factors of industrial ecosystemdevelopment in different cities are significantly different and complicated however there are five factors that are generallyconsidered as major constraint factors in all cities ie regional GDP number of labor force employed in the secondary industrialsector gross investment in fixed assets amount of industrial sulfur dioxide removal and production value from ldquothree-wastesrdquocomprehensive utilization At last this paper puts forward some recommendations and suggestions for providing scientificsupport for industrial ecosystem construction in the traditional industrial area of Northeastern China

1 Introduction

Industrial ecosystem is a complex system formed by feed-back and coupling between industry and ecological envi-ronment [1ndash3] It is an organic whole formed by materialexchange and energy flow between industrial segments and

environmental components in a certain area [4 5] withgeneral features of subject diversity structural complexitysynergetic evolution and systematic stability [6ndash8] In thissystem the quantitative relationship between input andoutput supply and demand of different industries appearsas the static aspect of the industrial system while the

HindawiComplexityVolume 2020 Article ID 3805454 16 pageshttpsdoiorg10115520203805454

interaction and restriction between industries in interme-diate production processes appears as the dynamic aspect[9] In the process of continuous development and evolutionof the industrial ecosystem it is affected by a continuousinterweaving and integration of various internal and ex-ternal factors in both spatial and temporal dimensions[10ndash12] e change of one (or a group of) element(s) in thesystem may cause a spatial and temporal change in otherelements and even in the entire system [13] As a typicalsubsystem of complex urban system [14 15] the industrialecosystem usually interacts integrates and collaborates withthe complex urban system in all aspects including economyculture society and ecology [16] On the one hand a rapidlydeveloped ecological industry has an inestimable role inpromoting the economic vitality of the urban system andprotecting the ecological environment On the other handthe industrial ecosystem as a carrier of industrial ecosystemactivities is always impacted directly or indirectly by theconstruction and development methods of the city [17]erefore to achieve regional sustainable development weshould pay high attention to the ecological and environ-mental effects of industry transformation in both spatial andtemporal dimensions thus realizing the coordinated de-velopment of industry and environment [18 19] At presentthe research on industrial complexity is shifting fromevolution of complexity of industrial system to adaptabilityof industrial ecosystem [20] which provides a new theo-retical and methodological paradigm for exploring thecoupling mechanism of the industrial ecosystem [21] andhas a very good application prospect [22]

Interaction through material flow etc between com-ponents and subsystems of the industrial ecosystem shapes atopological structure of ecological relationships in which theevolution of this structure and diagnosis of impact factors inthis process are essential for the transformation of urbanindustrial ecosystems [23] Either in China or abroad theresearch in transformation of industrial ecosystems mainlyfocuses on industrial metabolic analysis industrial chainanalysis cleaner production and ecological design Ayresfirst proposed the concept of industrial metabolism [24]Based on this concept Frosch and Gallopoulos [4] proposedthe industrial metabolism theory that is through therecycling process of natural ecosystems to study the in-dustrial metabolism process Chopra et al [25 26] regardedthe industrial ecosystem as a natural ecosystem and studiedits metabolic processes Furtherly Lu [19] built a wastemetabolism model of industrial ecosystems and conducted aquantitative analysis on the waste metabolism process andcharacteristics of Jinchangrsquos industrial symbiosis systemIndustrial chain analysis mainly refers to starting fromadjusting the structure and composition of an industrialchain to study the urban ecological transformation throughthe industrial chain reorganization and the analysis of theindustrial chain stability for example Japanrsquos Eco-town[27] and the industrial symbiosis formed by a green in-dustrial supply chain of Guangxi Guitang Corporation inChina [28] In addition Zhang [29] conducted the analyseson urban industrial ecological transformation from theperspective of stability In recent years more and more

scholars in China and abroad have paid great attentions tothe related research on industrial ecosystem developmentrules and its comprehensive evaluation Huang and Ula-nowicz [30] took the indicators of the ecological networkanalysis method to evaluate the economic developmenttrend of Beijing Zhang et al [31] applied the Input-Outputtable based ecological network analysis method to analyzethe nutritional structure and the symbiotic relationshipbetween the components of Beijingrsquos industrial ecologicalnetwork Qiu et al [18] selected 14mining cities in NortheastChina as research cases and quantitatively evaluated theadaptability of the industrial ecosystems in mining citiesWang and Zhou [32] studied the spatial characteristics ofecological-economic interaction in Chinarsquos industrial eco-logical-economic system based on PSR Model and thenidentified the key influencing factors of different types ofinteraction relationships based on multiple discrete choicemodel Currently some progress has been made in com-prehensive evaluation and empirical research about indus-trial ecosystems but there still exist some commonproblems (1) existing research mainly focuses on the use ofcoordination index discrete models or coupling relation-ship to carry out industrial ecological security evaluationhowever it will generate a major error when converting theoriginally constructed index into the coordination indexwhich has no sense to the ecological and economic signif-icance of the original index and is not conducive to theanalysis of the reasons (2) there is still a lack of researches onthe comprehensive evaluation of the development level ofindustrial ecosystem and the diagnosis of impact factors (3)the solution to future industrial ecological construction andco-governance has not been put forward in accordance withthe impact factors

Since the 1980s the human-land relationship in thetraditional industrial area in Northeast China has becomeincreasingly tense e extensive development pattern hasnot only caused environmental pollution and waste of re-sources but also become a major direct constraint oneconomic growth [33 34] Particularly inmining cities therehave been a series of economic social and environmentalissues such as stagnated economic development severedisguised unemployment and deteriorated ecological en-vironment which have aroused a great concern of thegovernment [35 36] In 2003 the Central Committee of theCommunist Party (CCCP) and the State Council of Chinajointly issued an official document ldquoSeveral Opinions onImplementation of the Strategy for Revitalizing Old In-dustrial Bases in Northeast Chinardquo (as RevitalizationStrategy thereafter) and formulated various guidelines andpolicies for the Revitalization Strategy in 2007 the StateCouncil approved the ldquoRevitalization Plan for the NortheastRegionrdquo (as Revitalization Plan thereafter) and clearlyproposed that the Northeast Region would be built into animportant economic growth region with a high level ofcomprehensive economic development and an essentialsafeguarding zone for national ecological security in 2016the CCCP and the State Council jointly issued anotherofficial document ldquoSeveral Opinions on ComprehensivelyRejuvenating Old Industrial Bases in the Northeast and

2 Complexity

Other Regionsrdquo (as Rejuvenation Opinions thereafter) isdocument clearly reiterated that it was important to promotesustainable development of resource-based cities and strivefor the coordinated social and economic development ofresource-based and non-resource-based industries in urbanareas and mining areas Since the implementation of theabove policies and plans the economic and social devel-opment in the traditional industrial area in Northeast Chinawas accelerated the economic strength was continuouslyenhanced the pilot of economic transformation of resource-based cities was steadily advanced the infrastructure wasconstantly improved the ecological construction and en-vironmental protection had achieved positive outcomes anurban social security system was preliminarily establishedand the employment situation showed an upward turn [37]However in the transformation process of the traditionalindustrial area for undertaking industrial transfer nurturingalternative industries and transforming towards sustainabledevelopment from resource-based cities Northeast Chinahas not completely come out of the traditional energy-consuming production model is is because the one-wayindustrial economic development model ignored the eco-logical capacity and therefore paid a high price at sacrificinglimited resources and natural environment which humanslive on Consequently for resource-based cities especiallyresource-depleted cities sustainable development capabil-ities become weak development of alternative industries isslow and social ecological and environmental issues arestill serious [38ndash42] To avoid the sharp conflict between thetraditional industrial system and natural ecosystem in theprocess of industrial succession transformation of miningcities becomes vital e core of such transformation is toimprove the level of industrial ecology us the scientificreview and research into comprehensive measurement andconstraint factor diagnosis for urban industrial ecosystemdevelopment are particularly urgent

In this study 14 prefecture-level cities in LiaoningProvince of traditional industrial area in Northeastern Chinawere selected as examples Taking the industrial ecosystem asan entry point we systematically evaluate the developmentof industrial ecology of Liaoning Province during2000ndash2018 at a city scale Meanwhile we explore the de-velopment trend of industrial ecology temporal evolutionand spatial distribution characteristics and reveal the impactfactors Overall this study aims to look for a specific path ofdevelopment for optimizing industrial ecosystem for urbanareas in Liaoning In the process of implementing the Re-juvenation Opinions and ldquothe Revitalization Planrdquo it notonly can provide new ideas and decision-making evidencestomaintain sustainable development of the industrial systemand improve the competitiveness in industrial developmentfor Liaoning Province but also can provide references forindustrial ecology in other traditional industrial areas

2 Materials and Methods

21 StudiedCases Liaoning Province is located in the southof Chinarsquos northeast region (Figure 1) with a land mass of148000 square kilometers It administers 14 prefecture-

level cities and 100 counties (including county-level citiesand districts) with a total population of 4271 million Asone of Chinarsquos important old industrial bases LiaoningProvince has almost all industrial categories including 39large 197 medium and more than 500 small industrialcategories In Liaoning equipment manufacturing and rawmaterial industries are well developed Many industriesoccupy an important position in the country such as majorequipment manufacturing for metallurgy and miningelectric power transmission and transformation generalpetrochemical processing metal processing iron and steeland petrochemical industries In 2018 the regional GDP inLiaoning was CNY253154 billion of which the addedvalue of the secondary industry was CNY100251 billionaccounting for 356 Building a strong ecological prov-ince is a strategic priority for Liaoning Province in revi-talizing Northeast China e coordinated development ofindustrial ecology has already attracted widespread at-tention Since the implementation of the RevitalizationStrategy the transformation and optimization of tradi-tional industries in Liaoning has continuously acceleratedwhile the economic development focus has shifted fromhigh-speed to high-quality and the development of majorequipment design and manufacturing industry has taken alead in the country However due to the long-term in-fluence of the extensive economic growth model the in-dustrial development pattern has not fundamentallychanged yet which still mainly relies on traditional in-dustries such as equipment manufacturing coal miningand oil smelting Governments and enterprises at all levelsoveremphasized industrial development but failed to ef-fectively integrate industries into industrial ecosystemconstruction thus resulting in a relatively independentindustrial system without comprehensive interconnectionbetween industrial categories Consequently the devel-opment of industrial ecology was slow industrial struc-tures were convergent and the complementary regionaladvantages were not effectively exerted In addition theindependent innovation capability of industrial ecosystemwas weak It always depended on traditional industrialpaths and lacked enough nurture of emerging pillar in-dustries featuring a low level of industrial structure and anoverweighed secondary sector In the meantime therelacked an effective dynamic circulation system high-techindustries and modern service industries were propor-tionally low the deep processing of raw material industrywas at a relatively low level and the independent inno-vation ability was weak Constructing industrial ecosys-tems is a new strategic measure to promote thecomprehensive revitalization of the Northeast Region Itcan effectively address deep-seated issues in industrialdevelopment of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningovercome constraints of traditional industrial developmentsystems and mechanisms change the industrial develop-ment approach in multiple dimensions such as manage-ment mechanism operation mode production methodand business environment and realize an economic-en-vironmental coupling and sustainable development[43 44]

Complexity 3

22 Index and Data Sources Constructing a scientific andrational evaluation index system is the basis and premise toobjectively evaluate an urban industrial ecosystem Based onthe PSR model in terms of local contexts operability andrationality this paper establishes a comprehensive evalua-tion index system of urban industrial ecosystem develop-ment with fully considering the complexity dynamics andopenness of an urban industrial ecosystem following theprinciples of systematicity comparability and availabilityand taking the systemrsquos internal structure and benefit op-timization as the foothold e evaluation index system(Table 1) includes three layers (1) pressure subsystem whichrepresents the development need of the industrial economyand the pressure of energy consumption on the ecosystem(2) state subsystem which represents the impact on theecological environment during the development of indus-trial economy and the original state of ecological environ-ment (3) response subsystem which characterizes thehumanrsquos effect to protect the environment and controlpollution in order to alleviate environmental damage whenthe ecological environment is changed due to the impact ofindustrial economic development e data are mainly fromldquoLiaoning Statistical Yearbooksrdquo China City StatisticalYearbooks statistical yearbooks and environmental

statistical bulletins of various cities in Liaoning Provincepublished during 2001ndash2019

23 Methodology TOPSIS is paper adopts the TOPSIS(Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an IdealSolution) method to objectively quantitatively measure andanalyze the development level of urban industrial ecosystemin Liaoning Province e TOPSIS method proposed byHwang and Yoon in 1981 is commonly used for compre-hensive evaluation and comparison of multiple options inmulti-attribute decision-making theory [45] Its basicprinciple is to eliminate the difference among various in-dicators due to different units through related standardizedprocessing methods establish a normalized matrix from theoriginal data and then identify the best and worst ones fromthe various solutions By calculating the distance betweeneach solution and the bestworst solution we can work outthe relative closeness between the selected solution and theworst or the best solution to rank and evaluate the ad-vantages and disadvantages of different solutions Whencalculating a normalized decision matrix using the TOPSISmethod all indicators are normalized with the perception ofthe bigger the better without classifying indicators In

0 25 50 100km

126ordmE

42ordmN

123ordmE120ordmE

N

S

EW

Figure 1 Location of the studied cities

4 Complexity

addition the weight determination is subjective Consid-ering the intereffect of subsystems of the PSR model wecannot solely measure indicators of the primary index andsimply determine their impact weights In this regard thispaper first classifies different types of indicators into ldquopos-itiverdquo and ldquonegativerdquo ones uses the difference coefficientmethod to objectively calculate the weight of each type ofindicators applies the TOPSIS method to calculate thedistance between the sample and the target and then usesthe grey correlation degree to calculate the industrial eco-logical development level In fact in the process of sys-tematic evaluation of industrial ecosystems not only is itnecessary to measure the level of industrial ecology but alsoit is more practical to understand the constraint factors inpromoting industrial ecology levels for the 14 prefecture-level cities in Liaoning Province to develop pathologicaldiagnosis for industrial ecology erefore this article in-troduces a constraint grade model to conduct an extensionstudy on the development process of industrial ecology anddiagnoses and analyses the constraint factors in the in-dustrial ecology development of the cities in LiaoningProvince e calculation steps are as follows

Normalization and assignment xij is the j-th evaluationindex value in the i-th sample n is the number of samplesandm is the number of indices Because the different types ofindices would affect development of industrial ecosystemseither positively or negatively it is necessary to normalizeindex values by applying the difference between the actualand target values and using the extreme value method

Positive indices

rij xij minus minixij

maxixij minus minixij

(1)

Negative indices

rij maxixij minus xij

maxixij minus minixij

(2)

where maxixij and minixij are the maximum and minimumvalues of the j-th index respectively after normalization rij

is [0 1]Using the entropy value method to determine the weight

of each index then the weight of the i-th sample for the j-thindex fij can be calculated

fij rij

1113936mj1 rij

(3)

Calculate the entropy value of the j-th index fj ie Hjas follows

Hj minusK 1113944m

j1Pj ln Pj1113872 1113873 (4)

Calculate the entropy weight coefficient ie wj asfollows

wj 1 minus Hj

m minus 1113936mj1 Hj

(5)

Table 1 PSR model based evaluation index system for urban industrial ecosystems in Liaoning Province

Systemlayer Normative level Parameters Indicator Parameters Indicator

type

PressureIndustrial economy P1

GDP (billions) P11 +Value added of the secondary sector (billions) P12 +

Number of persons employed in the secondary sector(10000) P13 +

Average wage of active workers (yuan) P14 +e number of industrial enterprises P15 +Gross industrial output (billions) P16 +

Total investment in fixed assets (billions) P17 +

Energy consumption P2 Industrial electricity (10000 kWmiddoth) P21 minus

Integrated energy consumption (10000 tonsstandard coal) P22 minus

State

Discharge of the threewastes S1

Total industrial waste water discharge (10000 tons) S11 minus

Industrial solid waste generation (10000 tons) S12 minus

Total industrial waste gas emissions (billion standard cubicmeters) S13 minus

Industrial fume (powder) dust emissions (tons) S14 minus

Greenfield resources S2 Greening of built-up areas (hectares) S21 minus

Forest cover () S22 +

Air quality S3Number of days with air quality at and better than level 2

(days) S31 +

Particulate matter (PM10) (μgm3) S32 minus

Response

Governance facilities R1 Number of waste water treatment facilities (sets) R11 +Number of industrial waste gas treatment facilities (sets) R12 +

Governance capacity R2

Industrial sulfur dioxide removal (tons) R21 +Industrial fume (powder) dust removal (tons) R22 +

Combined industrial solid waste utilization (10000 tons) R23 +Product value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization

(10000 yuan) R24 +

Complexity 5

Build a weighted decision matrix ie V as follows

V

v11 v12 middot middot middot v1j

v21 v22 middot middot middot v2j

⋮ ⋮ ⋮

vi1 vi2 middot middot middot vij

⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣

⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦

(6)

Determine the positive- and negative-ideal solutionsand calculate the Euclidean distance and grey correlationdegree for all samples e positive- and negative-idealsolutions are as follows

v+j max vij

11138681113868111386811138681113868 i 1 2 n1113882 1113883 v+1 v

+2 v

+n1113864 1113865

vminusj min vij

11138681113868111386811138681113868 i 1 2 n1113882 1113883 vminus1 v

minus2 v

minusn1113864 1113865

(7)

en the calculations for the Euclidean distance of ei-ther positive-ideal or negative-ideal solutions are as follows

D+i

1113944

m

j1vij minus v+

j1113872 11138732

11139741113972

i 1 2 n

Dminusi

1113944

m

j1vij minus vminus

j1113872 11138732

11139741113972

i 1 2 n

(8)

Calculate the grey correlation degree e correlationcoefficient for an index between the sample and the positive-ideal solution can be calculated based on the weightedmatrix

s+ij

miniminjΔvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

Δvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

(9)

where Δvij |v+j minus vij| miniminjΔvij is the minimum dif-

ference between two levels maximaxjΔvij is the maximumdifference between two levels and ρ isin [0 1] is resolutioncoefficient in this study ρ 05 Construct the grey cor-relation coefficient matrix of positive-ideal solution samplesand then calculate the grey correlation degree between eachsample and the positive-ideal solution

W+i

1113936mj1 s+

ij

m i 1 2 n (10)

Calculate the correlation coefficient of each sample andthe negative-ideal solution on different indices

sminusij

miniminjΔvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

Δvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

(11)

where Δvij |vminusj minus vij|

Calculate the grey correlation between each sample andthe negative-ideal solution as follows

Wminusi

1113936mj1 s+

ij

m i 1 2 n (12)

Calculate the relative proximity Normalize the Eu-clidean distance and grey correlation as follows

εi δi

max1leilem δi( 1113857 i 1 2 n (13)

where εi⟶ D+i Dminus

i W+i Wminus

i After dimensionless pro-cessing they are d+

i dminusi w+

i wminusi

e adjusted formula comprehensively considers theEuclidean distance and grey correlation

T+i θ1d

minusi + θ2w

+i i 1 2 n

Tminusi θ1d

+i + θ2w

minusi i 1 2 n

(14)

θ1 θ2 indicate the degree of preference θ1 + θ2 1 in thispaper θ1 θ2 05 T+

i andTminusi refer to how close the sample

is to either the positive- or negative-ideal solutionsCalculate the relative proximity εi as follows

εi T+

i

T+i + Tminus

i

i 1 2 n (15)

Calculate the constraint grade Analyze and diagnose thestudy case by measuring the factor contribution indexdeviation and constraint grade (1) factor contribution (Gj)represents the degree of influence of single factor on theoverall goal (2) index deviation (Pj) refers to the differencebetween a single factor index and the overall goal of thesystem which is assumed as the difference between thestandardized value of a single index and 100 (3) constraintgrade (Zj) is the degree of influence of a single index or anindex at criterion level on the development level of industrialecosystems e index deviation Pj and the constraint gradeZj are calculated as follows

Pij 1 minus rij

Zij PijGj

111393614j1PijGj

(16)

3 Results

31 Spatiotemporal Evolution Characteristics of the IndustrialEcosystemrsquos Development Level According to the compre-hensive evaluation methodology discussed above weidentified the positive- and negative-ideal solutions of in-dices standardized the data using Excel and conducted greycorrelation analysis using MATLAB thereby revealing thelongitudinal characteristics of the development level of in-dustrial ecosystems in the period of 2000 to 2018 for the 14cities in Liaoning Province (see Figure 2) At the same timebased on ArcGIS software we used the data in 2000 20062012 and 2018 respectively to conduct a spatial visuali-zation analysis of the development level of industrial ecologyfor all the cities in Liaoning Province and then to clarify itsspatial differentiation as shown in Figure 3

From Figure 2 the development level and situation ofindustrial ecosystems in the 14 cities of Liaoning Provincevaried in the study period but generally showed a steadyupward trend e industrial ecosystemrsquos development levelof these cities was in the range of [038 066] Shenyang theprovincial capital city and Dalian a city specifically listed inthe state economic plan had relatively high levels of

6 Complexity

industrial ecosystem development with an obvious upwardtrend and leading ahead but they did not have a significantpull effect on the surrounding cities Meanwhile there wasnot a big difference in industrial ecology developmentamong other cities as they were all at a medium levelLiaoning Province located in the old industrial region ofNortheast China is rich in natural resources but with amedium economic development level in China Its economyhas been dominated by resource-based industries for a longtime and the development of alternative industries was slow[46] Except for Shenyang and Dalian the difference ineconomic development among other cities was relativelysmall moreover the ability to adjust and reorganize thecityrsquos industrial ecosystem was limited and lagged by lowecological construction From a longitudinal perspective thedevelopment of industrial ecosystems in 2000ndash2006 wasrelatively stable there was a rising trend from 2006 to 2013suggesting that the Revitalization Strategy had generatedhuge policy and investment effects Since 2013 there was atrend of decline in industrial ecosystemrsquos developmentDuring the period when the GDP growth rates of all threenortheastern provinces nationally ranked among the bottomten for example ranking the bottom five in the year of 2014and 2015 Liaoning Province the largest economy in theNortheast ranked nationally the lowest economic growthrate of 30 in 2015 and minus25 in 2016 respectively isperiod was called the ldquoNew Northeast Phenomenonrdquo whichhad a significant negative impact on the industrial ecologydevelopment of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina especially in Liaoning Province

From the prefecture-level city level we conclude thefollowing (1) industrial ecosystem development in She-nyang and Dalian showed a rapid upward trend and thedevelopment level was relatively high leading the other 12cities is was closely related to the factors such as theadministrative status geographical location and industrialstructure of the two cities Shenyang as the central city of the

three northeastern provinces has policy advantage large citysize and good market environment thus attracts manyhigh-end talents and quality enterprises and leads theprovince in the overall development of Liaoning Dalian isone of the high-tech industrial bases and a well-knowntourist city in China According to the 2010 China UrbanCompetitiveness Report the comprehensive competitive-ness of Dalian ranked the eighth among all cities in China InDalian the solid technological foundation first-class sci-entific and technological talent concentration convenientsea amp land transportation and comfortable climate amp en-vironment promote its economic development and eco-logical construction (2) Industrial ecosystem developmentin the five cities ie Dandong Jinzhou Fuxin Tieling andHuludao shows a steady upward trend with a fluctuationand is at a medium level Dandong is an important meetingpoint of the Northeast Asian Economic Circle the Bohai BayEconomic Rim and the Yellow Sea Economic Basin It hascurrently formed advantageous industries such as trans-portation equipment manufacturing agricultural amp sidelineproduct processing energy metal mining and smelting amprolling processing In recent years to promote the devel-opment of industrial ecology Dandong has successivelyestablished various ecological and environmental industrialparks and actively carried out ecological restoration projectsBoth Jinzhou and Fuxin are important old industrial cities inNortheast China Jinzhou has gradually formed an industrialsystem featuring petrochemicals new materials and deepprocessing of agricultural products As one of the importantcities in the Shenyang Economic Zone Fuxinrsquos industrialeconomy is dominated by coal Dandong and Fuxin play aleading role in the overall development of the westernLiaoning region with a healthy development momentumTieling is one of the main grain production regions in Chinaa production and processing base of quality agriculturalproducts and an emerging coal-power city Due to thecharacteristics of the industrial structure the industrial

030

035

040

045

050

055

060

065

070

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Indu

stria

l eco

logi

cal l

evel

ShenyangDalianAnshanFushun

BenxiDandongJinzhouYingkou

FuxinLiaoyangPanjinTieling

ZhaoyangHuludao

Figure 2 Development levels of industrial ecosystems in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province (2000ndash2018)

Complexity 7

ecosystem of Tieling is stable Huludao is the west gate ofNortheast China With outstanding geographical advan-tages it has formed a modern industrial system with suchpillar industries as petrochemicals nonferrous metalsmachinery manufacturing shipbuilding and energy andpower production Based on a strong industrial developmentfoundation currently Huludao is in a critical transitionperiod of industrial structure upgrade (3) In the remaining 7cities of Liaoning Province ie Anshan Fushun BenxiYingkou Liaoyang Panjin and Chaoyang the developmentof industrial ecosystems shows a moderate upward trendwhich is slightly weaker and more fluctuating than theoverall development of the five cities mentioned aboveAmong them the development of industrial ecosystems inAnshan Benxi and Yingkou has been in the most severefluctuation indicating that the stability of industrial eco-systems in these three cities is poor and needs to be adjusted

effectively ere is no obvious change in industrial eco-system development in Fushun Liaoyang Panjin andChaoyang ese four cities generally had a single industrialstructure poor environmental stability and weak scientificand technological capacity It is necessary and urgent to takeeffective measures to optimize the industrial ecosystem

From the perspective of spatial distribution the overallspatial differentiation was significant in 2000 ShenyangFushun and Panjin in north-central Liaoning formed anldquouplift beltrdquo while Anshan Liaoyang and Benxi in thecentral-eastern province formed a ldquogroove areardquo Since 2006the spatial differentiation has becomemore significant whenShenyang and Dalian have jointly formed a high-level in-dustrial ecology zone As the ldquodual-corerdquo feature has beensignificant and increasingly strengthened the agglomerationof Shenyang Economic Zone and Coastal Economic Belt wasgradually enhanced while the difference between the ldquouplift

20000394ndash03970398ndash04110412ndash04180419ndash04290430ndash0447120degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

40degN

N

N N

N

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

20060378ndash03850386ndash04010402ndash04270428ndash04570458ndash0505120degE

120degE120degE

201804330434ndash04680469ndash04800481ndash05100511ndash0657

20120442ndash04460447ndash04650466ndash04810482ndash05000501ndash0633

Figure 3 Spatiotemporal evolution patterns of urban industrial ecosystems development level in Liaoning Province

8 Complexity

beltrdquo and the ldquogroove areardquo gradually dimmede industrialecosystemrsquos development level in the southeast has graduallysurpassed that in the northwest Anshan a resource-de-pleted city is slow in industrial transformation and remainsa relatively low level of industrial ecosystem developmentwhile Huludao City always maintains a high level In termsof regional difference there is a remarkable feature ofldquocenter-peripheryrdquo describing the central-northern regioncentered on Shenyang and southeastern amp northwesternregions respectively To summarize the above analysis bothShenyang Economic Zone and Liaoning Coastal EconomicBelt are currently still the engines of industrial ecologydevelopment in the Northeast region while the entireNortheast region has also achieved considerable develop-ment and the overall structure will be further optimized

32 Cluster Analysis of Industrial Ecosystem Based on thecluster analysis of the industrial ecology level for the 14 citiesof Liaoning Province in 2018 the spatial distribution ofhigh-level medium-level and low-level industrial ecosys-tems was identified rough cluster analysis we can con-clude the following (1) the two sub-provincial level citiesShenyang and Dalian have the high-level industrial eco-system (industrial ecosystem development level gt055)eyhave superior geographical locations good industrial eco-nomic development conditions and strong industrialfoundations which provide a strong guarantee for pro-tecting the ecological environment In the two cities thegreen coverage in built-up areas is significantly higher thanthat of other cities the industrial ecosystem development isat a higher level due to strong policy support However thereis still room to improve the ability of ecological environ-mental governance that is there is potential to furtherdevelop the industrial ecology (2) Huludao City has amedium-level industrial ecosystem (05lt development levelof industrial ecosystemle 055) Huludao is a coastal city andhas formed a modern industrial system with petroleumprocessing non-ferrous metals machinery manufacturingship building and energy and power production as the pillarindustries Its industrial foundation is strong However dueto the current situation of transitioning and upgradingindustrial structure various issues such as poor environ-mental stability and weak technological capacity havenegatively affected the improvement of industrial ecosystem(3) Eleven cities including Anshan Fushun and Benxi had alow-level industrial ecosystem (development level of in-dustrial ecosystem le05) Four cities in the Coastal EconomicBelt of eastern Liaoning ie Anshan Yingkou Panjin andJinzhou are developing innovative industries and building alivable and touristic urban agglomeration However thetraditional low-level industrial economy could not provideenough material technical and resource support foraddressing ecological and environmental issues ereforethe environmental improvement is sluggish and the processof sustainable development is slow In Chaoyang Tielingand Fuxin which locate in the northwest of LiaoningProvince the ecological and industrial development is not inharmony due to geographical constraints e

comprehensive competitiveness of these cities is at thelowest end of Liaoning Province with little developmentpotential due to the limitation by geographical conditionsand resource endowment Insufficient motivation for in-dustrial development leads to a low comprehensive level ofindustrial ecosystems Fushun Benxi and Liaoyang arecities dominated by heavy industry which strongly dependon heavy industry enterprises and have a weak economicfoundation e development of heavy industry caused asevere environmental pollution for these three citiesis in-coordination in development of ecology and industry led toa relatively low level in integration of industrial and eco-logical development in the three cities Dandong is a citybordering with North Korea its foreign trade is relativelydeveloped However due to a relatively late starting therehas not been a leading enterprise in the foreign trade that candrive the industrial development into a strong industrialcluster erefore the added economic value is not signif-icant the growth rate is small and the motivation in de-veloping industry is still insufficient

33 Constraint Grade and Main Constraint Factors in In-dustrial Ecosystem Development Constraint factor analysishelps to formulate targeted measures to optimize the in-dustrial ecosystem In this study we calculate the constraintgrade for each specific index indices at either criterion levelor system level as the results shown in Table 2 Further fromthe perspective of time series we analyze the change of mainconstraint factors and the difference of constraint factorsamong cities and diagnose the main constraint factors forthe development level of industrial ecology in LiaoningProvince as the results shown in Table 3 At the same timeto identify the main constraints to the development of theindustrial ecosystem within each city we conduct a diag-nosis of the main constraint factors for the developmentlevel of industrial ecology in 2018 as the results shown inTable 4

As shown in Table 2 from a perspective of the level ofconstraints the constraint grades of the subsystems ofpressure state and response are 4573 2001 and3434 respectively indicating that the main constraintsaffecting the development process of urban industrial eco-systems in Liaoning Province are the pressure of humanactivities on the environment and the inadequate measurestaken by human in response to the ecological environment(1) Constraint grade of the pressure subsystem e con-straint grade of the pressure subsystem to the developmentof industrial ecology is 4573 suggesting that the pressuresubsystem is the greatest constraint in the process of urbanindustrial ecology in Liaoning Province among which theconstraint grade of the criterion layer of industrial economyis 415 and the constraint grade of the criterion layer ofenergy consumption is 42Within the pressure subsystemmany specific indices rank the top 10 by the constraint gradeincluding gross fixed asset investment (P17) 674 grossindustrial output value (P16) 642 regional GDP (P11)617 added value of the secondary sector (P12) 610number of industrial enterprises (P15) 592 number of

Complexity 9

employees in the secondary sector (P13) 578 ey all fallinto the category of industrial economy us it can berevealed that the overall low level of industrial economicdevelopment is the main constraint hindering the devel-opment of industrial ecosystems in Liaoning Province In-adequate capital investment declining economic growthand loss of human resources lead to low levels of industrialecosystem development On the other hand due to eco-nomic downturn excess energy production capacity and

insufficient development motivation at the criterion layer ofenergy consumption the constraint grade is only 43 (2)Constraint grade of the state subsystem e constraintgrade of state subsystem to the development of industrialecology is 2001 proportionally small in comparison withthat of ldquopressurerdquo and ldquoresponserdquo subsystems In this sub-system only the green coverage in the built-up area (S21)ranks in the top 10 indices regarding the constraint gradeie 589 ranking eighth is suggests that in the state

Table 2 Measurements of constraint grade based on PSR model

System layer Normative level Barrier level Indicator Barrier level Sort

PressureIndustrial economy P1 0415

P11 00617 5P12 00610 6P13 00578 9P14 00437 14P15 00592 7P16 00642 3P17 00674 1

Energy consumption P2 0042 P21 00193 18P22 00229 17

State

Discharge of the three wastes P3 0052

S11 00096 23S12 00096 22S13 00162 21S14 00165 20

Greenfield resources S2 0098 S21 00589 8S22 00386 15

Air quality S3 0051 S31 00183 19S32 00323 16

Response

Governance facilities R1 0103 R11 00499 13R12 00528 12

Governance capacity R2 0241

R21 00654 2R22 00543 11R23 00572 10R24 00638 4

Table 3 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province during 2000ndash2018

Year1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

2000 P16 00811 P17 00807 P11 00793 R21 00756 P12 007482001 P17 00745 R21 00728 P16 00706 P11 00709 P15 006992002 P17 00748 R21 00730 P16 00709 P11 00709 P15 006992003 P17 00748 R21 00746 P16 00718 P11 00706 P15 007012004 R21 00766 P17 00757 R24 00724 P16 00722 P11 007112005 R21 00818 P17 00747 R24 00739 P16 00713 P11 007032006 R21 00849 R24 00771 P17 00757 P11 00711 R23 007112007 R21 00900 P17 00811 R24 00765 P11 00761 P16 007592008 R21 00920 P17 00804 R24 00802 P11 00758 P16 007582009 R21 00961 R24 00871 S32 00837 R23 00821 P17 008182010 R24 00959 R21 00930 R23 00865 S32 00823 P17 007772011 R24 00935 R21 00898 R23 00890 S32 00868 P17 007982012 R24 00995 R21 00957 R23 00938 P21 00935 S32 008982013 P21 01119 R23 01021 R24 01013 S32 00958 R21 009212014 S31 01027 R24 00992 P21 00965 S11 00945 R23 009342015 P16 01022 R24 00999 S31 00922 R23 00878 S32 008662016 P16 00984 R21 00912 P15 00887 P17 00844 R23 008062017 R24 01035 P21 00996 R23 00973 R21 00970 S32 009322018 R24 01059 P21 01049 R23 00994 R21 00982 S32 00957Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

10 Complexity

subsystem green space resources have a greater impact onthe development of industrial ecosystems Meanwhile noindices at the criterion level of three-wastes emission and airquality are ranked in the top 10 Overall the constraint gradeof either the damage caused by ldquothree-wastesrdquo emissions orthe maintenance sustained by green space resources to theecological environment or the status of air quality becauseof destruction and maintenance is within the controllablerange for industrial ecosystem development In the futureindustrial development process priority must be given tostrengthening the protection of existing green space re-sources and strictly controlling over excessive land devel-opment (3) Constraint grade of the response subsystemeconstraint grade of the response subsystem to developmentof industrial ecology is 3434 Among them at the criterionlevel the constraint grade of governance facility is 103while that of governance ability is 241 suggesting that thecriterion level of governance ability is the main constraintfactor in the response subsystem In this subsystem thoseindices ranking in the top 10 include industrial sulfur di-oxide removal (R21) with a constraint grade of 654 outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) with a constraint grade of 638 and comprehensiveutilization of industrial solid waste (R23) with a constraintgrade of 572 is indicates that cities in LiaoningProvince generally have problems in the pollution treatmentat the end of industrial production process such as insuf-ficient investment in treatment weak treatment capabilityand low comprehensive utilization rate of wastes

As shown in Table 3 from a perspective of main con-straint factors longitudinally during the 19 years from 2000to 2018 the main constraint factors in the process of in-dustrial ecology development in cities of Liaoning Provincewere industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)gross fixed asset investment (P17) gross industrial outputvalue (P16) comprehensive utilization of industrial solidwaste (R23) regional GDP (P11) inhalable particulate matter

(PM10) (S32) industrial electricity consumption (P21)number of days with air quality reaching or better than ClassII (S31) number of industrial enterprises (P15) gross in-dustrial wastewater discharge (S11) etc However theranking of these major constraint factors changed signifi-cantly with time Among them the ranking of industrialsulfur dioxide removal (R21) and gross fixed asset investment(P17) gradually decreased while the ranking of the outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) fluctuated but all these three always ranked in the topthree In recent years these cities in Liaoning Province haveactively responded to the central governmentrsquos call forsuccessively adopting a series of measures to control airpollution and the emission of sulfur dioxide in factorieswhich has achieved positive outcomes e comprehensiveutilization of ldquothree-wastesrdquo influences recycling resourcesand easing environmental pressure but the current ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization production is associatedwith issues such as high capital investment difficult pro-cessing and low product quality which greatly constrainsthe industrial ecosystem development e highly temporalconsistency of the main constraint factors of different citiesindicates that the differences among the cities wereinsignificant

From Table 4 due to a significant difference in regionaleconomies among the cities the main constraint factors forthe development of the industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different However the main constraint factorsin Fushun Fuxin and Huludao were similar mainly in-cluding regional GDP (P11) number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross industrial output value (P16)gross fixed asset investment (P17) etc e top 5 indices forthe three cities were all the pressure subsystem ie thepressure subsystem became the main constraint factorMoreover for these three cities there were no strong in-dustrial foundations the urban construction was backwardprofessional elites and talents had moved out to provideworkforce for other cities the economy lacked vitality and

Table 4 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province in 2018

Area1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Shenyang R24 01059 R21 00982 S32 00957 R23 00850 P21 00791Dalian P21 01049 R23 00994 R24 00943 P22 00867 S11 00814Anshan R21 00691 R24 00670 P22 00638 P17 00543 P21 00533Fushun P17 00747 P13 00691 P11 00684 P15 00680 P16 00677Benxi R24 00711 P17 00671 P15 00651 R21 00646 P13 00624Dandong R24 00751 R21 00748 P16 00718 P17 00710 P13 00695Jinzhou R21 00688 P17 00678 S22 00659 R24 00656 P13 00651Yingkou P13 00657 P17 00651 R21 00647 S21 00604 P16 00597Fuxin P17 00742 P16 00723 P12 00701 P11 00700 P13 00681Liaoyang P17 00741 P13 00722 P15 00686 R24 00684 R21 00679Panjin R21 00753 R24 00715 R23 00658 P15 00657 P17 00640Tieling R21 00742 P17 00741 P13 00728 P12 00721 S21 00721Zhaoyang R21 00730 R24 00711 P17 00704 S21 00694 P16 00684Huludao P17 00815 P16 00785 P15 00776 P12 00759 P11 00757Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

Complexity 11

the urban comprehensive competitiveness was at the bottomof Liaoning Province Shenyang and Dalian had similarmain constraint factors mainly including industrial elec-tricity consumption (P21) comprehensive utilization ofindustrial solid waste (R23) and output value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24) etc eresponse subsystem was the main constraint factor On theone hand the two cities have strong industrial foundationsand superior geographical locations and have the mostdeveloped industrial economies in the province Howeveron the other hand the ecological environment was not paidenough attention to and investment in environmentalmanagement was not enough in these two cities whichcaused greater constraints to governance capacity than toindustrial ecology e main constraint factors in AnshanBenxi Dandong Jinzhou Liaoyang and Chaoyang citieswere similar mainly including number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17)industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)etc e six cities were at a medium development level inthe province in terms of either urbanization or competi-tiveness of the industrial economy In recent years due tothe policy advantage and the pull effect from economicdevelopment of Shenyang and Dalian the economy de-veloped rapidly in the six cities However without acontinuous improvement of necessary supporting systemssuch as employment market and urban construction thegovernance capacity was limited At present the six citiesshould mainly strengthen talent introduction and urbaninfrastructure construction and investment and simulta-neously emphasize both economic development and en-vironmental governance to overcome constraints toindustrial ecology development e main constraint fac-tors for Yingkou and Tieling cities were similar mainlyincluding number of employees in the secondary sector(P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17) green coverage ofthe built-up area (S21) and industrial sulfur dioxide re-moval (R21) Benefiting from the strategic layout of theEastern Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone Yingkou Cityhad enjoyed preferential policies and achieved a rapideconomic development However there was still a shortagein quality workforce and urban construction investmentMoreover the green coverage of the built-up area and thegovernance capacity of Yingkou were insufficient eseissues constrained the economic development in YingkouCity Tieling a remotely located city had neither a strongindustrial foundation nor a large-scale trade exchange Inaddition the labor force was insufficient us its indus-trial economy ecological environment and governancecapacity were all in an embarrassing situation Regardingspatial scale the main constraint factors affecting the in-ternal industrial ecosystemrsquos development in 14 cities ofLiaoning Province were the pressure and response sub-systems while the state subsystem had little impact Al-though all the cities had made a great progress in activelyresponding to the central governmentrsquos call for controllingenvironmental pollution it is yet to take urgent actions inenergizing industrial economic development motivation

and improving environmental governance capabilities forall cities

4 Discussion and Conclusions

41 Discussion e industrial ecosystem consists of bothvarious elements that have an important impact on thedevelopment of an industry and multiple interactions ofthese elements It is an organic system composed of variousparticipants along the industrial chain the supportingfactors of industrial development and the external envi-ronment which the survival and development of an industryrely on Establishment of a mature industrial ecosystemenables symbiosis mutualism and regeneration of industrialelements to maximize the economic and social values[47 48] Industrial development is the result of collectiveeffects of entire industrial ecosystem [46] Competitionamong regional economies is a competition for industrialecologyose regions who can firstly establish the completeindustrial ecosystem will take an advantage in economicdevelopment Currently formation of industrial ecologyexhibits two major characteristics first enterprises in thesame industry or industry cluster gather in a geographicalregion to form an industrial agglomeration second localleading enterprises with unique products and competitive-ness expand its development based on its business modelSuch expansion drives the growth of individual ecologicalelements in surrounding areas and forms a business eco-system A fundamental reason why Chinarsquos super centralcities ie Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou and Shenzhen canmaintain high growth is the establishment of a good in-dustrial ecology In these cities the competition has changedfrom ldquoindustryrdquo to ldquoindustrial ecologyrdquo Moreover the trendof specialization and verticalization of industrial ecology isbecoming more and more obvious To manifest this trendeconomic growth points are continuously emerging majorbreakthroughs are continuously made in emerging indus-tries and technological innovation innovative and emergingindustries are incubated and nurtured and a group ofunicorn enterprises are born as industry leaders that race tocontrol the commanding heights of economy in China oreven in the globe In contrast in many third- and fourth-tiercities economic growth is slow It is partly because of yet-to-improve industrial ecology that lacks attractiveness to re-sources such as talents capital and technology lacks in-novative environment and thus results in the loss ofendogenous economic growth e premise of constructinga sound industrial ecology is to clearly define the industrialpositioning realize the industrial agglomeration and or-ganically integrate industrial elements to catalyze theirldquoecological chemical reactionrdquo With popularized applica-tion of big data cloud computing Internet of ings andintelligent hardware the industrial ecology is being digitallyempowered and flattened managed industrial elements areclosely interconnected and collaborated in an efficient andintelligent way and finally the industrial value chain is beingreshaped Despite this it is still necessary to take measuresfrom multiple dimensions to increase support for industrialecology For example we should improve the construction

12 Complexity

of innovative ecosystems [49] strengthen the support forecological elements such as land [50] and take considerationof responses to climate change [51 52] We must break theinformation barriers among research institutions univer-sities government departments business organizations andfinancial institutions optimize the business environmentstrengthen policy guidance and actively promote the inte-gration of industry-education-research and the transfor-mation of research outcomes thus to form a market-oriented and enterprise-based innovation system In addi-tion it is a wise choice to introduce third-parties to gatherindustrial talents and resources where a platform-type in-dustrial organization is particularly important for theconstruction of regional industrial ecology rough such aplatform it is possible to establish connection with variousresources including talents scientific research capital andmarket and further to establish a network with upstreamand downstream enterprises is would greatly reduce thedifficulties in attracting investment and energize the dy-namics of industrial elements

Liaoning Province as a representative and typicalprovince of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina has been accelerating the transformation and opti-mization of traditional industries since the implementationof the Revitalization Strategy Economic development inLiaoning has shifted from high-speed growth to high-qualitydevelopment While major equipment design andmanufacturing industry is leading the country a regionalinnovation system is gradually taking shape However dueto a long-term influence of the extensive economic growthmodel the traditional industry development model and theconservative management system and mechanism the in-dustrial development pattern has not yet fundamentallychanged which is still mainly based on traditional industriessuch as equipment manufacturing coal mining and pe-troleum smelting Meanwhile there still exist many prob-lems in urban industrial ecology in Liaoning ProvinceFirstly there is a lack of a top-level design of industrialecosystem planning Governments and enterprises at alllevels overemphasize industrial development but fail toorganically integrate industry into industrial ecosystemdevelopment which results in a sole industrial system lackof connection between industrial categories slow develop-ment of industrial ecology and convergence of industrialstructure Consequently the complementary effect of re-gional advantages is not effectively exerted and the regionalcompetitiveness is compromised Secondly there is not astrong capability in independent innovation of industrialecosystems Till now Liaoning still heavily depends ontraditional industrial paths without enough nurture ofemerging pillar industries featuring a low level of industrialstructure and an overweighed secondary sector Meanwhilethere is a lack of effective dynamic circulation system high-tech industries and modern service industries are propor-tionally low the industry of deep processing of raw materialis less developed and the independent innovation ability isweak irdly there is no feedback mechanism for thepractice of industrial ecosystems In the process of industrialdevelopment most traditional industries are still

characterized by the unidirectional consumption of energyresources and the degradation of ecological environmentalservice functionsere is a lack of standards andmethods tosystematically assess economic-environmental dynamicsWithout having established a feedback mechanism to reg-ulate a healthy development of industrial ecosystems it isimpossible to effectively integrate resources for building amodern economic system

Constructing industrial ecosystems is a new strategicmeasure to promote a comprehensive revitalization of theNortheast Region It can effectively address deep-seatedissues in industrial development of the traditional industrialarea in Liaoning overcome constraints of traditional in-dustrial development systems and mechanisms change theindustrial development approach in multiple dimensionssuch as management mechanism operation mode pro-duction method and business environment and realize aneconomic-environmental coupling and sustainable devel-opment It is also an important pathway leading to an ef-fective transformation of economic development inLiaoning In this regard Liaoning Province should pay moreattention to the industrial ecosystem construction and take itas a focus to promote the industrial development in a greencircular and quality way Some recommendations andsuggestions are as follows firstly deepen the reform ofsystems and mechanisms to create a good business envi-ronment for industrial ecosystem construction It is nec-essary to properly handle the government-marketrelationship focusing on addressing such issues as gov-ernmentrsquos direct intervention in resource allocation over-management and the misalignment offside absence andinadequacy of governmental functions and further promotesimplified administration decentralization and optimiza-tion of services Continue to deepen the reform of admin-istrative approval systems commercial systems andinvestment and financing systems Perform governmentfunctions according to law to accelerate the establishmentand improvement of the management model based on thepower lists the responsibility lists and the negative listsImprove the legitimate decision-making mechanism andstrengthen the restriction and supervision of power Sec-ondly unleash the potential in regional collaborative in-novation to build technological innovation capabilities forindustrial ecosystem construction Formulate and imple-ment a system that encourages technological innovation andintellectual property protection improve the innovation andentrepreneurship service model and provide full-chainvalue-added services for innovation and entrepreneurshipactivities to stimulate the independent innovation capabil-ities in the traditional industrial area in Liaoning irdlystrengthen the top-level design of regional collaborativedevelopment to broaden development space for industrialecosystem construction Aim to construct industrial eco-systems integrate the spatial distribution of industrial de-velopment in the province and plan the industrial ecosystemconstruction based on regional macro-policies to establish aregional macro ecosystem integrating industry agricultureservices and high-technology Fourthly innovate and en-hance the supply capacity of ecological products to provide a

Complexity 13

material foundation for industrial ecosystem constructionDeploy in advance the development strategy for alternativeclean and green industries make full use of unique eco-logical resources combine with rural revitalization strate-gies energize new dynamics of rural resource developmentto transform superior ecological resources into high-qualityecological product supply and ecological services and realizeecological industrialization Fifthly engage a multi-partyparticipation mechanism to provide scientific support forindustrial ecosystem construction Promote the knowledgeand cognition of the industrial ecosystem to make enter-prises aware of the importance and advantages of industrialecosystem construction through education amp trainingmedia promotion and the Internet Strengthen scientificsupport by organizing an expert team to research industrialecosystems of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningwhich is an interdisciplinary team engaging multiplestakeholders including governments enterprises researchinstitutions and universities to provide multi-dimensionalsupport for industrial ecosystem construction of the tradi-tional industrial area in Liaoning from policy recommen-dation to top-level design and then to the application ofindustrial ecological technology

42 Conclusions is paper took 14 cities in LiaoningProvince as examples of urban industrial ecosystems oftraditional industrial area in Northeastern China to calculatethe development level of its industrial ecosystem during2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and toconduct a spatial visualization analysis which provides newperspectives and methods for analyzing and interpreting thecomplexity of urban industrial ecosystems e results showthe following (1) from 2000 to 2018 the 14 cities in LiaoningProvince had a moderate level of industrial ecology Exceptfor Shenyang and Dalian with rapid development the dif-ference in the development level of industrial ecosystemsamong other cities was small (2) From 2000 to 2018 thedevelopment level of industrial ecosystems in cities firstincreased and then decreased with some fluctuation edevelopment level of the industrial ecology in these citiesgenerally showed an upward-then-downward trend Re-garding spatial differentiation a high-level industrial eco-logical zone formed with Shenyang and Dalian as the centere ldquodual-corerdquo feature was significant and continuouslystrengthened As a result the whole region exhibited aldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern (3) At the system level of PSRthe constraint grades to the industrial ecosystemrsquos devel-opment level in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province weredifferent e constraint grades of the pressure state andresponse subsystems to the provincersquos industrial ecosystemwere 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicatingthat the main constraint factors affecting the process ofurban industrial ecology in Liaoning Province were both thelack of human response to the ecological environment andthe pressure of human activities on the ecological envi-ronment during the industrial economic development (4)Due to the large differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and development

circumstances among different cities the main constraintfactors to development of industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different but overall regional GDP number ofemployees in the secondary sector gross fixed asset in-vestment industrial sulfur dioxide removal and outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization productwere the main five factors With popularized application ofbig data cloud computing Internet of ings and intelli-gent hardware the main direction of further research in thefuture may point to reshaping the industrial value chainimproving and innovating the ecosystem construction andintroducing third-party forces to gather industrial talentsand resources for creating an industrial symbiosis networkon a city scale However to fully and scientifically under-stand the complexity of the urban industrial ecosystem it isnecessary not only to study at the element level but also tosystematically recognize the complexity of the networkstructure establish a structural model to analyze its evo-lutionary dynamics and then guide the formulation of in-dustrial policy for the development of regional industrialecology which will be the main research direction in thefuture

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of China(41701142 and 41971166) Fundamental Research Funds forthe Central Universities (2020jbkyjc002) Project of GansuProvince Economic and Social Development Serving ofLanzhou University (2019-FWZX-04) and Open Project ofInstitute of County Economy Developments amp Rural Re-vitalization Strategy Lanzhou University (xyjj2019002)

References

[1] T E Graedel and B R Allenby Industrial Ecology PrenticeHall Englewood Cliffs NJ USA 1995

[2] B R Allenby and W E Cooper ldquoUnderstanding industrialecology from a biological systems perspectiverdquo Environ-mental Quality Management vol 3 no 3 pp 343ndash354 1994

[3] S Charmondusit K Bhaktikul C ArunlertareeWWisawapipatC Rattanapan and K Charmondusit ldquoProblem based trainingprogram on industrial ecology and environment for thesustainability management of industryrdquo ProcediamdashSocial andBehavioral Sciences vol 40 pp 31ndash36 2012

[4] R A Frosch and N E Gallopoulos ldquoStrategies formanufacturingrdquo Scientific American vol 261 no 3pp 144ndash152 1989

[5] Y Huang C Lu X Xiao et al ldquoEvolution and reconstructionof industrial ecosystems of mining cities in the traditionalindustrial area of Northeastern China a case study of

14 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

Other Regionsrdquo (as Rejuvenation Opinions thereafter) isdocument clearly reiterated that it was important to promotesustainable development of resource-based cities and strivefor the coordinated social and economic development ofresource-based and non-resource-based industries in urbanareas and mining areas Since the implementation of theabove policies and plans the economic and social devel-opment in the traditional industrial area in Northeast Chinawas accelerated the economic strength was continuouslyenhanced the pilot of economic transformation of resource-based cities was steadily advanced the infrastructure wasconstantly improved the ecological construction and en-vironmental protection had achieved positive outcomes anurban social security system was preliminarily establishedand the employment situation showed an upward turn [37]However in the transformation process of the traditionalindustrial area for undertaking industrial transfer nurturingalternative industries and transforming towards sustainabledevelopment from resource-based cities Northeast Chinahas not completely come out of the traditional energy-consuming production model is is because the one-wayindustrial economic development model ignored the eco-logical capacity and therefore paid a high price at sacrificinglimited resources and natural environment which humanslive on Consequently for resource-based cities especiallyresource-depleted cities sustainable development capabil-ities become weak development of alternative industries isslow and social ecological and environmental issues arestill serious [38ndash42] To avoid the sharp conflict between thetraditional industrial system and natural ecosystem in theprocess of industrial succession transformation of miningcities becomes vital e core of such transformation is toimprove the level of industrial ecology us the scientificreview and research into comprehensive measurement andconstraint factor diagnosis for urban industrial ecosystemdevelopment are particularly urgent

In this study 14 prefecture-level cities in LiaoningProvince of traditional industrial area in Northeastern Chinawere selected as examples Taking the industrial ecosystem asan entry point we systematically evaluate the developmentof industrial ecology of Liaoning Province during2000ndash2018 at a city scale Meanwhile we explore the de-velopment trend of industrial ecology temporal evolutionand spatial distribution characteristics and reveal the impactfactors Overall this study aims to look for a specific path ofdevelopment for optimizing industrial ecosystem for urbanareas in Liaoning In the process of implementing the Re-juvenation Opinions and ldquothe Revitalization Planrdquo it notonly can provide new ideas and decision-making evidencestomaintain sustainable development of the industrial systemand improve the competitiveness in industrial developmentfor Liaoning Province but also can provide references forindustrial ecology in other traditional industrial areas

2 Materials and Methods

21 StudiedCases Liaoning Province is located in the southof Chinarsquos northeast region (Figure 1) with a land mass of148000 square kilometers It administers 14 prefecture-

level cities and 100 counties (including county-level citiesand districts) with a total population of 4271 million Asone of Chinarsquos important old industrial bases LiaoningProvince has almost all industrial categories including 39large 197 medium and more than 500 small industrialcategories In Liaoning equipment manufacturing and rawmaterial industries are well developed Many industriesoccupy an important position in the country such as majorequipment manufacturing for metallurgy and miningelectric power transmission and transformation generalpetrochemical processing metal processing iron and steeland petrochemical industries In 2018 the regional GDP inLiaoning was CNY253154 billion of which the addedvalue of the secondary industry was CNY100251 billionaccounting for 356 Building a strong ecological prov-ince is a strategic priority for Liaoning Province in revi-talizing Northeast China e coordinated development ofindustrial ecology has already attracted widespread at-tention Since the implementation of the RevitalizationStrategy the transformation and optimization of tradi-tional industries in Liaoning has continuously acceleratedwhile the economic development focus has shifted fromhigh-speed to high-quality and the development of majorequipment design and manufacturing industry has taken alead in the country However due to the long-term in-fluence of the extensive economic growth model the in-dustrial development pattern has not fundamentallychanged yet which still mainly relies on traditional in-dustries such as equipment manufacturing coal miningand oil smelting Governments and enterprises at all levelsoveremphasized industrial development but failed to ef-fectively integrate industries into industrial ecosystemconstruction thus resulting in a relatively independentindustrial system without comprehensive interconnectionbetween industrial categories Consequently the devel-opment of industrial ecology was slow industrial struc-tures were convergent and the complementary regionaladvantages were not effectively exerted In addition theindependent innovation capability of industrial ecosystemwas weak It always depended on traditional industrialpaths and lacked enough nurture of emerging pillar in-dustries featuring a low level of industrial structure and anoverweighed secondary sector In the meantime therelacked an effective dynamic circulation system high-techindustries and modern service industries were propor-tionally low the deep processing of raw material industrywas at a relatively low level and the independent inno-vation ability was weak Constructing industrial ecosys-tems is a new strategic measure to promote thecomprehensive revitalization of the Northeast Region Itcan effectively address deep-seated issues in industrialdevelopment of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningovercome constraints of traditional industrial developmentsystems and mechanisms change the industrial develop-ment approach in multiple dimensions such as manage-ment mechanism operation mode production methodand business environment and realize an economic-en-vironmental coupling and sustainable development[43 44]

Complexity 3

22 Index and Data Sources Constructing a scientific andrational evaluation index system is the basis and premise toobjectively evaluate an urban industrial ecosystem Based onthe PSR model in terms of local contexts operability andrationality this paper establishes a comprehensive evalua-tion index system of urban industrial ecosystem develop-ment with fully considering the complexity dynamics andopenness of an urban industrial ecosystem following theprinciples of systematicity comparability and availabilityand taking the systemrsquos internal structure and benefit op-timization as the foothold e evaluation index system(Table 1) includes three layers (1) pressure subsystem whichrepresents the development need of the industrial economyand the pressure of energy consumption on the ecosystem(2) state subsystem which represents the impact on theecological environment during the development of indus-trial economy and the original state of ecological environ-ment (3) response subsystem which characterizes thehumanrsquos effect to protect the environment and controlpollution in order to alleviate environmental damage whenthe ecological environment is changed due to the impact ofindustrial economic development e data are mainly fromldquoLiaoning Statistical Yearbooksrdquo China City StatisticalYearbooks statistical yearbooks and environmental

statistical bulletins of various cities in Liaoning Provincepublished during 2001ndash2019

23 Methodology TOPSIS is paper adopts the TOPSIS(Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an IdealSolution) method to objectively quantitatively measure andanalyze the development level of urban industrial ecosystemin Liaoning Province e TOPSIS method proposed byHwang and Yoon in 1981 is commonly used for compre-hensive evaluation and comparison of multiple options inmulti-attribute decision-making theory [45] Its basicprinciple is to eliminate the difference among various in-dicators due to different units through related standardizedprocessing methods establish a normalized matrix from theoriginal data and then identify the best and worst ones fromthe various solutions By calculating the distance betweeneach solution and the bestworst solution we can work outthe relative closeness between the selected solution and theworst or the best solution to rank and evaluate the ad-vantages and disadvantages of different solutions Whencalculating a normalized decision matrix using the TOPSISmethod all indicators are normalized with the perception ofthe bigger the better without classifying indicators In

0 25 50 100km

126ordmE

42ordmN

123ordmE120ordmE

N

S

EW

Figure 1 Location of the studied cities

4 Complexity

addition the weight determination is subjective Consid-ering the intereffect of subsystems of the PSR model wecannot solely measure indicators of the primary index andsimply determine their impact weights In this regard thispaper first classifies different types of indicators into ldquopos-itiverdquo and ldquonegativerdquo ones uses the difference coefficientmethod to objectively calculate the weight of each type ofindicators applies the TOPSIS method to calculate thedistance between the sample and the target and then usesthe grey correlation degree to calculate the industrial eco-logical development level In fact in the process of sys-tematic evaluation of industrial ecosystems not only is itnecessary to measure the level of industrial ecology but alsoit is more practical to understand the constraint factors inpromoting industrial ecology levels for the 14 prefecture-level cities in Liaoning Province to develop pathologicaldiagnosis for industrial ecology erefore this article in-troduces a constraint grade model to conduct an extensionstudy on the development process of industrial ecology anddiagnoses and analyses the constraint factors in the in-dustrial ecology development of the cities in LiaoningProvince e calculation steps are as follows

Normalization and assignment xij is the j-th evaluationindex value in the i-th sample n is the number of samplesandm is the number of indices Because the different types ofindices would affect development of industrial ecosystemseither positively or negatively it is necessary to normalizeindex values by applying the difference between the actualand target values and using the extreme value method

Positive indices

rij xij minus minixij

maxixij minus minixij

(1)

Negative indices

rij maxixij minus xij

maxixij minus minixij

(2)

where maxixij and minixij are the maximum and minimumvalues of the j-th index respectively after normalization rij

is [0 1]Using the entropy value method to determine the weight

of each index then the weight of the i-th sample for the j-thindex fij can be calculated

fij rij

1113936mj1 rij

(3)

Calculate the entropy value of the j-th index fj ie Hjas follows

Hj minusK 1113944m

j1Pj ln Pj1113872 1113873 (4)

Calculate the entropy weight coefficient ie wj asfollows

wj 1 minus Hj

m minus 1113936mj1 Hj

(5)

Table 1 PSR model based evaluation index system for urban industrial ecosystems in Liaoning Province

Systemlayer Normative level Parameters Indicator Parameters Indicator

type

PressureIndustrial economy P1

GDP (billions) P11 +Value added of the secondary sector (billions) P12 +

Number of persons employed in the secondary sector(10000) P13 +

Average wage of active workers (yuan) P14 +e number of industrial enterprises P15 +Gross industrial output (billions) P16 +

Total investment in fixed assets (billions) P17 +

Energy consumption P2 Industrial electricity (10000 kWmiddoth) P21 minus

Integrated energy consumption (10000 tonsstandard coal) P22 minus

State

Discharge of the threewastes S1

Total industrial waste water discharge (10000 tons) S11 minus

Industrial solid waste generation (10000 tons) S12 minus

Total industrial waste gas emissions (billion standard cubicmeters) S13 minus

Industrial fume (powder) dust emissions (tons) S14 minus

Greenfield resources S2 Greening of built-up areas (hectares) S21 minus

Forest cover () S22 +

Air quality S3Number of days with air quality at and better than level 2

(days) S31 +

Particulate matter (PM10) (μgm3) S32 minus

Response

Governance facilities R1 Number of waste water treatment facilities (sets) R11 +Number of industrial waste gas treatment facilities (sets) R12 +

Governance capacity R2

Industrial sulfur dioxide removal (tons) R21 +Industrial fume (powder) dust removal (tons) R22 +

Combined industrial solid waste utilization (10000 tons) R23 +Product value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization

(10000 yuan) R24 +

Complexity 5

Build a weighted decision matrix ie V as follows

V

v11 v12 middot middot middot v1j

v21 v22 middot middot middot v2j

⋮ ⋮ ⋮

vi1 vi2 middot middot middot vij

⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣

⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦

(6)

Determine the positive- and negative-ideal solutionsand calculate the Euclidean distance and grey correlationdegree for all samples e positive- and negative-idealsolutions are as follows

v+j max vij

11138681113868111386811138681113868 i 1 2 n1113882 1113883 v+1 v

+2 v

+n1113864 1113865

vminusj min vij

11138681113868111386811138681113868 i 1 2 n1113882 1113883 vminus1 v

minus2 v

minusn1113864 1113865

(7)

en the calculations for the Euclidean distance of ei-ther positive-ideal or negative-ideal solutions are as follows

D+i

1113944

m

j1vij minus v+

j1113872 11138732

11139741113972

i 1 2 n

Dminusi

1113944

m

j1vij minus vminus

j1113872 11138732

11139741113972

i 1 2 n

(8)

Calculate the grey correlation degree e correlationcoefficient for an index between the sample and the positive-ideal solution can be calculated based on the weightedmatrix

s+ij

miniminjΔvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

Δvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

(9)

where Δvij |v+j minus vij| miniminjΔvij is the minimum dif-

ference between two levels maximaxjΔvij is the maximumdifference between two levels and ρ isin [0 1] is resolutioncoefficient in this study ρ 05 Construct the grey cor-relation coefficient matrix of positive-ideal solution samplesand then calculate the grey correlation degree between eachsample and the positive-ideal solution

W+i

1113936mj1 s+

ij

m i 1 2 n (10)

Calculate the correlation coefficient of each sample andthe negative-ideal solution on different indices

sminusij

miniminjΔvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

Δvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

(11)

where Δvij |vminusj minus vij|

Calculate the grey correlation between each sample andthe negative-ideal solution as follows

Wminusi

1113936mj1 s+

ij

m i 1 2 n (12)

Calculate the relative proximity Normalize the Eu-clidean distance and grey correlation as follows

εi δi

max1leilem δi( 1113857 i 1 2 n (13)

where εi⟶ D+i Dminus

i W+i Wminus

i After dimensionless pro-cessing they are d+

i dminusi w+

i wminusi

e adjusted formula comprehensively considers theEuclidean distance and grey correlation

T+i θ1d

minusi + θ2w

+i i 1 2 n

Tminusi θ1d

+i + θ2w

minusi i 1 2 n

(14)

θ1 θ2 indicate the degree of preference θ1 + θ2 1 in thispaper θ1 θ2 05 T+

i andTminusi refer to how close the sample

is to either the positive- or negative-ideal solutionsCalculate the relative proximity εi as follows

εi T+

i

T+i + Tminus

i

i 1 2 n (15)

Calculate the constraint grade Analyze and diagnose thestudy case by measuring the factor contribution indexdeviation and constraint grade (1) factor contribution (Gj)represents the degree of influence of single factor on theoverall goal (2) index deviation (Pj) refers to the differencebetween a single factor index and the overall goal of thesystem which is assumed as the difference between thestandardized value of a single index and 100 (3) constraintgrade (Zj) is the degree of influence of a single index or anindex at criterion level on the development level of industrialecosystems e index deviation Pj and the constraint gradeZj are calculated as follows

Pij 1 minus rij

Zij PijGj

111393614j1PijGj

(16)

3 Results

31 Spatiotemporal Evolution Characteristics of the IndustrialEcosystemrsquos Development Level According to the compre-hensive evaluation methodology discussed above weidentified the positive- and negative-ideal solutions of in-dices standardized the data using Excel and conducted greycorrelation analysis using MATLAB thereby revealing thelongitudinal characteristics of the development level of in-dustrial ecosystems in the period of 2000 to 2018 for the 14cities in Liaoning Province (see Figure 2) At the same timebased on ArcGIS software we used the data in 2000 20062012 and 2018 respectively to conduct a spatial visuali-zation analysis of the development level of industrial ecologyfor all the cities in Liaoning Province and then to clarify itsspatial differentiation as shown in Figure 3

From Figure 2 the development level and situation ofindustrial ecosystems in the 14 cities of Liaoning Provincevaried in the study period but generally showed a steadyupward trend e industrial ecosystemrsquos development levelof these cities was in the range of [038 066] Shenyang theprovincial capital city and Dalian a city specifically listed inthe state economic plan had relatively high levels of

6 Complexity

industrial ecosystem development with an obvious upwardtrend and leading ahead but they did not have a significantpull effect on the surrounding cities Meanwhile there wasnot a big difference in industrial ecology developmentamong other cities as they were all at a medium levelLiaoning Province located in the old industrial region ofNortheast China is rich in natural resources but with amedium economic development level in China Its economyhas been dominated by resource-based industries for a longtime and the development of alternative industries was slow[46] Except for Shenyang and Dalian the difference ineconomic development among other cities was relativelysmall moreover the ability to adjust and reorganize thecityrsquos industrial ecosystem was limited and lagged by lowecological construction From a longitudinal perspective thedevelopment of industrial ecosystems in 2000ndash2006 wasrelatively stable there was a rising trend from 2006 to 2013suggesting that the Revitalization Strategy had generatedhuge policy and investment effects Since 2013 there was atrend of decline in industrial ecosystemrsquos developmentDuring the period when the GDP growth rates of all threenortheastern provinces nationally ranked among the bottomten for example ranking the bottom five in the year of 2014and 2015 Liaoning Province the largest economy in theNortheast ranked nationally the lowest economic growthrate of 30 in 2015 and minus25 in 2016 respectively isperiod was called the ldquoNew Northeast Phenomenonrdquo whichhad a significant negative impact on the industrial ecologydevelopment of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina especially in Liaoning Province

From the prefecture-level city level we conclude thefollowing (1) industrial ecosystem development in She-nyang and Dalian showed a rapid upward trend and thedevelopment level was relatively high leading the other 12cities is was closely related to the factors such as theadministrative status geographical location and industrialstructure of the two cities Shenyang as the central city of the

three northeastern provinces has policy advantage large citysize and good market environment thus attracts manyhigh-end talents and quality enterprises and leads theprovince in the overall development of Liaoning Dalian isone of the high-tech industrial bases and a well-knowntourist city in China According to the 2010 China UrbanCompetitiveness Report the comprehensive competitive-ness of Dalian ranked the eighth among all cities in China InDalian the solid technological foundation first-class sci-entific and technological talent concentration convenientsea amp land transportation and comfortable climate amp en-vironment promote its economic development and eco-logical construction (2) Industrial ecosystem developmentin the five cities ie Dandong Jinzhou Fuxin Tieling andHuludao shows a steady upward trend with a fluctuationand is at a medium level Dandong is an important meetingpoint of the Northeast Asian Economic Circle the Bohai BayEconomic Rim and the Yellow Sea Economic Basin It hascurrently formed advantageous industries such as trans-portation equipment manufacturing agricultural amp sidelineproduct processing energy metal mining and smelting amprolling processing In recent years to promote the devel-opment of industrial ecology Dandong has successivelyestablished various ecological and environmental industrialparks and actively carried out ecological restoration projectsBoth Jinzhou and Fuxin are important old industrial cities inNortheast China Jinzhou has gradually formed an industrialsystem featuring petrochemicals new materials and deepprocessing of agricultural products As one of the importantcities in the Shenyang Economic Zone Fuxinrsquos industrialeconomy is dominated by coal Dandong and Fuxin play aleading role in the overall development of the westernLiaoning region with a healthy development momentumTieling is one of the main grain production regions in Chinaa production and processing base of quality agriculturalproducts and an emerging coal-power city Due to thecharacteristics of the industrial structure the industrial

030

035

040

045

050

055

060

065

070

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Indu

stria

l eco

logi

cal l

evel

ShenyangDalianAnshanFushun

BenxiDandongJinzhouYingkou

FuxinLiaoyangPanjinTieling

ZhaoyangHuludao

Figure 2 Development levels of industrial ecosystems in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province (2000ndash2018)

Complexity 7

ecosystem of Tieling is stable Huludao is the west gate ofNortheast China With outstanding geographical advan-tages it has formed a modern industrial system with suchpillar industries as petrochemicals nonferrous metalsmachinery manufacturing shipbuilding and energy andpower production Based on a strong industrial developmentfoundation currently Huludao is in a critical transitionperiod of industrial structure upgrade (3) In the remaining 7cities of Liaoning Province ie Anshan Fushun BenxiYingkou Liaoyang Panjin and Chaoyang the developmentof industrial ecosystems shows a moderate upward trendwhich is slightly weaker and more fluctuating than theoverall development of the five cities mentioned aboveAmong them the development of industrial ecosystems inAnshan Benxi and Yingkou has been in the most severefluctuation indicating that the stability of industrial eco-systems in these three cities is poor and needs to be adjusted

effectively ere is no obvious change in industrial eco-system development in Fushun Liaoyang Panjin andChaoyang ese four cities generally had a single industrialstructure poor environmental stability and weak scientificand technological capacity It is necessary and urgent to takeeffective measures to optimize the industrial ecosystem

From the perspective of spatial distribution the overallspatial differentiation was significant in 2000 ShenyangFushun and Panjin in north-central Liaoning formed anldquouplift beltrdquo while Anshan Liaoyang and Benxi in thecentral-eastern province formed a ldquogroove areardquo Since 2006the spatial differentiation has becomemore significant whenShenyang and Dalian have jointly formed a high-level in-dustrial ecology zone As the ldquodual-corerdquo feature has beensignificant and increasingly strengthened the agglomerationof Shenyang Economic Zone and Coastal Economic Belt wasgradually enhanced while the difference between the ldquouplift

20000394ndash03970398ndash04110412ndash04180419ndash04290430ndash0447120degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

40degN

N

N N

N

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

20060378ndash03850386ndash04010402ndash04270428ndash04570458ndash0505120degE

120degE120degE

201804330434ndash04680469ndash04800481ndash05100511ndash0657

20120442ndash04460447ndash04650466ndash04810482ndash05000501ndash0633

Figure 3 Spatiotemporal evolution patterns of urban industrial ecosystems development level in Liaoning Province

8 Complexity

beltrdquo and the ldquogroove areardquo gradually dimmede industrialecosystemrsquos development level in the southeast has graduallysurpassed that in the northwest Anshan a resource-de-pleted city is slow in industrial transformation and remainsa relatively low level of industrial ecosystem developmentwhile Huludao City always maintains a high level In termsof regional difference there is a remarkable feature ofldquocenter-peripheryrdquo describing the central-northern regioncentered on Shenyang and southeastern amp northwesternregions respectively To summarize the above analysis bothShenyang Economic Zone and Liaoning Coastal EconomicBelt are currently still the engines of industrial ecologydevelopment in the Northeast region while the entireNortheast region has also achieved considerable develop-ment and the overall structure will be further optimized

32 Cluster Analysis of Industrial Ecosystem Based on thecluster analysis of the industrial ecology level for the 14 citiesof Liaoning Province in 2018 the spatial distribution ofhigh-level medium-level and low-level industrial ecosys-tems was identified rough cluster analysis we can con-clude the following (1) the two sub-provincial level citiesShenyang and Dalian have the high-level industrial eco-system (industrial ecosystem development level gt055)eyhave superior geographical locations good industrial eco-nomic development conditions and strong industrialfoundations which provide a strong guarantee for pro-tecting the ecological environment In the two cities thegreen coverage in built-up areas is significantly higher thanthat of other cities the industrial ecosystem development isat a higher level due to strong policy support However thereis still room to improve the ability of ecological environ-mental governance that is there is potential to furtherdevelop the industrial ecology (2) Huludao City has amedium-level industrial ecosystem (05lt development levelof industrial ecosystemle 055) Huludao is a coastal city andhas formed a modern industrial system with petroleumprocessing non-ferrous metals machinery manufacturingship building and energy and power production as the pillarindustries Its industrial foundation is strong However dueto the current situation of transitioning and upgradingindustrial structure various issues such as poor environ-mental stability and weak technological capacity havenegatively affected the improvement of industrial ecosystem(3) Eleven cities including Anshan Fushun and Benxi had alow-level industrial ecosystem (development level of in-dustrial ecosystem le05) Four cities in the Coastal EconomicBelt of eastern Liaoning ie Anshan Yingkou Panjin andJinzhou are developing innovative industries and building alivable and touristic urban agglomeration However thetraditional low-level industrial economy could not provideenough material technical and resource support foraddressing ecological and environmental issues ereforethe environmental improvement is sluggish and the processof sustainable development is slow In Chaoyang Tielingand Fuxin which locate in the northwest of LiaoningProvince the ecological and industrial development is not inharmony due to geographical constraints e

comprehensive competitiveness of these cities is at thelowest end of Liaoning Province with little developmentpotential due to the limitation by geographical conditionsand resource endowment Insufficient motivation for in-dustrial development leads to a low comprehensive level ofindustrial ecosystems Fushun Benxi and Liaoyang arecities dominated by heavy industry which strongly dependon heavy industry enterprises and have a weak economicfoundation e development of heavy industry caused asevere environmental pollution for these three citiesis in-coordination in development of ecology and industry led toa relatively low level in integration of industrial and eco-logical development in the three cities Dandong is a citybordering with North Korea its foreign trade is relativelydeveloped However due to a relatively late starting therehas not been a leading enterprise in the foreign trade that candrive the industrial development into a strong industrialcluster erefore the added economic value is not signif-icant the growth rate is small and the motivation in de-veloping industry is still insufficient

33 Constraint Grade and Main Constraint Factors in In-dustrial Ecosystem Development Constraint factor analysishelps to formulate targeted measures to optimize the in-dustrial ecosystem In this study we calculate the constraintgrade for each specific index indices at either criterion levelor system level as the results shown in Table 2 Further fromthe perspective of time series we analyze the change of mainconstraint factors and the difference of constraint factorsamong cities and diagnose the main constraint factors forthe development level of industrial ecology in LiaoningProvince as the results shown in Table 3 At the same timeto identify the main constraints to the development of theindustrial ecosystem within each city we conduct a diag-nosis of the main constraint factors for the developmentlevel of industrial ecology in 2018 as the results shown inTable 4

As shown in Table 2 from a perspective of the level ofconstraints the constraint grades of the subsystems ofpressure state and response are 4573 2001 and3434 respectively indicating that the main constraintsaffecting the development process of urban industrial eco-systems in Liaoning Province are the pressure of humanactivities on the environment and the inadequate measurestaken by human in response to the ecological environment(1) Constraint grade of the pressure subsystem e con-straint grade of the pressure subsystem to the developmentof industrial ecology is 4573 suggesting that the pressuresubsystem is the greatest constraint in the process of urbanindustrial ecology in Liaoning Province among which theconstraint grade of the criterion layer of industrial economyis 415 and the constraint grade of the criterion layer ofenergy consumption is 42Within the pressure subsystemmany specific indices rank the top 10 by the constraint gradeincluding gross fixed asset investment (P17) 674 grossindustrial output value (P16) 642 regional GDP (P11)617 added value of the secondary sector (P12) 610number of industrial enterprises (P15) 592 number of

Complexity 9

employees in the secondary sector (P13) 578 ey all fallinto the category of industrial economy us it can berevealed that the overall low level of industrial economicdevelopment is the main constraint hindering the devel-opment of industrial ecosystems in Liaoning Province In-adequate capital investment declining economic growthand loss of human resources lead to low levels of industrialecosystem development On the other hand due to eco-nomic downturn excess energy production capacity and

insufficient development motivation at the criterion layer ofenergy consumption the constraint grade is only 43 (2)Constraint grade of the state subsystem e constraintgrade of state subsystem to the development of industrialecology is 2001 proportionally small in comparison withthat of ldquopressurerdquo and ldquoresponserdquo subsystems In this sub-system only the green coverage in the built-up area (S21)ranks in the top 10 indices regarding the constraint gradeie 589 ranking eighth is suggests that in the state

Table 2 Measurements of constraint grade based on PSR model

System layer Normative level Barrier level Indicator Barrier level Sort

PressureIndustrial economy P1 0415

P11 00617 5P12 00610 6P13 00578 9P14 00437 14P15 00592 7P16 00642 3P17 00674 1

Energy consumption P2 0042 P21 00193 18P22 00229 17

State

Discharge of the three wastes P3 0052

S11 00096 23S12 00096 22S13 00162 21S14 00165 20

Greenfield resources S2 0098 S21 00589 8S22 00386 15

Air quality S3 0051 S31 00183 19S32 00323 16

Response

Governance facilities R1 0103 R11 00499 13R12 00528 12

Governance capacity R2 0241

R21 00654 2R22 00543 11R23 00572 10R24 00638 4

Table 3 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province during 2000ndash2018

Year1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

2000 P16 00811 P17 00807 P11 00793 R21 00756 P12 007482001 P17 00745 R21 00728 P16 00706 P11 00709 P15 006992002 P17 00748 R21 00730 P16 00709 P11 00709 P15 006992003 P17 00748 R21 00746 P16 00718 P11 00706 P15 007012004 R21 00766 P17 00757 R24 00724 P16 00722 P11 007112005 R21 00818 P17 00747 R24 00739 P16 00713 P11 007032006 R21 00849 R24 00771 P17 00757 P11 00711 R23 007112007 R21 00900 P17 00811 R24 00765 P11 00761 P16 007592008 R21 00920 P17 00804 R24 00802 P11 00758 P16 007582009 R21 00961 R24 00871 S32 00837 R23 00821 P17 008182010 R24 00959 R21 00930 R23 00865 S32 00823 P17 007772011 R24 00935 R21 00898 R23 00890 S32 00868 P17 007982012 R24 00995 R21 00957 R23 00938 P21 00935 S32 008982013 P21 01119 R23 01021 R24 01013 S32 00958 R21 009212014 S31 01027 R24 00992 P21 00965 S11 00945 R23 009342015 P16 01022 R24 00999 S31 00922 R23 00878 S32 008662016 P16 00984 R21 00912 P15 00887 P17 00844 R23 008062017 R24 01035 P21 00996 R23 00973 R21 00970 S32 009322018 R24 01059 P21 01049 R23 00994 R21 00982 S32 00957Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

10 Complexity

subsystem green space resources have a greater impact onthe development of industrial ecosystems Meanwhile noindices at the criterion level of three-wastes emission and airquality are ranked in the top 10 Overall the constraint gradeof either the damage caused by ldquothree-wastesrdquo emissions orthe maintenance sustained by green space resources to theecological environment or the status of air quality becauseof destruction and maintenance is within the controllablerange for industrial ecosystem development In the futureindustrial development process priority must be given tostrengthening the protection of existing green space re-sources and strictly controlling over excessive land devel-opment (3) Constraint grade of the response subsystemeconstraint grade of the response subsystem to developmentof industrial ecology is 3434 Among them at the criterionlevel the constraint grade of governance facility is 103while that of governance ability is 241 suggesting that thecriterion level of governance ability is the main constraintfactor in the response subsystem In this subsystem thoseindices ranking in the top 10 include industrial sulfur di-oxide removal (R21) with a constraint grade of 654 outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) with a constraint grade of 638 and comprehensiveutilization of industrial solid waste (R23) with a constraintgrade of 572 is indicates that cities in LiaoningProvince generally have problems in the pollution treatmentat the end of industrial production process such as insuf-ficient investment in treatment weak treatment capabilityand low comprehensive utilization rate of wastes

As shown in Table 3 from a perspective of main con-straint factors longitudinally during the 19 years from 2000to 2018 the main constraint factors in the process of in-dustrial ecology development in cities of Liaoning Provincewere industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)gross fixed asset investment (P17) gross industrial outputvalue (P16) comprehensive utilization of industrial solidwaste (R23) regional GDP (P11) inhalable particulate matter

(PM10) (S32) industrial electricity consumption (P21)number of days with air quality reaching or better than ClassII (S31) number of industrial enterprises (P15) gross in-dustrial wastewater discharge (S11) etc However theranking of these major constraint factors changed signifi-cantly with time Among them the ranking of industrialsulfur dioxide removal (R21) and gross fixed asset investment(P17) gradually decreased while the ranking of the outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) fluctuated but all these three always ranked in the topthree In recent years these cities in Liaoning Province haveactively responded to the central governmentrsquos call forsuccessively adopting a series of measures to control airpollution and the emission of sulfur dioxide in factorieswhich has achieved positive outcomes e comprehensiveutilization of ldquothree-wastesrdquo influences recycling resourcesand easing environmental pressure but the current ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization production is associatedwith issues such as high capital investment difficult pro-cessing and low product quality which greatly constrainsthe industrial ecosystem development e highly temporalconsistency of the main constraint factors of different citiesindicates that the differences among the cities wereinsignificant

From Table 4 due to a significant difference in regionaleconomies among the cities the main constraint factors forthe development of the industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different However the main constraint factorsin Fushun Fuxin and Huludao were similar mainly in-cluding regional GDP (P11) number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross industrial output value (P16)gross fixed asset investment (P17) etc e top 5 indices forthe three cities were all the pressure subsystem ie thepressure subsystem became the main constraint factorMoreover for these three cities there were no strong in-dustrial foundations the urban construction was backwardprofessional elites and talents had moved out to provideworkforce for other cities the economy lacked vitality and

Table 4 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province in 2018

Area1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Shenyang R24 01059 R21 00982 S32 00957 R23 00850 P21 00791Dalian P21 01049 R23 00994 R24 00943 P22 00867 S11 00814Anshan R21 00691 R24 00670 P22 00638 P17 00543 P21 00533Fushun P17 00747 P13 00691 P11 00684 P15 00680 P16 00677Benxi R24 00711 P17 00671 P15 00651 R21 00646 P13 00624Dandong R24 00751 R21 00748 P16 00718 P17 00710 P13 00695Jinzhou R21 00688 P17 00678 S22 00659 R24 00656 P13 00651Yingkou P13 00657 P17 00651 R21 00647 S21 00604 P16 00597Fuxin P17 00742 P16 00723 P12 00701 P11 00700 P13 00681Liaoyang P17 00741 P13 00722 P15 00686 R24 00684 R21 00679Panjin R21 00753 R24 00715 R23 00658 P15 00657 P17 00640Tieling R21 00742 P17 00741 P13 00728 P12 00721 S21 00721Zhaoyang R21 00730 R24 00711 P17 00704 S21 00694 P16 00684Huludao P17 00815 P16 00785 P15 00776 P12 00759 P11 00757Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

Complexity 11

the urban comprehensive competitiveness was at the bottomof Liaoning Province Shenyang and Dalian had similarmain constraint factors mainly including industrial elec-tricity consumption (P21) comprehensive utilization ofindustrial solid waste (R23) and output value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24) etc eresponse subsystem was the main constraint factor On theone hand the two cities have strong industrial foundationsand superior geographical locations and have the mostdeveloped industrial economies in the province Howeveron the other hand the ecological environment was not paidenough attention to and investment in environmentalmanagement was not enough in these two cities whichcaused greater constraints to governance capacity than toindustrial ecology e main constraint factors in AnshanBenxi Dandong Jinzhou Liaoyang and Chaoyang citieswere similar mainly including number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17)industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)etc e six cities were at a medium development level inthe province in terms of either urbanization or competi-tiveness of the industrial economy In recent years due tothe policy advantage and the pull effect from economicdevelopment of Shenyang and Dalian the economy de-veloped rapidly in the six cities However without acontinuous improvement of necessary supporting systemssuch as employment market and urban construction thegovernance capacity was limited At present the six citiesshould mainly strengthen talent introduction and urbaninfrastructure construction and investment and simulta-neously emphasize both economic development and en-vironmental governance to overcome constraints toindustrial ecology development e main constraint fac-tors for Yingkou and Tieling cities were similar mainlyincluding number of employees in the secondary sector(P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17) green coverage ofthe built-up area (S21) and industrial sulfur dioxide re-moval (R21) Benefiting from the strategic layout of theEastern Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone Yingkou Cityhad enjoyed preferential policies and achieved a rapideconomic development However there was still a shortagein quality workforce and urban construction investmentMoreover the green coverage of the built-up area and thegovernance capacity of Yingkou were insufficient eseissues constrained the economic development in YingkouCity Tieling a remotely located city had neither a strongindustrial foundation nor a large-scale trade exchange Inaddition the labor force was insufficient us its indus-trial economy ecological environment and governancecapacity were all in an embarrassing situation Regardingspatial scale the main constraint factors affecting the in-ternal industrial ecosystemrsquos development in 14 cities ofLiaoning Province were the pressure and response sub-systems while the state subsystem had little impact Al-though all the cities had made a great progress in activelyresponding to the central governmentrsquos call for controllingenvironmental pollution it is yet to take urgent actions inenergizing industrial economic development motivation

and improving environmental governance capabilities forall cities

4 Discussion and Conclusions

41 Discussion e industrial ecosystem consists of bothvarious elements that have an important impact on thedevelopment of an industry and multiple interactions ofthese elements It is an organic system composed of variousparticipants along the industrial chain the supportingfactors of industrial development and the external envi-ronment which the survival and development of an industryrely on Establishment of a mature industrial ecosystemenables symbiosis mutualism and regeneration of industrialelements to maximize the economic and social values[47 48] Industrial development is the result of collectiveeffects of entire industrial ecosystem [46] Competitionamong regional economies is a competition for industrialecologyose regions who can firstly establish the completeindustrial ecosystem will take an advantage in economicdevelopment Currently formation of industrial ecologyexhibits two major characteristics first enterprises in thesame industry or industry cluster gather in a geographicalregion to form an industrial agglomeration second localleading enterprises with unique products and competitive-ness expand its development based on its business modelSuch expansion drives the growth of individual ecologicalelements in surrounding areas and forms a business eco-system A fundamental reason why Chinarsquos super centralcities ie Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou and Shenzhen canmaintain high growth is the establishment of a good in-dustrial ecology In these cities the competition has changedfrom ldquoindustryrdquo to ldquoindustrial ecologyrdquo Moreover the trendof specialization and verticalization of industrial ecology isbecoming more and more obvious To manifest this trendeconomic growth points are continuously emerging majorbreakthroughs are continuously made in emerging indus-tries and technological innovation innovative and emergingindustries are incubated and nurtured and a group ofunicorn enterprises are born as industry leaders that race tocontrol the commanding heights of economy in China oreven in the globe In contrast in many third- and fourth-tiercities economic growth is slow It is partly because of yet-to-improve industrial ecology that lacks attractiveness to re-sources such as talents capital and technology lacks in-novative environment and thus results in the loss ofendogenous economic growth e premise of constructinga sound industrial ecology is to clearly define the industrialpositioning realize the industrial agglomeration and or-ganically integrate industrial elements to catalyze theirldquoecological chemical reactionrdquo With popularized applica-tion of big data cloud computing Internet of ings andintelligent hardware the industrial ecology is being digitallyempowered and flattened managed industrial elements areclosely interconnected and collaborated in an efficient andintelligent way and finally the industrial value chain is beingreshaped Despite this it is still necessary to take measuresfrom multiple dimensions to increase support for industrialecology For example we should improve the construction

12 Complexity

of innovative ecosystems [49] strengthen the support forecological elements such as land [50] and take considerationof responses to climate change [51 52] We must break theinformation barriers among research institutions univer-sities government departments business organizations andfinancial institutions optimize the business environmentstrengthen policy guidance and actively promote the inte-gration of industry-education-research and the transfor-mation of research outcomes thus to form a market-oriented and enterprise-based innovation system In addi-tion it is a wise choice to introduce third-parties to gatherindustrial talents and resources where a platform-type in-dustrial organization is particularly important for theconstruction of regional industrial ecology rough such aplatform it is possible to establish connection with variousresources including talents scientific research capital andmarket and further to establish a network with upstreamand downstream enterprises is would greatly reduce thedifficulties in attracting investment and energize the dy-namics of industrial elements

Liaoning Province as a representative and typicalprovince of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina has been accelerating the transformation and opti-mization of traditional industries since the implementationof the Revitalization Strategy Economic development inLiaoning has shifted from high-speed growth to high-qualitydevelopment While major equipment design andmanufacturing industry is leading the country a regionalinnovation system is gradually taking shape However dueto a long-term influence of the extensive economic growthmodel the traditional industry development model and theconservative management system and mechanism the in-dustrial development pattern has not yet fundamentallychanged which is still mainly based on traditional industriessuch as equipment manufacturing coal mining and pe-troleum smelting Meanwhile there still exist many prob-lems in urban industrial ecology in Liaoning ProvinceFirstly there is a lack of a top-level design of industrialecosystem planning Governments and enterprises at alllevels overemphasize industrial development but fail toorganically integrate industry into industrial ecosystemdevelopment which results in a sole industrial system lackof connection between industrial categories slow develop-ment of industrial ecology and convergence of industrialstructure Consequently the complementary effect of re-gional advantages is not effectively exerted and the regionalcompetitiveness is compromised Secondly there is not astrong capability in independent innovation of industrialecosystems Till now Liaoning still heavily depends ontraditional industrial paths without enough nurture ofemerging pillar industries featuring a low level of industrialstructure and an overweighed secondary sector Meanwhilethere is a lack of effective dynamic circulation system high-tech industries and modern service industries are propor-tionally low the industry of deep processing of raw materialis less developed and the independent innovation ability isweak irdly there is no feedback mechanism for thepractice of industrial ecosystems In the process of industrialdevelopment most traditional industries are still

characterized by the unidirectional consumption of energyresources and the degradation of ecological environmentalservice functionsere is a lack of standards andmethods tosystematically assess economic-environmental dynamicsWithout having established a feedback mechanism to reg-ulate a healthy development of industrial ecosystems it isimpossible to effectively integrate resources for building amodern economic system

Constructing industrial ecosystems is a new strategicmeasure to promote a comprehensive revitalization of theNortheast Region It can effectively address deep-seatedissues in industrial development of the traditional industrialarea in Liaoning overcome constraints of traditional in-dustrial development systems and mechanisms change theindustrial development approach in multiple dimensionssuch as management mechanism operation mode pro-duction method and business environment and realize aneconomic-environmental coupling and sustainable devel-opment It is also an important pathway leading to an ef-fective transformation of economic development inLiaoning In this regard Liaoning Province should pay moreattention to the industrial ecosystem construction and take itas a focus to promote the industrial development in a greencircular and quality way Some recommendations andsuggestions are as follows firstly deepen the reform ofsystems and mechanisms to create a good business envi-ronment for industrial ecosystem construction It is nec-essary to properly handle the government-marketrelationship focusing on addressing such issues as gov-ernmentrsquos direct intervention in resource allocation over-management and the misalignment offside absence andinadequacy of governmental functions and further promotesimplified administration decentralization and optimiza-tion of services Continue to deepen the reform of admin-istrative approval systems commercial systems andinvestment and financing systems Perform governmentfunctions according to law to accelerate the establishmentand improvement of the management model based on thepower lists the responsibility lists and the negative listsImprove the legitimate decision-making mechanism andstrengthen the restriction and supervision of power Sec-ondly unleash the potential in regional collaborative in-novation to build technological innovation capabilities forindustrial ecosystem construction Formulate and imple-ment a system that encourages technological innovation andintellectual property protection improve the innovation andentrepreneurship service model and provide full-chainvalue-added services for innovation and entrepreneurshipactivities to stimulate the independent innovation capabil-ities in the traditional industrial area in Liaoning irdlystrengthen the top-level design of regional collaborativedevelopment to broaden development space for industrialecosystem construction Aim to construct industrial eco-systems integrate the spatial distribution of industrial de-velopment in the province and plan the industrial ecosystemconstruction based on regional macro-policies to establish aregional macro ecosystem integrating industry agricultureservices and high-technology Fourthly innovate and en-hance the supply capacity of ecological products to provide a

Complexity 13

material foundation for industrial ecosystem constructionDeploy in advance the development strategy for alternativeclean and green industries make full use of unique eco-logical resources combine with rural revitalization strate-gies energize new dynamics of rural resource developmentto transform superior ecological resources into high-qualityecological product supply and ecological services and realizeecological industrialization Fifthly engage a multi-partyparticipation mechanism to provide scientific support forindustrial ecosystem construction Promote the knowledgeand cognition of the industrial ecosystem to make enter-prises aware of the importance and advantages of industrialecosystem construction through education amp trainingmedia promotion and the Internet Strengthen scientificsupport by organizing an expert team to research industrialecosystems of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningwhich is an interdisciplinary team engaging multiplestakeholders including governments enterprises researchinstitutions and universities to provide multi-dimensionalsupport for industrial ecosystem construction of the tradi-tional industrial area in Liaoning from policy recommen-dation to top-level design and then to the application ofindustrial ecological technology

42 Conclusions is paper took 14 cities in LiaoningProvince as examples of urban industrial ecosystems oftraditional industrial area in Northeastern China to calculatethe development level of its industrial ecosystem during2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and toconduct a spatial visualization analysis which provides newperspectives and methods for analyzing and interpreting thecomplexity of urban industrial ecosystems e results showthe following (1) from 2000 to 2018 the 14 cities in LiaoningProvince had a moderate level of industrial ecology Exceptfor Shenyang and Dalian with rapid development the dif-ference in the development level of industrial ecosystemsamong other cities was small (2) From 2000 to 2018 thedevelopment level of industrial ecosystems in cities firstincreased and then decreased with some fluctuation edevelopment level of the industrial ecology in these citiesgenerally showed an upward-then-downward trend Re-garding spatial differentiation a high-level industrial eco-logical zone formed with Shenyang and Dalian as the centere ldquodual-corerdquo feature was significant and continuouslystrengthened As a result the whole region exhibited aldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern (3) At the system level of PSRthe constraint grades to the industrial ecosystemrsquos devel-opment level in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province weredifferent e constraint grades of the pressure state andresponse subsystems to the provincersquos industrial ecosystemwere 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicatingthat the main constraint factors affecting the process ofurban industrial ecology in Liaoning Province were both thelack of human response to the ecological environment andthe pressure of human activities on the ecological envi-ronment during the industrial economic development (4)Due to the large differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and development

circumstances among different cities the main constraintfactors to development of industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different but overall regional GDP number ofemployees in the secondary sector gross fixed asset in-vestment industrial sulfur dioxide removal and outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization productwere the main five factors With popularized application ofbig data cloud computing Internet of ings and intelli-gent hardware the main direction of further research in thefuture may point to reshaping the industrial value chainimproving and innovating the ecosystem construction andintroducing third-party forces to gather industrial talentsand resources for creating an industrial symbiosis networkon a city scale However to fully and scientifically under-stand the complexity of the urban industrial ecosystem it isnecessary not only to study at the element level but also tosystematically recognize the complexity of the networkstructure establish a structural model to analyze its evo-lutionary dynamics and then guide the formulation of in-dustrial policy for the development of regional industrialecology which will be the main research direction in thefuture

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of China(41701142 and 41971166) Fundamental Research Funds forthe Central Universities (2020jbkyjc002) Project of GansuProvince Economic and Social Development Serving ofLanzhou University (2019-FWZX-04) and Open Project ofInstitute of County Economy Developments amp Rural Re-vitalization Strategy Lanzhou University (xyjj2019002)

References

[1] T E Graedel and B R Allenby Industrial Ecology PrenticeHall Englewood Cliffs NJ USA 1995

[2] B R Allenby and W E Cooper ldquoUnderstanding industrialecology from a biological systems perspectiverdquo Environ-mental Quality Management vol 3 no 3 pp 343ndash354 1994

[3] S Charmondusit K Bhaktikul C ArunlertareeWWisawapipatC Rattanapan and K Charmondusit ldquoProblem based trainingprogram on industrial ecology and environment for thesustainability management of industryrdquo ProcediamdashSocial andBehavioral Sciences vol 40 pp 31ndash36 2012

[4] R A Frosch and N E Gallopoulos ldquoStrategies formanufacturingrdquo Scientific American vol 261 no 3pp 144ndash152 1989

[5] Y Huang C Lu X Xiao et al ldquoEvolution and reconstructionof industrial ecosystems of mining cities in the traditionalindustrial area of Northeastern China a case study of

14 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

22 Index and Data Sources Constructing a scientific andrational evaluation index system is the basis and premise toobjectively evaluate an urban industrial ecosystem Based onthe PSR model in terms of local contexts operability andrationality this paper establishes a comprehensive evalua-tion index system of urban industrial ecosystem develop-ment with fully considering the complexity dynamics andopenness of an urban industrial ecosystem following theprinciples of systematicity comparability and availabilityand taking the systemrsquos internal structure and benefit op-timization as the foothold e evaluation index system(Table 1) includes three layers (1) pressure subsystem whichrepresents the development need of the industrial economyand the pressure of energy consumption on the ecosystem(2) state subsystem which represents the impact on theecological environment during the development of indus-trial economy and the original state of ecological environ-ment (3) response subsystem which characterizes thehumanrsquos effect to protect the environment and controlpollution in order to alleviate environmental damage whenthe ecological environment is changed due to the impact ofindustrial economic development e data are mainly fromldquoLiaoning Statistical Yearbooksrdquo China City StatisticalYearbooks statistical yearbooks and environmental

statistical bulletins of various cities in Liaoning Provincepublished during 2001ndash2019

23 Methodology TOPSIS is paper adopts the TOPSIS(Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an IdealSolution) method to objectively quantitatively measure andanalyze the development level of urban industrial ecosystemin Liaoning Province e TOPSIS method proposed byHwang and Yoon in 1981 is commonly used for compre-hensive evaluation and comparison of multiple options inmulti-attribute decision-making theory [45] Its basicprinciple is to eliminate the difference among various in-dicators due to different units through related standardizedprocessing methods establish a normalized matrix from theoriginal data and then identify the best and worst ones fromthe various solutions By calculating the distance betweeneach solution and the bestworst solution we can work outthe relative closeness between the selected solution and theworst or the best solution to rank and evaluate the ad-vantages and disadvantages of different solutions Whencalculating a normalized decision matrix using the TOPSISmethod all indicators are normalized with the perception ofthe bigger the better without classifying indicators In

0 25 50 100km

126ordmE

42ordmN

123ordmE120ordmE

N

S

EW

Figure 1 Location of the studied cities

4 Complexity

addition the weight determination is subjective Consid-ering the intereffect of subsystems of the PSR model wecannot solely measure indicators of the primary index andsimply determine their impact weights In this regard thispaper first classifies different types of indicators into ldquopos-itiverdquo and ldquonegativerdquo ones uses the difference coefficientmethod to objectively calculate the weight of each type ofindicators applies the TOPSIS method to calculate thedistance between the sample and the target and then usesthe grey correlation degree to calculate the industrial eco-logical development level In fact in the process of sys-tematic evaluation of industrial ecosystems not only is itnecessary to measure the level of industrial ecology but alsoit is more practical to understand the constraint factors inpromoting industrial ecology levels for the 14 prefecture-level cities in Liaoning Province to develop pathologicaldiagnosis for industrial ecology erefore this article in-troduces a constraint grade model to conduct an extensionstudy on the development process of industrial ecology anddiagnoses and analyses the constraint factors in the in-dustrial ecology development of the cities in LiaoningProvince e calculation steps are as follows

Normalization and assignment xij is the j-th evaluationindex value in the i-th sample n is the number of samplesandm is the number of indices Because the different types ofindices would affect development of industrial ecosystemseither positively or negatively it is necessary to normalizeindex values by applying the difference between the actualand target values and using the extreme value method

Positive indices

rij xij minus minixij

maxixij minus minixij

(1)

Negative indices

rij maxixij minus xij

maxixij minus minixij

(2)

where maxixij and minixij are the maximum and minimumvalues of the j-th index respectively after normalization rij

is [0 1]Using the entropy value method to determine the weight

of each index then the weight of the i-th sample for the j-thindex fij can be calculated

fij rij

1113936mj1 rij

(3)

Calculate the entropy value of the j-th index fj ie Hjas follows

Hj minusK 1113944m

j1Pj ln Pj1113872 1113873 (4)

Calculate the entropy weight coefficient ie wj asfollows

wj 1 minus Hj

m minus 1113936mj1 Hj

(5)

Table 1 PSR model based evaluation index system for urban industrial ecosystems in Liaoning Province

Systemlayer Normative level Parameters Indicator Parameters Indicator

type

PressureIndustrial economy P1

GDP (billions) P11 +Value added of the secondary sector (billions) P12 +

Number of persons employed in the secondary sector(10000) P13 +

Average wage of active workers (yuan) P14 +e number of industrial enterprises P15 +Gross industrial output (billions) P16 +

Total investment in fixed assets (billions) P17 +

Energy consumption P2 Industrial electricity (10000 kWmiddoth) P21 minus

Integrated energy consumption (10000 tonsstandard coal) P22 minus

State

Discharge of the threewastes S1

Total industrial waste water discharge (10000 tons) S11 minus

Industrial solid waste generation (10000 tons) S12 minus

Total industrial waste gas emissions (billion standard cubicmeters) S13 minus

Industrial fume (powder) dust emissions (tons) S14 minus

Greenfield resources S2 Greening of built-up areas (hectares) S21 minus

Forest cover () S22 +

Air quality S3Number of days with air quality at and better than level 2

(days) S31 +

Particulate matter (PM10) (μgm3) S32 minus

Response

Governance facilities R1 Number of waste water treatment facilities (sets) R11 +Number of industrial waste gas treatment facilities (sets) R12 +

Governance capacity R2

Industrial sulfur dioxide removal (tons) R21 +Industrial fume (powder) dust removal (tons) R22 +

Combined industrial solid waste utilization (10000 tons) R23 +Product value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization

(10000 yuan) R24 +

Complexity 5

Build a weighted decision matrix ie V as follows

V

v11 v12 middot middot middot v1j

v21 v22 middot middot middot v2j

⋮ ⋮ ⋮

vi1 vi2 middot middot middot vij

⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣

⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦

(6)

Determine the positive- and negative-ideal solutionsand calculate the Euclidean distance and grey correlationdegree for all samples e positive- and negative-idealsolutions are as follows

v+j max vij

11138681113868111386811138681113868 i 1 2 n1113882 1113883 v+1 v

+2 v

+n1113864 1113865

vminusj min vij

11138681113868111386811138681113868 i 1 2 n1113882 1113883 vminus1 v

minus2 v

minusn1113864 1113865

(7)

en the calculations for the Euclidean distance of ei-ther positive-ideal or negative-ideal solutions are as follows

D+i

1113944

m

j1vij minus v+

j1113872 11138732

11139741113972

i 1 2 n

Dminusi

1113944

m

j1vij minus vminus

j1113872 11138732

11139741113972

i 1 2 n

(8)

Calculate the grey correlation degree e correlationcoefficient for an index between the sample and the positive-ideal solution can be calculated based on the weightedmatrix

s+ij

miniminjΔvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

Δvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

(9)

where Δvij |v+j minus vij| miniminjΔvij is the minimum dif-

ference between two levels maximaxjΔvij is the maximumdifference between two levels and ρ isin [0 1] is resolutioncoefficient in this study ρ 05 Construct the grey cor-relation coefficient matrix of positive-ideal solution samplesand then calculate the grey correlation degree between eachsample and the positive-ideal solution

W+i

1113936mj1 s+

ij

m i 1 2 n (10)

Calculate the correlation coefficient of each sample andthe negative-ideal solution on different indices

sminusij

miniminjΔvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

Δvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

(11)

where Δvij |vminusj minus vij|

Calculate the grey correlation between each sample andthe negative-ideal solution as follows

Wminusi

1113936mj1 s+

ij

m i 1 2 n (12)

Calculate the relative proximity Normalize the Eu-clidean distance and grey correlation as follows

εi δi

max1leilem δi( 1113857 i 1 2 n (13)

where εi⟶ D+i Dminus

i W+i Wminus

i After dimensionless pro-cessing they are d+

i dminusi w+

i wminusi

e adjusted formula comprehensively considers theEuclidean distance and grey correlation

T+i θ1d

minusi + θ2w

+i i 1 2 n

Tminusi θ1d

+i + θ2w

minusi i 1 2 n

(14)

θ1 θ2 indicate the degree of preference θ1 + θ2 1 in thispaper θ1 θ2 05 T+

i andTminusi refer to how close the sample

is to either the positive- or negative-ideal solutionsCalculate the relative proximity εi as follows

εi T+

i

T+i + Tminus

i

i 1 2 n (15)

Calculate the constraint grade Analyze and diagnose thestudy case by measuring the factor contribution indexdeviation and constraint grade (1) factor contribution (Gj)represents the degree of influence of single factor on theoverall goal (2) index deviation (Pj) refers to the differencebetween a single factor index and the overall goal of thesystem which is assumed as the difference between thestandardized value of a single index and 100 (3) constraintgrade (Zj) is the degree of influence of a single index or anindex at criterion level on the development level of industrialecosystems e index deviation Pj and the constraint gradeZj are calculated as follows

Pij 1 minus rij

Zij PijGj

111393614j1PijGj

(16)

3 Results

31 Spatiotemporal Evolution Characteristics of the IndustrialEcosystemrsquos Development Level According to the compre-hensive evaluation methodology discussed above weidentified the positive- and negative-ideal solutions of in-dices standardized the data using Excel and conducted greycorrelation analysis using MATLAB thereby revealing thelongitudinal characteristics of the development level of in-dustrial ecosystems in the period of 2000 to 2018 for the 14cities in Liaoning Province (see Figure 2) At the same timebased on ArcGIS software we used the data in 2000 20062012 and 2018 respectively to conduct a spatial visuali-zation analysis of the development level of industrial ecologyfor all the cities in Liaoning Province and then to clarify itsspatial differentiation as shown in Figure 3

From Figure 2 the development level and situation ofindustrial ecosystems in the 14 cities of Liaoning Provincevaried in the study period but generally showed a steadyupward trend e industrial ecosystemrsquos development levelof these cities was in the range of [038 066] Shenyang theprovincial capital city and Dalian a city specifically listed inthe state economic plan had relatively high levels of

6 Complexity

industrial ecosystem development with an obvious upwardtrend and leading ahead but they did not have a significantpull effect on the surrounding cities Meanwhile there wasnot a big difference in industrial ecology developmentamong other cities as they were all at a medium levelLiaoning Province located in the old industrial region ofNortheast China is rich in natural resources but with amedium economic development level in China Its economyhas been dominated by resource-based industries for a longtime and the development of alternative industries was slow[46] Except for Shenyang and Dalian the difference ineconomic development among other cities was relativelysmall moreover the ability to adjust and reorganize thecityrsquos industrial ecosystem was limited and lagged by lowecological construction From a longitudinal perspective thedevelopment of industrial ecosystems in 2000ndash2006 wasrelatively stable there was a rising trend from 2006 to 2013suggesting that the Revitalization Strategy had generatedhuge policy and investment effects Since 2013 there was atrend of decline in industrial ecosystemrsquos developmentDuring the period when the GDP growth rates of all threenortheastern provinces nationally ranked among the bottomten for example ranking the bottom five in the year of 2014and 2015 Liaoning Province the largest economy in theNortheast ranked nationally the lowest economic growthrate of 30 in 2015 and minus25 in 2016 respectively isperiod was called the ldquoNew Northeast Phenomenonrdquo whichhad a significant negative impact on the industrial ecologydevelopment of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina especially in Liaoning Province

From the prefecture-level city level we conclude thefollowing (1) industrial ecosystem development in She-nyang and Dalian showed a rapid upward trend and thedevelopment level was relatively high leading the other 12cities is was closely related to the factors such as theadministrative status geographical location and industrialstructure of the two cities Shenyang as the central city of the

three northeastern provinces has policy advantage large citysize and good market environment thus attracts manyhigh-end talents and quality enterprises and leads theprovince in the overall development of Liaoning Dalian isone of the high-tech industrial bases and a well-knowntourist city in China According to the 2010 China UrbanCompetitiveness Report the comprehensive competitive-ness of Dalian ranked the eighth among all cities in China InDalian the solid technological foundation first-class sci-entific and technological talent concentration convenientsea amp land transportation and comfortable climate amp en-vironment promote its economic development and eco-logical construction (2) Industrial ecosystem developmentin the five cities ie Dandong Jinzhou Fuxin Tieling andHuludao shows a steady upward trend with a fluctuationand is at a medium level Dandong is an important meetingpoint of the Northeast Asian Economic Circle the Bohai BayEconomic Rim and the Yellow Sea Economic Basin It hascurrently formed advantageous industries such as trans-portation equipment manufacturing agricultural amp sidelineproduct processing energy metal mining and smelting amprolling processing In recent years to promote the devel-opment of industrial ecology Dandong has successivelyestablished various ecological and environmental industrialparks and actively carried out ecological restoration projectsBoth Jinzhou and Fuxin are important old industrial cities inNortheast China Jinzhou has gradually formed an industrialsystem featuring petrochemicals new materials and deepprocessing of agricultural products As one of the importantcities in the Shenyang Economic Zone Fuxinrsquos industrialeconomy is dominated by coal Dandong and Fuxin play aleading role in the overall development of the westernLiaoning region with a healthy development momentumTieling is one of the main grain production regions in Chinaa production and processing base of quality agriculturalproducts and an emerging coal-power city Due to thecharacteristics of the industrial structure the industrial

030

035

040

045

050

055

060

065

070

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Indu

stria

l eco

logi

cal l

evel

ShenyangDalianAnshanFushun

BenxiDandongJinzhouYingkou

FuxinLiaoyangPanjinTieling

ZhaoyangHuludao

Figure 2 Development levels of industrial ecosystems in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province (2000ndash2018)

Complexity 7

ecosystem of Tieling is stable Huludao is the west gate ofNortheast China With outstanding geographical advan-tages it has formed a modern industrial system with suchpillar industries as petrochemicals nonferrous metalsmachinery manufacturing shipbuilding and energy andpower production Based on a strong industrial developmentfoundation currently Huludao is in a critical transitionperiod of industrial structure upgrade (3) In the remaining 7cities of Liaoning Province ie Anshan Fushun BenxiYingkou Liaoyang Panjin and Chaoyang the developmentof industrial ecosystems shows a moderate upward trendwhich is slightly weaker and more fluctuating than theoverall development of the five cities mentioned aboveAmong them the development of industrial ecosystems inAnshan Benxi and Yingkou has been in the most severefluctuation indicating that the stability of industrial eco-systems in these three cities is poor and needs to be adjusted

effectively ere is no obvious change in industrial eco-system development in Fushun Liaoyang Panjin andChaoyang ese four cities generally had a single industrialstructure poor environmental stability and weak scientificand technological capacity It is necessary and urgent to takeeffective measures to optimize the industrial ecosystem

From the perspective of spatial distribution the overallspatial differentiation was significant in 2000 ShenyangFushun and Panjin in north-central Liaoning formed anldquouplift beltrdquo while Anshan Liaoyang and Benxi in thecentral-eastern province formed a ldquogroove areardquo Since 2006the spatial differentiation has becomemore significant whenShenyang and Dalian have jointly formed a high-level in-dustrial ecology zone As the ldquodual-corerdquo feature has beensignificant and increasingly strengthened the agglomerationof Shenyang Economic Zone and Coastal Economic Belt wasgradually enhanced while the difference between the ldquouplift

20000394ndash03970398ndash04110412ndash04180419ndash04290430ndash0447120degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

40degN

N

N N

N

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

20060378ndash03850386ndash04010402ndash04270428ndash04570458ndash0505120degE

120degE120degE

201804330434ndash04680469ndash04800481ndash05100511ndash0657

20120442ndash04460447ndash04650466ndash04810482ndash05000501ndash0633

Figure 3 Spatiotemporal evolution patterns of urban industrial ecosystems development level in Liaoning Province

8 Complexity

beltrdquo and the ldquogroove areardquo gradually dimmede industrialecosystemrsquos development level in the southeast has graduallysurpassed that in the northwest Anshan a resource-de-pleted city is slow in industrial transformation and remainsa relatively low level of industrial ecosystem developmentwhile Huludao City always maintains a high level In termsof regional difference there is a remarkable feature ofldquocenter-peripheryrdquo describing the central-northern regioncentered on Shenyang and southeastern amp northwesternregions respectively To summarize the above analysis bothShenyang Economic Zone and Liaoning Coastal EconomicBelt are currently still the engines of industrial ecologydevelopment in the Northeast region while the entireNortheast region has also achieved considerable develop-ment and the overall structure will be further optimized

32 Cluster Analysis of Industrial Ecosystem Based on thecluster analysis of the industrial ecology level for the 14 citiesof Liaoning Province in 2018 the spatial distribution ofhigh-level medium-level and low-level industrial ecosys-tems was identified rough cluster analysis we can con-clude the following (1) the two sub-provincial level citiesShenyang and Dalian have the high-level industrial eco-system (industrial ecosystem development level gt055)eyhave superior geographical locations good industrial eco-nomic development conditions and strong industrialfoundations which provide a strong guarantee for pro-tecting the ecological environment In the two cities thegreen coverage in built-up areas is significantly higher thanthat of other cities the industrial ecosystem development isat a higher level due to strong policy support However thereis still room to improve the ability of ecological environ-mental governance that is there is potential to furtherdevelop the industrial ecology (2) Huludao City has amedium-level industrial ecosystem (05lt development levelof industrial ecosystemle 055) Huludao is a coastal city andhas formed a modern industrial system with petroleumprocessing non-ferrous metals machinery manufacturingship building and energy and power production as the pillarindustries Its industrial foundation is strong However dueto the current situation of transitioning and upgradingindustrial structure various issues such as poor environ-mental stability and weak technological capacity havenegatively affected the improvement of industrial ecosystem(3) Eleven cities including Anshan Fushun and Benxi had alow-level industrial ecosystem (development level of in-dustrial ecosystem le05) Four cities in the Coastal EconomicBelt of eastern Liaoning ie Anshan Yingkou Panjin andJinzhou are developing innovative industries and building alivable and touristic urban agglomeration However thetraditional low-level industrial economy could not provideenough material technical and resource support foraddressing ecological and environmental issues ereforethe environmental improvement is sluggish and the processof sustainable development is slow In Chaoyang Tielingand Fuxin which locate in the northwest of LiaoningProvince the ecological and industrial development is not inharmony due to geographical constraints e

comprehensive competitiveness of these cities is at thelowest end of Liaoning Province with little developmentpotential due to the limitation by geographical conditionsand resource endowment Insufficient motivation for in-dustrial development leads to a low comprehensive level ofindustrial ecosystems Fushun Benxi and Liaoyang arecities dominated by heavy industry which strongly dependon heavy industry enterprises and have a weak economicfoundation e development of heavy industry caused asevere environmental pollution for these three citiesis in-coordination in development of ecology and industry led toa relatively low level in integration of industrial and eco-logical development in the three cities Dandong is a citybordering with North Korea its foreign trade is relativelydeveloped However due to a relatively late starting therehas not been a leading enterprise in the foreign trade that candrive the industrial development into a strong industrialcluster erefore the added economic value is not signif-icant the growth rate is small and the motivation in de-veloping industry is still insufficient

33 Constraint Grade and Main Constraint Factors in In-dustrial Ecosystem Development Constraint factor analysishelps to formulate targeted measures to optimize the in-dustrial ecosystem In this study we calculate the constraintgrade for each specific index indices at either criterion levelor system level as the results shown in Table 2 Further fromthe perspective of time series we analyze the change of mainconstraint factors and the difference of constraint factorsamong cities and diagnose the main constraint factors forthe development level of industrial ecology in LiaoningProvince as the results shown in Table 3 At the same timeto identify the main constraints to the development of theindustrial ecosystem within each city we conduct a diag-nosis of the main constraint factors for the developmentlevel of industrial ecology in 2018 as the results shown inTable 4

As shown in Table 2 from a perspective of the level ofconstraints the constraint grades of the subsystems ofpressure state and response are 4573 2001 and3434 respectively indicating that the main constraintsaffecting the development process of urban industrial eco-systems in Liaoning Province are the pressure of humanactivities on the environment and the inadequate measurestaken by human in response to the ecological environment(1) Constraint grade of the pressure subsystem e con-straint grade of the pressure subsystem to the developmentof industrial ecology is 4573 suggesting that the pressuresubsystem is the greatest constraint in the process of urbanindustrial ecology in Liaoning Province among which theconstraint grade of the criterion layer of industrial economyis 415 and the constraint grade of the criterion layer ofenergy consumption is 42Within the pressure subsystemmany specific indices rank the top 10 by the constraint gradeincluding gross fixed asset investment (P17) 674 grossindustrial output value (P16) 642 regional GDP (P11)617 added value of the secondary sector (P12) 610number of industrial enterprises (P15) 592 number of

Complexity 9

employees in the secondary sector (P13) 578 ey all fallinto the category of industrial economy us it can berevealed that the overall low level of industrial economicdevelopment is the main constraint hindering the devel-opment of industrial ecosystems in Liaoning Province In-adequate capital investment declining economic growthand loss of human resources lead to low levels of industrialecosystem development On the other hand due to eco-nomic downturn excess energy production capacity and

insufficient development motivation at the criterion layer ofenergy consumption the constraint grade is only 43 (2)Constraint grade of the state subsystem e constraintgrade of state subsystem to the development of industrialecology is 2001 proportionally small in comparison withthat of ldquopressurerdquo and ldquoresponserdquo subsystems In this sub-system only the green coverage in the built-up area (S21)ranks in the top 10 indices regarding the constraint gradeie 589 ranking eighth is suggests that in the state

Table 2 Measurements of constraint grade based on PSR model

System layer Normative level Barrier level Indicator Barrier level Sort

PressureIndustrial economy P1 0415

P11 00617 5P12 00610 6P13 00578 9P14 00437 14P15 00592 7P16 00642 3P17 00674 1

Energy consumption P2 0042 P21 00193 18P22 00229 17

State

Discharge of the three wastes P3 0052

S11 00096 23S12 00096 22S13 00162 21S14 00165 20

Greenfield resources S2 0098 S21 00589 8S22 00386 15

Air quality S3 0051 S31 00183 19S32 00323 16

Response

Governance facilities R1 0103 R11 00499 13R12 00528 12

Governance capacity R2 0241

R21 00654 2R22 00543 11R23 00572 10R24 00638 4

Table 3 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province during 2000ndash2018

Year1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

2000 P16 00811 P17 00807 P11 00793 R21 00756 P12 007482001 P17 00745 R21 00728 P16 00706 P11 00709 P15 006992002 P17 00748 R21 00730 P16 00709 P11 00709 P15 006992003 P17 00748 R21 00746 P16 00718 P11 00706 P15 007012004 R21 00766 P17 00757 R24 00724 P16 00722 P11 007112005 R21 00818 P17 00747 R24 00739 P16 00713 P11 007032006 R21 00849 R24 00771 P17 00757 P11 00711 R23 007112007 R21 00900 P17 00811 R24 00765 P11 00761 P16 007592008 R21 00920 P17 00804 R24 00802 P11 00758 P16 007582009 R21 00961 R24 00871 S32 00837 R23 00821 P17 008182010 R24 00959 R21 00930 R23 00865 S32 00823 P17 007772011 R24 00935 R21 00898 R23 00890 S32 00868 P17 007982012 R24 00995 R21 00957 R23 00938 P21 00935 S32 008982013 P21 01119 R23 01021 R24 01013 S32 00958 R21 009212014 S31 01027 R24 00992 P21 00965 S11 00945 R23 009342015 P16 01022 R24 00999 S31 00922 R23 00878 S32 008662016 P16 00984 R21 00912 P15 00887 P17 00844 R23 008062017 R24 01035 P21 00996 R23 00973 R21 00970 S32 009322018 R24 01059 P21 01049 R23 00994 R21 00982 S32 00957Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

10 Complexity

subsystem green space resources have a greater impact onthe development of industrial ecosystems Meanwhile noindices at the criterion level of three-wastes emission and airquality are ranked in the top 10 Overall the constraint gradeof either the damage caused by ldquothree-wastesrdquo emissions orthe maintenance sustained by green space resources to theecological environment or the status of air quality becauseof destruction and maintenance is within the controllablerange for industrial ecosystem development In the futureindustrial development process priority must be given tostrengthening the protection of existing green space re-sources and strictly controlling over excessive land devel-opment (3) Constraint grade of the response subsystemeconstraint grade of the response subsystem to developmentof industrial ecology is 3434 Among them at the criterionlevel the constraint grade of governance facility is 103while that of governance ability is 241 suggesting that thecriterion level of governance ability is the main constraintfactor in the response subsystem In this subsystem thoseindices ranking in the top 10 include industrial sulfur di-oxide removal (R21) with a constraint grade of 654 outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) with a constraint grade of 638 and comprehensiveutilization of industrial solid waste (R23) with a constraintgrade of 572 is indicates that cities in LiaoningProvince generally have problems in the pollution treatmentat the end of industrial production process such as insuf-ficient investment in treatment weak treatment capabilityand low comprehensive utilization rate of wastes

As shown in Table 3 from a perspective of main con-straint factors longitudinally during the 19 years from 2000to 2018 the main constraint factors in the process of in-dustrial ecology development in cities of Liaoning Provincewere industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)gross fixed asset investment (P17) gross industrial outputvalue (P16) comprehensive utilization of industrial solidwaste (R23) regional GDP (P11) inhalable particulate matter

(PM10) (S32) industrial electricity consumption (P21)number of days with air quality reaching or better than ClassII (S31) number of industrial enterprises (P15) gross in-dustrial wastewater discharge (S11) etc However theranking of these major constraint factors changed signifi-cantly with time Among them the ranking of industrialsulfur dioxide removal (R21) and gross fixed asset investment(P17) gradually decreased while the ranking of the outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) fluctuated but all these three always ranked in the topthree In recent years these cities in Liaoning Province haveactively responded to the central governmentrsquos call forsuccessively adopting a series of measures to control airpollution and the emission of sulfur dioxide in factorieswhich has achieved positive outcomes e comprehensiveutilization of ldquothree-wastesrdquo influences recycling resourcesand easing environmental pressure but the current ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization production is associatedwith issues such as high capital investment difficult pro-cessing and low product quality which greatly constrainsthe industrial ecosystem development e highly temporalconsistency of the main constraint factors of different citiesindicates that the differences among the cities wereinsignificant

From Table 4 due to a significant difference in regionaleconomies among the cities the main constraint factors forthe development of the industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different However the main constraint factorsin Fushun Fuxin and Huludao were similar mainly in-cluding regional GDP (P11) number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross industrial output value (P16)gross fixed asset investment (P17) etc e top 5 indices forthe three cities were all the pressure subsystem ie thepressure subsystem became the main constraint factorMoreover for these three cities there were no strong in-dustrial foundations the urban construction was backwardprofessional elites and talents had moved out to provideworkforce for other cities the economy lacked vitality and

Table 4 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province in 2018

Area1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Shenyang R24 01059 R21 00982 S32 00957 R23 00850 P21 00791Dalian P21 01049 R23 00994 R24 00943 P22 00867 S11 00814Anshan R21 00691 R24 00670 P22 00638 P17 00543 P21 00533Fushun P17 00747 P13 00691 P11 00684 P15 00680 P16 00677Benxi R24 00711 P17 00671 P15 00651 R21 00646 P13 00624Dandong R24 00751 R21 00748 P16 00718 P17 00710 P13 00695Jinzhou R21 00688 P17 00678 S22 00659 R24 00656 P13 00651Yingkou P13 00657 P17 00651 R21 00647 S21 00604 P16 00597Fuxin P17 00742 P16 00723 P12 00701 P11 00700 P13 00681Liaoyang P17 00741 P13 00722 P15 00686 R24 00684 R21 00679Panjin R21 00753 R24 00715 R23 00658 P15 00657 P17 00640Tieling R21 00742 P17 00741 P13 00728 P12 00721 S21 00721Zhaoyang R21 00730 R24 00711 P17 00704 S21 00694 P16 00684Huludao P17 00815 P16 00785 P15 00776 P12 00759 P11 00757Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

Complexity 11

the urban comprehensive competitiveness was at the bottomof Liaoning Province Shenyang and Dalian had similarmain constraint factors mainly including industrial elec-tricity consumption (P21) comprehensive utilization ofindustrial solid waste (R23) and output value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24) etc eresponse subsystem was the main constraint factor On theone hand the two cities have strong industrial foundationsand superior geographical locations and have the mostdeveloped industrial economies in the province Howeveron the other hand the ecological environment was not paidenough attention to and investment in environmentalmanagement was not enough in these two cities whichcaused greater constraints to governance capacity than toindustrial ecology e main constraint factors in AnshanBenxi Dandong Jinzhou Liaoyang and Chaoyang citieswere similar mainly including number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17)industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)etc e six cities were at a medium development level inthe province in terms of either urbanization or competi-tiveness of the industrial economy In recent years due tothe policy advantage and the pull effect from economicdevelopment of Shenyang and Dalian the economy de-veloped rapidly in the six cities However without acontinuous improvement of necessary supporting systemssuch as employment market and urban construction thegovernance capacity was limited At present the six citiesshould mainly strengthen talent introduction and urbaninfrastructure construction and investment and simulta-neously emphasize both economic development and en-vironmental governance to overcome constraints toindustrial ecology development e main constraint fac-tors for Yingkou and Tieling cities were similar mainlyincluding number of employees in the secondary sector(P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17) green coverage ofthe built-up area (S21) and industrial sulfur dioxide re-moval (R21) Benefiting from the strategic layout of theEastern Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone Yingkou Cityhad enjoyed preferential policies and achieved a rapideconomic development However there was still a shortagein quality workforce and urban construction investmentMoreover the green coverage of the built-up area and thegovernance capacity of Yingkou were insufficient eseissues constrained the economic development in YingkouCity Tieling a remotely located city had neither a strongindustrial foundation nor a large-scale trade exchange Inaddition the labor force was insufficient us its indus-trial economy ecological environment and governancecapacity were all in an embarrassing situation Regardingspatial scale the main constraint factors affecting the in-ternal industrial ecosystemrsquos development in 14 cities ofLiaoning Province were the pressure and response sub-systems while the state subsystem had little impact Al-though all the cities had made a great progress in activelyresponding to the central governmentrsquos call for controllingenvironmental pollution it is yet to take urgent actions inenergizing industrial economic development motivation

and improving environmental governance capabilities forall cities

4 Discussion and Conclusions

41 Discussion e industrial ecosystem consists of bothvarious elements that have an important impact on thedevelopment of an industry and multiple interactions ofthese elements It is an organic system composed of variousparticipants along the industrial chain the supportingfactors of industrial development and the external envi-ronment which the survival and development of an industryrely on Establishment of a mature industrial ecosystemenables symbiosis mutualism and regeneration of industrialelements to maximize the economic and social values[47 48] Industrial development is the result of collectiveeffects of entire industrial ecosystem [46] Competitionamong regional economies is a competition for industrialecologyose regions who can firstly establish the completeindustrial ecosystem will take an advantage in economicdevelopment Currently formation of industrial ecologyexhibits two major characteristics first enterprises in thesame industry or industry cluster gather in a geographicalregion to form an industrial agglomeration second localleading enterprises with unique products and competitive-ness expand its development based on its business modelSuch expansion drives the growth of individual ecologicalelements in surrounding areas and forms a business eco-system A fundamental reason why Chinarsquos super centralcities ie Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou and Shenzhen canmaintain high growth is the establishment of a good in-dustrial ecology In these cities the competition has changedfrom ldquoindustryrdquo to ldquoindustrial ecologyrdquo Moreover the trendof specialization and verticalization of industrial ecology isbecoming more and more obvious To manifest this trendeconomic growth points are continuously emerging majorbreakthroughs are continuously made in emerging indus-tries and technological innovation innovative and emergingindustries are incubated and nurtured and a group ofunicorn enterprises are born as industry leaders that race tocontrol the commanding heights of economy in China oreven in the globe In contrast in many third- and fourth-tiercities economic growth is slow It is partly because of yet-to-improve industrial ecology that lacks attractiveness to re-sources such as talents capital and technology lacks in-novative environment and thus results in the loss ofendogenous economic growth e premise of constructinga sound industrial ecology is to clearly define the industrialpositioning realize the industrial agglomeration and or-ganically integrate industrial elements to catalyze theirldquoecological chemical reactionrdquo With popularized applica-tion of big data cloud computing Internet of ings andintelligent hardware the industrial ecology is being digitallyempowered and flattened managed industrial elements areclosely interconnected and collaborated in an efficient andintelligent way and finally the industrial value chain is beingreshaped Despite this it is still necessary to take measuresfrom multiple dimensions to increase support for industrialecology For example we should improve the construction

12 Complexity

of innovative ecosystems [49] strengthen the support forecological elements such as land [50] and take considerationof responses to climate change [51 52] We must break theinformation barriers among research institutions univer-sities government departments business organizations andfinancial institutions optimize the business environmentstrengthen policy guidance and actively promote the inte-gration of industry-education-research and the transfor-mation of research outcomes thus to form a market-oriented and enterprise-based innovation system In addi-tion it is a wise choice to introduce third-parties to gatherindustrial talents and resources where a platform-type in-dustrial organization is particularly important for theconstruction of regional industrial ecology rough such aplatform it is possible to establish connection with variousresources including talents scientific research capital andmarket and further to establish a network with upstreamand downstream enterprises is would greatly reduce thedifficulties in attracting investment and energize the dy-namics of industrial elements

Liaoning Province as a representative and typicalprovince of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina has been accelerating the transformation and opti-mization of traditional industries since the implementationof the Revitalization Strategy Economic development inLiaoning has shifted from high-speed growth to high-qualitydevelopment While major equipment design andmanufacturing industry is leading the country a regionalinnovation system is gradually taking shape However dueto a long-term influence of the extensive economic growthmodel the traditional industry development model and theconservative management system and mechanism the in-dustrial development pattern has not yet fundamentallychanged which is still mainly based on traditional industriessuch as equipment manufacturing coal mining and pe-troleum smelting Meanwhile there still exist many prob-lems in urban industrial ecology in Liaoning ProvinceFirstly there is a lack of a top-level design of industrialecosystem planning Governments and enterprises at alllevels overemphasize industrial development but fail toorganically integrate industry into industrial ecosystemdevelopment which results in a sole industrial system lackof connection between industrial categories slow develop-ment of industrial ecology and convergence of industrialstructure Consequently the complementary effect of re-gional advantages is not effectively exerted and the regionalcompetitiveness is compromised Secondly there is not astrong capability in independent innovation of industrialecosystems Till now Liaoning still heavily depends ontraditional industrial paths without enough nurture ofemerging pillar industries featuring a low level of industrialstructure and an overweighed secondary sector Meanwhilethere is a lack of effective dynamic circulation system high-tech industries and modern service industries are propor-tionally low the industry of deep processing of raw materialis less developed and the independent innovation ability isweak irdly there is no feedback mechanism for thepractice of industrial ecosystems In the process of industrialdevelopment most traditional industries are still

characterized by the unidirectional consumption of energyresources and the degradation of ecological environmentalservice functionsere is a lack of standards andmethods tosystematically assess economic-environmental dynamicsWithout having established a feedback mechanism to reg-ulate a healthy development of industrial ecosystems it isimpossible to effectively integrate resources for building amodern economic system

Constructing industrial ecosystems is a new strategicmeasure to promote a comprehensive revitalization of theNortheast Region It can effectively address deep-seatedissues in industrial development of the traditional industrialarea in Liaoning overcome constraints of traditional in-dustrial development systems and mechanisms change theindustrial development approach in multiple dimensionssuch as management mechanism operation mode pro-duction method and business environment and realize aneconomic-environmental coupling and sustainable devel-opment It is also an important pathway leading to an ef-fective transformation of economic development inLiaoning In this regard Liaoning Province should pay moreattention to the industrial ecosystem construction and take itas a focus to promote the industrial development in a greencircular and quality way Some recommendations andsuggestions are as follows firstly deepen the reform ofsystems and mechanisms to create a good business envi-ronment for industrial ecosystem construction It is nec-essary to properly handle the government-marketrelationship focusing on addressing such issues as gov-ernmentrsquos direct intervention in resource allocation over-management and the misalignment offside absence andinadequacy of governmental functions and further promotesimplified administration decentralization and optimiza-tion of services Continue to deepen the reform of admin-istrative approval systems commercial systems andinvestment and financing systems Perform governmentfunctions according to law to accelerate the establishmentand improvement of the management model based on thepower lists the responsibility lists and the negative listsImprove the legitimate decision-making mechanism andstrengthen the restriction and supervision of power Sec-ondly unleash the potential in regional collaborative in-novation to build technological innovation capabilities forindustrial ecosystem construction Formulate and imple-ment a system that encourages technological innovation andintellectual property protection improve the innovation andentrepreneurship service model and provide full-chainvalue-added services for innovation and entrepreneurshipactivities to stimulate the independent innovation capabil-ities in the traditional industrial area in Liaoning irdlystrengthen the top-level design of regional collaborativedevelopment to broaden development space for industrialecosystem construction Aim to construct industrial eco-systems integrate the spatial distribution of industrial de-velopment in the province and plan the industrial ecosystemconstruction based on regional macro-policies to establish aregional macro ecosystem integrating industry agricultureservices and high-technology Fourthly innovate and en-hance the supply capacity of ecological products to provide a

Complexity 13

material foundation for industrial ecosystem constructionDeploy in advance the development strategy for alternativeclean and green industries make full use of unique eco-logical resources combine with rural revitalization strate-gies energize new dynamics of rural resource developmentto transform superior ecological resources into high-qualityecological product supply and ecological services and realizeecological industrialization Fifthly engage a multi-partyparticipation mechanism to provide scientific support forindustrial ecosystem construction Promote the knowledgeand cognition of the industrial ecosystem to make enter-prises aware of the importance and advantages of industrialecosystem construction through education amp trainingmedia promotion and the Internet Strengthen scientificsupport by organizing an expert team to research industrialecosystems of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningwhich is an interdisciplinary team engaging multiplestakeholders including governments enterprises researchinstitutions and universities to provide multi-dimensionalsupport for industrial ecosystem construction of the tradi-tional industrial area in Liaoning from policy recommen-dation to top-level design and then to the application ofindustrial ecological technology

42 Conclusions is paper took 14 cities in LiaoningProvince as examples of urban industrial ecosystems oftraditional industrial area in Northeastern China to calculatethe development level of its industrial ecosystem during2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and toconduct a spatial visualization analysis which provides newperspectives and methods for analyzing and interpreting thecomplexity of urban industrial ecosystems e results showthe following (1) from 2000 to 2018 the 14 cities in LiaoningProvince had a moderate level of industrial ecology Exceptfor Shenyang and Dalian with rapid development the dif-ference in the development level of industrial ecosystemsamong other cities was small (2) From 2000 to 2018 thedevelopment level of industrial ecosystems in cities firstincreased and then decreased with some fluctuation edevelopment level of the industrial ecology in these citiesgenerally showed an upward-then-downward trend Re-garding spatial differentiation a high-level industrial eco-logical zone formed with Shenyang and Dalian as the centere ldquodual-corerdquo feature was significant and continuouslystrengthened As a result the whole region exhibited aldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern (3) At the system level of PSRthe constraint grades to the industrial ecosystemrsquos devel-opment level in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province weredifferent e constraint grades of the pressure state andresponse subsystems to the provincersquos industrial ecosystemwere 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicatingthat the main constraint factors affecting the process ofurban industrial ecology in Liaoning Province were both thelack of human response to the ecological environment andthe pressure of human activities on the ecological envi-ronment during the industrial economic development (4)Due to the large differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and development

circumstances among different cities the main constraintfactors to development of industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different but overall regional GDP number ofemployees in the secondary sector gross fixed asset in-vestment industrial sulfur dioxide removal and outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization productwere the main five factors With popularized application ofbig data cloud computing Internet of ings and intelli-gent hardware the main direction of further research in thefuture may point to reshaping the industrial value chainimproving and innovating the ecosystem construction andintroducing third-party forces to gather industrial talentsand resources for creating an industrial symbiosis networkon a city scale However to fully and scientifically under-stand the complexity of the urban industrial ecosystem it isnecessary not only to study at the element level but also tosystematically recognize the complexity of the networkstructure establish a structural model to analyze its evo-lutionary dynamics and then guide the formulation of in-dustrial policy for the development of regional industrialecology which will be the main research direction in thefuture

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of China(41701142 and 41971166) Fundamental Research Funds forthe Central Universities (2020jbkyjc002) Project of GansuProvince Economic and Social Development Serving ofLanzhou University (2019-FWZX-04) and Open Project ofInstitute of County Economy Developments amp Rural Re-vitalization Strategy Lanzhou University (xyjj2019002)

References

[1] T E Graedel and B R Allenby Industrial Ecology PrenticeHall Englewood Cliffs NJ USA 1995

[2] B R Allenby and W E Cooper ldquoUnderstanding industrialecology from a biological systems perspectiverdquo Environ-mental Quality Management vol 3 no 3 pp 343ndash354 1994

[3] S Charmondusit K Bhaktikul C ArunlertareeWWisawapipatC Rattanapan and K Charmondusit ldquoProblem based trainingprogram on industrial ecology and environment for thesustainability management of industryrdquo ProcediamdashSocial andBehavioral Sciences vol 40 pp 31ndash36 2012

[4] R A Frosch and N E Gallopoulos ldquoStrategies formanufacturingrdquo Scientific American vol 261 no 3pp 144ndash152 1989

[5] Y Huang C Lu X Xiao et al ldquoEvolution and reconstructionof industrial ecosystems of mining cities in the traditionalindustrial area of Northeastern China a case study of

14 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

addition the weight determination is subjective Consid-ering the intereffect of subsystems of the PSR model wecannot solely measure indicators of the primary index andsimply determine their impact weights In this regard thispaper first classifies different types of indicators into ldquopos-itiverdquo and ldquonegativerdquo ones uses the difference coefficientmethod to objectively calculate the weight of each type ofindicators applies the TOPSIS method to calculate thedistance between the sample and the target and then usesthe grey correlation degree to calculate the industrial eco-logical development level In fact in the process of sys-tematic evaluation of industrial ecosystems not only is itnecessary to measure the level of industrial ecology but alsoit is more practical to understand the constraint factors inpromoting industrial ecology levels for the 14 prefecture-level cities in Liaoning Province to develop pathologicaldiagnosis for industrial ecology erefore this article in-troduces a constraint grade model to conduct an extensionstudy on the development process of industrial ecology anddiagnoses and analyses the constraint factors in the in-dustrial ecology development of the cities in LiaoningProvince e calculation steps are as follows

Normalization and assignment xij is the j-th evaluationindex value in the i-th sample n is the number of samplesandm is the number of indices Because the different types ofindices would affect development of industrial ecosystemseither positively or negatively it is necessary to normalizeindex values by applying the difference between the actualand target values and using the extreme value method

Positive indices

rij xij minus minixij

maxixij minus minixij

(1)

Negative indices

rij maxixij minus xij

maxixij minus minixij

(2)

where maxixij and minixij are the maximum and minimumvalues of the j-th index respectively after normalization rij

is [0 1]Using the entropy value method to determine the weight

of each index then the weight of the i-th sample for the j-thindex fij can be calculated

fij rij

1113936mj1 rij

(3)

Calculate the entropy value of the j-th index fj ie Hjas follows

Hj minusK 1113944m

j1Pj ln Pj1113872 1113873 (4)

Calculate the entropy weight coefficient ie wj asfollows

wj 1 minus Hj

m minus 1113936mj1 Hj

(5)

Table 1 PSR model based evaluation index system for urban industrial ecosystems in Liaoning Province

Systemlayer Normative level Parameters Indicator Parameters Indicator

type

PressureIndustrial economy P1

GDP (billions) P11 +Value added of the secondary sector (billions) P12 +

Number of persons employed in the secondary sector(10000) P13 +

Average wage of active workers (yuan) P14 +e number of industrial enterprises P15 +Gross industrial output (billions) P16 +

Total investment in fixed assets (billions) P17 +

Energy consumption P2 Industrial electricity (10000 kWmiddoth) P21 minus

Integrated energy consumption (10000 tonsstandard coal) P22 minus

State

Discharge of the threewastes S1

Total industrial waste water discharge (10000 tons) S11 minus

Industrial solid waste generation (10000 tons) S12 minus

Total industrial waste gas emissions (billion standard cubicmeters) S13 minus

Industrial fume (powder) dust emissions (tons) S14 minus

Greenfield resources S2 Greening of built-up areas (hectares) S21 minus

Forest cover () S22 +

Air quality S3Number of days with air quality at and better than level 2

(days) S31 +

Particulate matter (PM10) (μgm3) S32 minus

Response

Governance facilities R1 Number of waste water treatment facilities (sets) R11 +Number of industrial waste gas treatment facilities (sets) R12 +

Governance capacity R2

Industrial sulfur dioxide removal (tons) R21 +Industrial fume (powder) dust removal (tons) R22 +

Combined industrial solid waste utilization (10000 tons) R23 +Product value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization

(10000 yuan) R24 +

Complexity 5

Build a weighted decision matrix ie V as follows

V

v11 v12 middot middot middot v1j

v21 v22 middot middot middot v2j

⋮ ⋮ ⋮

vi1 vi2 middot middot middot vij

⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣

⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦

(6)

Determine the positive- and negative-ideal solutionsand calculate the Euclidean distance and grey correlationdegree for all samples e positive- and negative-idealsolutions are as follows

v+j max vij

11138681113868111386811138681113868 i 1 2 n1113882 1113883 v+1 v

+2 v

+n1113864 1113865

vminusj min vij

11138681113868111386811138681113868 i 1 2 n1113882 1113883 vminus1 v

minus2 v

minusn1113864 1113865

(7)

en the calculations for the Euclidean distance of ei-ther positive-ideal or negative-ideal solutions are as follows

D+i

1113944

m

j1vij minus v+

j1113872 11138732

11139741113972

i 1 2 n

Dminusi

1113944

m

j1vij minus vminus

j1113872 11138732

11139741113972

i 1 2 n

(8)

Calculate the grey correlation degree e correlationcoefficient for an index between the sample and the positive-ideal solution can be calculated based on the weightedmatrix

s+ij

miniminjΔvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

Δvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

(9)

where Δvij |v+j minus vij| miniminjΔvij is the minimum dif-

ference between two levels maximaxjΔvij is the maximumdifference between two levels and ρ isin [0 1] is resolutioncoefficient in this study ρ 05 Construct the grey cor-relation coefficient matrix of positive-ideal solution samplesand then calculate the grey correlation degree between eachsample and the positive-ideal solution

W+i

1113936mj1 s+

ij

m i 1 2 n (10)

Calculate the correlation coefficient of each sample andthe negative-ideal solution on different indices

sminusij

miniminjΔvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

Δvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

(11)

where Δvij |vminusj minus vij|

Calculate the grey correlation between each sample andthe negative-ideal solution as follows

Wminusi

1113936mj1 s+

ij

m i 1 2 n (12)

Calculate the relative proximity Normalize the Eu-clidean distance and grey correlation as follows

εi δi

max1leilem δi( 1113857 i 1 2 n (13)

where εi⟶ D+i Dminus

i W+i Wminus

i After dimensionless pro-cessing they are d+

i dminusi w+

i wminusi

e adjusted formula comprehensively considers theEuclidean distance and grey correlation

T+i θ1d

minusi + θ2w

+i i 1 2 n

Tminusi θ1d

+i + θ2w

minusi i 1 2 n

(14)

θ1 θ2 indicate the degree of preference θ1 + θ2 1 in thispaper θ1 θ2 05 T+

i andTminusi refer to how close the sample

is to either the positive- or negative-ideal solutionsCalculate the relative proximity εi as follows

εi T+

i

T+i + Tminus

i

i 1 2 n (15)

Calculate the constraint grade Analyze and diagnose thestudy case by measuring the factor contribution indexdeviation and constraint grade (1) factor contribution (Gj)represents the degree of influence of single factor on theoverall goal (2) index deviation (Pj) refers to the differencebetween a single factor index and the overall goal of thesystem which is assumed as the difference between thestandardized value of a single index and 100 (3) constraintgrade (Zj) is the degree of influence of a single index or anindex at criterion level on the development level of industrialecosystems e index deviation Pj and the constraint gradeZj are calculated as follows

Pij 1 minus rij

Zij PijGj

111393614j1PijGj

(16)

3 Results

31 Spatiotemporal Evolution Characteristics of the IndustrialEcosystemrsquos Development Level According to the compre-hensive evaluation methodology discussed above weidentified the positive- and negative-ideal solutions of in-dices standardized the data using Excel and conducted greycorrelation analysis using MATLAB thereby revealing thelongitudinal characteristics of the development level of in-dustrial ecosystems in the period of 2000 to 2018 for the 14cities in Liaoning Province (see Figure 2) At the same timebased on ArcGIS software we used the data in 2000 20062012 and 2018 respectively to conduct a spatial visuali-zation analysis of the development level of industrial ecologyfor all the cities in Liaoning Province and then to clarify itsspatial differentiation as shown in Figure 3

From Figure 2 the development level and situation ofindustrial ecosystems in the 14 cities of Liaoning Provincevaried in the study period but generally showed a steadyupward trend e industrial ecosystemrsquos development levelof these cities was in the range of [038 066] Shenyang theprovincial capital city and Dalian a city specifically listed inthe state economic plan had relatively high levels of

6 Complexity

industrial ecosystem development with an obvious upwardtrend and leading ahead but they did not have a significantpull effect on the surrounding cities Meanwhile there wasnot a big difference in industrial ecology developmentamong other cities as they were all at a medium levelLiaoning Province located in the old industrial region ofNortheast China is rich in natural resources but with amedium economic development level in China Its economyhas been dominated by resource-based industries for a longtime and the development of alternative industries was slow[46] Except for Shenyang and Dalian the difference ineconomic development among other cities was relativelysmall moreover the ability to adjust and reorganize thecityrsquos industrial ecosystem was limited and lagged by lowecological construction From a longitudinal perspective thedevelopment of industrial ecosystems in 2000ndash2006 wasrelatively stable there was a rising trend from 2006 to 2013suggesting that the Revitalization Strategy had generatedhuge policy and investment effects Since 2013 there was atrend of decline in industrial ecosystemrsquos developmentDuring the period when the GDP growth rates of all threenortheastern provinces nationally ranked among the bottomten for example ranking the bottom five in the year of 2014and 2015 Liaoning Province the largest economy in theNortheast ranked nationally the lowest economic growthrate of 30 in 2015 and minus25 in 2016 respectively isperiod was called the ldquoNew Northeast Phenomenonrdquo whichhad a significant negative impact on the industrial ecologydevelopment of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina especially in Liaoning Province

From the prefecture-level city level we conclude thefollowing (1) industrial ecosystem development in She-nyang and Dalian showed a rapid upward trend and thedevelopment level was relatively high leading the other 12cities is was closely related to the factors such as theadministrative status geographical location and industrialstructure of the two cities Shenyang as the central city of the

three northeastern provinces has policy advantage large citysize and good market environment thus attracts manyhigh-end talents and quality enterprises and leads theprovince in the overall development of Liaoning Dalian isone of the high-tech industrial bases and a well-knowntourist city in China According to the 2010 China UrbanCompetitiveness Report the comprehensive competitive-ness of Dalian ranked the eighth among all cities in China InDalian the solid technological foundation first-class sci-entific and technological talent concentration convenientsea amp land transportation and comfortable climate amp en-vironment promote its economic development and eco-logical construction (2) Industrial ecosystem developmentin the five cities ie Dandong Jinzhou Fuxin Tieling andHuludao shows a steady upward trend with a fluctuationand is at a medium level Dandong is an important meetingpoint of the Northeast Asian Economic Circle the Bohai BayEconomic Rim and the Yellow Sea Economic Basin It hascurrently formed advantageous industries such as trans-portation equipment manufacturing agricultural amp sidelineproduct processing energy metal mining and smelting amprolling processing In recent years to promote the devel-opment of industrial ecology Dandong has successivelyestablished various ecological and environmental industrialparks and actively carried out ecological restoration projectsBoth Jinzhou and Fuxin are important old industrial cities inNortheast China Jinzhou has gradually formed an industrialsystem featuring petrochemicals new materials and deepprocessing of agricultural products As one of the importantcities in the Shenyang Economic Zone Fuxinrsquos industrialeconomy is dominated by coal Dandong and Fuxin play aleading role in the overall development of the westernLiaoning region with a healthy development momentumTieling is one of the main grain production regions in Chinaa production and processing base of quality agriculturalproducts and an emerging coal-power city Due to thecharacteristics of the industrial structure the industrial

030

035

040

045

050

055

060

065

070

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Indu

stria

l eco

logi

cal l

evel

ShenyangDalianAnshanFushun

BenxiDandongJinzhouYingkou

FuxinLiaoyangPanjinTieling

ZhaoyangHuludao

Figure 2 Development levels of industrial ecosystems in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province (2000ndash2018)

Complexity 7

ecosystem of Tieling is stable Huludao is the west gate ofNortheast China With outstanding geographical advan-tages it has formed a modern industrial system with suchpillar industries as petrochemicals nonferrous metalsmachinery manufacturing shipbuilding and energy andpower production Based on a strong industrial developmentfoundation currently Huludao is in a critical transitionperiod of industrial structure upgrade (3) In the remaining 7cities of Liaoning Province ie Anshan Fushun BenxiYingkou Liaoyang Panjin and Chaoyang the developmentof industrial ecosystems shows a moderate upward trendwhich is slightly weaker and more fluctuating than theoverall development of the five cities mentioned aboveAmong them the development of industrial ecosystems inAnshan Benxi and Yingkou has been in the most severefluctuation indicating that the stability of industrial eco-systems in these three cities is poor and needs to be adjusted

effectively ere is no obvious change in industrial eco-system development in Fushun Liaoyang Panjin andChaoyang ese four cities generally had a single industrialstructure poor environmental stability and weak scientificand technological capacity It is necessary and urgent to takeeffective measures to optimize the industrial ecosystem

From the perspective of spatial distribution the overallspatial differentiation was significant in 2000 ShenyangFushun and Panjin in north-central Liaoning formed anldquouplift beltrdquo while Anshan Liaoyang and Benxi in thecentral-eastern province formed a ldquogroove areardquo Since 2006the spatial differentiation has becomemore significant whenShenyang and Dalian have jointly formed a high-level in-dustrial ecology zone As the ldquodual-corerdquo feature has beensignificant and increasingly strengthened the agglomerationof Shenyang Economic Zone and Coastal Economic Belt wasgradually enhanced while the difference between the ldquouplift

20000394ndash03970398ndash04110412ndash04180419ndash04290430ndash0447120degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

40degN

N

N N

N

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

20060378ndash03850386ndash04010402ndash04270428ndash04570458ndash0505120degE

120degE120degE

201804330434ndash04680469ndash04800481ndash05100511ndash0657

20120442ndash04460447ndash04650466ndash04810482ndash05000501ndash0633

Figure 3 Spatiotemporal evolution patterns of urban industrial ecosystems development level in Liaoning Province

8 Complexity

beltrdquo and the ldquogroove areardquo gradually dimmede industrialecosystemrsquos development level in the southeast has graduallysurpassed that in the northwest Anshan a resource-de-pleted city is slow in industrial transformation and remainsa relatively low level of industrial ecosystem developmentwhile Huludao City always maintains a high level In termsof regional difference there is a remarkable feature ofldquocenter-peripheryrdquo describing the central-northern regioncentered on Shenyang and southeastern amp northwesternregions respectively To summarize the above analysis bothShenyang Economic Zone and Liaoning Coastal EconomicBelt are currently still the engines of industrial ecologydevelopment in the Northeast region while the entireNortheast region has also achieved considerable develop-ment and the overall structure will be further optimized

32 Cluster Analysis of Industrial Ecosystem Based on thecluster analysis of the industrial ecology level for the 14 citiesof Liaoning Province in 2018 the spatial distribution ofhigh-level medium-level and low-level industrial ecosys-tems was identified rough cluster analysis we can con-clude the following (1) the two sub-provincial level citiesShenyang and Dalian have the high-level industrial eco-system (industrial ecosystem development level gt055)eyhave superior geographical locations good industrial eco-nomic development conditions and strong industrialfoundations which provide a strong guarantee for pro-tecting the ecological environment In the two cities thegreen coverage in built-up areas is significantly higher thanthat of other cities the industrial ecosystem development isat a higher level due to strong policy support However thereis still room to improve the ability of ecological environ-mental governance that is there is potential to furtherdevelop the industrial ecology (2) Huludao City has amedium-level industrial ecosystem (05lt development levelof industrial ecosystemle 055) Huludao is a coastal city andhas formed a modern industrial system with petroleumprocessing non-ferrous metals machinery manufacturingship building and energy and power production as the pillarindustries Its industrial foundation is strong However dueto the current situation of transitioning and upgradingindustrial structure various issues such as poor environ-mental stability and weak technological capacity havenegatively affected the improvement of industrial ecosystem(3) Eleven cities including Anshan Fushun and Benxi had alow-level industrial ecosystem (development level of in-dustrial ecosystem le05) Four cities in the Coastal EconomicBelt of eastern Liaoning ie Anshan Yingkou Panjin andJinzhou are developing innovative industries and building alivable and touristic urban agglomeration However thetraditional low-level industrial economy could not provideenough material technical and resource support foraddressing ecological and environmental issues ereforethe environmental improvement is sluggish and the processof sustainable development is slow In Chaoyang Tielingand Fuxin which locate in the northwest of LiaoningProvince the ecological and industrial development is not inharmony due to geographical constraints e

comprehensive competitiveness of these cities is at thelowest end of Liaoning Province with little developmentpotential due to the limitation by geographical conditionsand resource endowment Insufficient motivation for in-dustrial development leads to a low comprehensive level ofindustrial ecosystems Fushun Benxi and Liaoyang arecities dominated by heavy industry which strongly dependon heavy industry enterprises and have a weak economicfoundation e development of heavy industry caused asevere environmental pollution for these three citiesis in-coordination in development of ecology and industry led toa relatively low level in integration of industrial and eco-logical development in the three cities Dandong is a citybordering with North Korea its foreign trade is relativelydeveloped However due to a relatively late starting therehas not been a leading enterprise in the foreign trade that candrive the industrial development into a strong industrialcluster erefore the added economic value is not signif-icant the growth rate is small and the motivation in de-veloping industry is still insufficient

33 Constraint Grade and Main Constraint Factors in In-dustrial Ecosystem Development Constraint factor analysishelps to formulate targeted measures to optimize the in-dustrial ecosystem In this study we calculate the constraintgrade for each specific index indices at either criterion levelor system level as the results shown in Table 2 Further fromthe perspective of time series we analyze the change of mainconstraint factors and the difference of constraint factorsamong cities and diagnose the main constraint factors forthe development level of industrial ecology in LiaoningProvince as the results shown in Table 3 At the same timeto identify the main constraints to the development of theindustrial ecosystem within each city we conduct a diag-nosis of the main constraint factors for the developmentlevel of industrial ecology in 2018 as the results shown inTable 4

As shown in Table 2 from a perspective of the level ofconstraints the constraint grades of the subsystems ofpressure state and response are 4573 2001 and3434 respectively indicating that the main constraintsaffecting the development process of urban industrial eco-systems in Liaoning Province are the pressure of humanactivities on the environment and the inadequate measurestaken by human in response to the ecological environment(1) Constraint grade of the pressure subsystem e con-straint grade of the pressure subsystem to the developmentof industrial ecology is 4573 suggesting that the pressuresubsystem is the greatest constraint in the process of urbanindustrial ecology in Liaoning Province among which theconstraint grade of the criterion layer of industrial economyis 415 and the constraint grade of the criterion layer ofenergy consumption is 42Within the pressure subsystemmany specific indices rank the top 10 by the constraint gradeincluding gross fixed asset investment (P17) 674 grossindustrial output value (P16) 642 regional GDP (P11)617 added value of the secondary sector (P12) 610number of industrial enterprises (P15) 592 number of

Complexity 9

employees in the secondary sector (P13) 578 ey all fallinto the category of industrial economy us it can berevealed that the overall low level of industrial economicdevelopment is the main constraint hindering the devel-opment of industrial ecosystems in Liaoning Province In-adequate capital investment declining economic growthand loss of human resources lead to low levels of industrialecosystem development On the other hand due to eco-nomic downturn excess energy production capacity and

insufficient development motivation at the criterion layer ofenergy consumption the constraint grade is only 43 (2)Constraint grade of the state subsystem e constraintgrade of state subsystem to the development of industrialecology is 2001 proportionally small in comparison withthat of ldquopressurerdquo and ldquoresponserdquo subsystems In this sub-system only the green coverage in the built-up area (S21)ranks in the top 10 indices regarding the constraint gradeie 589 ranking eighth is suggests that in the state

Table 2 Measurements of constraint grade based on PSR model

System layer Normative level Barrier level Indicator Barrier level Sort

PressureIndustrial economy P1 0415

P11 00617 5P12 00610 6P13 00578 9P14 00437 14P15 00592 7P16 00642 3P17 00674 1

Energy consumption P2 0042 P21 00193 18P22 00229 17

State

Discharge of the three wastes P3 0052

S11 00096 23S12 00096 22S13 00162 21S14 00165 20

Greenfield resources S2 0098 S21 00589 8S22 00386 15

Air quality S3 0051 S31 00183 19S32 00323 16

Response

Governance facilities R1 0103 R11 00499 13R12 00528 12

Governance capacity R2 0241

R21 00654 2R22 00543 11R23 00572 10R24 00638 4

Table 3 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province during 2000ndash2018

Year1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

2000 P16 00811 P17 00807 P11 00793 R21 00756 P12 007482001 P17 00745 R21 00728 P16 00706 P11 00709 P15 006992002 P17 00748 R21 00730 P16 00709 P11 00709 P15 006992003 P17 00748 R21 00746 P16 00718 P11 00706 P15 007012004 R21 00766 P17 00757 R24 00724 P16 00722 P11 007112005 R21 00818 P17 00747 R24 00739 P16 00713 P11 007032006 R21 00849 R24 00771 P17 00757 P11 00711 R23 007112007 R21 00900 P17 00811 R24 00765 P11 00761 P16 007592008 R21 00920 P17 00804 R24 00802 P11 00758 P16 007582009 R21 00961 R24 00871 S32 00837 R23 00821 P17 008182010 R24 00959 R21 00930 R23 00865 S32 00823 P17 007772011 R24 00935 R21 00898 R23 00890 S32 00868 P17 007982012 R24 00995 R21 00957 R23 00938 P21 00935 S32 008982013 P21 01119 R23 01021 R24 01013 S32 00958 R21 009212014 S31 01027 R24 00992 P21 00965 S11 00945 R23 009342015 P16 01022 R24 00999 S31 00922 R23 00878 S32 008662016 P16 00984 R21 00912 P15 00887 P17 00844 R23 008062017 R24 01035 P21 00996 R23 00973 R21 00970 S32 009322018 R24 01059 P21 01049 R23 00994 R21 00982 S32 00957Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

10 Complexity

subsystem green space resources have a greater impact onthe development of industrial ecosystems Meanwhile noindices at the criterion level of three-wastes emission and airquality are ranked in the top 10 Overall the constraint gradeof either the damage caused by ldquothree-wastesrdquo emissions orthe maintenance sustained by green space resources to theecological environment or the status of air quality becauseof destruction and maintenance is within the controllablerange for industrial ecosystem development In the futureindustrial development process priority must be given tostrengthening the protection of existing green space re-sources and strictly controlling over excessive land devel-opment (3) Constraint grade of the response subsystemeconstraint grade of the response subsystem to developmentof industrial ecology is 3434 Among them at the criterionlevel the constraint grade of governance facility is 103while that of governance ability is 241 suggesting that thecriterion level of governance ability is the main constraintfactor in the response subsystem In this subsystem thoseindices ranking in the top 10 include industrial sulfur di-oxide removal (R21) with a constraint grade of 654 outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) with a constraint grade of 638 and comprehensiveutilization of industrial solid waste (R23) with a constraintgrade of 572 is indicates that cities in LiaoningProvince generally have problems in the pollution treatmentat the end of industrial production process such as insuf-ficient investment in treatment weak treatment capabilityand low comprehensive utilization rate of wastes

As shown in Table 3 from a perspective of main con-straint factors longitudinally during the 19 years from 2000to 2018 the main constraint factors in the process of in-dustrial ecology development in cities of Liaoning Provincewere industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)gross fixed asset investment (P17) gross industrial outputvalue (P16) comprehensive utilization of industrial solidwaste (R23) regional GDP (P11) inhalable particulate matter

(PM10) (S32) industrial electricity consumption (P21)number of days with air quality reaching or better than ClassII (S31) number of industrial enterprises (P15) gross in-dustrial wastewater discharge (S11) etc However theranking of these major constraint factors changed signifi-cantly with time Among them the ranking of industrialsulfur dioxide removal (R21) and gross fixed asset investment(P17) gradually decreased while the ranking of the outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) fluctuated but all these three always ranked in the topthree In recent years these cities in Liaoning Province haveactively responded to the central governmentrsquos call forsuccessively adopting a series of measures to control airpollution and the emission of sulfur dioxide in factorieswhich has achieved positive outcomes e comprehensiveutilization of ldquothree-wastesrdquo influences recycling resourcesand easing environmental pressure but the current ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization production is associatedwith issues such as high capital investment difficult pro-cessing and low product quality which greatly constrainsthe industrial ecosystem development e highly temporalconsistency of the main constraint factors of different citiesindicates that the differences among the cities wereinsignificant

From Table 4 due to a significant difference in regionaleconomies among the cities the main constraint factors forthe development of the industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different However the main constraint factorsin Fushun Fuxin and Huludao were similar mainly in-cluding regional GDP (P11) number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross industrial output value (P16)gross fixed asset investment (P17) etc e top 5 indices forthe three cities were all the pressure subsystem ie thepressure subsystem became the main constraint factorMoreover for these three cities there were no strong in-dustrial foundations the urban construction was backwardprofessional elites and talents had moved out to provideworkforce for other cities the economy lacked vitality and

Table 4 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province in 2018

Area1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Shenyang R24 01059 R21 00982 S32 00957 R23 00850 P21 00791Dalian P21 01049 R23 00994 R24 00943 P22 00867 S11 00814Anshan R21 00691 R24 00670 P22 00638 P17 00543 P21 00533Fushun P17 00747 P13 00691 P11 00684 P15 00680 P16 00677Benxi R24 00711 P17 00671 P15 00651 R21 00646 P13 00624Dandong R24 00751 R21 00748 P16 00718 P17 00710 P13 00695Jinzhou R21 00688 P17 00678 S22 00659 R24 00656 P13 00651Yingkou P13 00657 P17 00651 R21 00647 S21 00604 P16 00597Fuxin P17 00742 P16 00723 P12 00701 P11 00700 P13 00681Liaoyang P17 00741 P13 00722 P15 00686 R24 00684 R21 00679Panjin R21 00753 R24 00715 R23 00658 P15 00657 P17 00640Tieling R21 00742 P17 00741 P13 00728 P12 00721 S21 00721Zhaoyang R21 00730 R24 00711 P17 00704 S21 00694 P16 00684Huludao P17 00815 P16 00785 P15 00776 P12 00759 P11 00757Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

Complexity 11

the urban comprehensive competitiveness was at the bottomof Liaoning Province Shenyang and Dalian had similarmain constraint factors mainly including industrial elec-tricity consumption (P21) comprehensive utilization ofindustrial solid waste (R23) and output value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24) etc eresponse subsystem was the main constraint factor On theone hand the two cities have strong industrial foundationsand superior geographical locations and have the mostdeveloped industrial economies in the province Howeveron the other hand the ecological environment was not paidenough attention to and investment in environmentalmanagement was not enough in these two cities whichcaused greater constraints to governance capacity than toindustrial ecology e main constraint factors in AnshanBenxi Dandong Jinzhou Liaoyang and Chaoyang citieswere similar mainly including number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17)industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)etc e six cities were at a medium development level inthe province in terms of either urbanization or competi-tiveness of the industrial economy In recent years due tothe policy advantage and the pull effect from economicdevelopment of Shenyang and Dalian the economy de-veloped rapidly in the six cities However without acontinuous improvement of necessary supporting systemssuch as employment market and urban construction thegovernance capacity was limited At present the six citiesshould mainly strengthen talent introduction and urbaninfrastructure construction and investment and simulta-neously emphasize both economic development and en-vironmental governance to overcome constraints toindustrial ecology development e main constraint fac-tors for Yingkou and Tieling cities were similar mainlyincluding number of employees in the secondary sector(P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17) green coverage ofthe built-up area (S21) and industrial sulfur dioxide re-moval (R21) Benefiting from the strategic layout of theEastern Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone Yingkou Cityhad enjoyed preferential policies and achieved a rapideconomic development However there was still a shortagein quality workforce and urban construction investmentMoreover the green coverage of the built-up area and thegovernance capacity of Yingkou were insufficient eseissues constrained the economic development in YingkouCity Tieling a remotely located city had neither a strongindustrial foundation nor a large-scale trade exchange Inaddition the labor force was insufficient us its indus-trial economy ecological environment and governancecapacity were all in an embarrassing situation Regardingspatial scale the main constraint factors affecting the in-ternal industrial ecosystemrsquos development in 14 cities ofLiaoning Province were the pressure and response sub-systems while the state subsystem had little impact Al-though all the cities had made a great progress in activelyresponding to the central governmentrsquos call for controllingenvironmental pollution it is yet to take urgent actions inenergizing industrial economic development motivation

and improving environmental governance capabilities forall cities

4 Discussion and Conclusions

41 Discussion e industrial ecosystem consists of bothvarious elements that have an important impact on thedevelopment of an industry and multiple interactions ofthese elements It is an organic system composed of variousparticipants along the industrial chain the supportingfactors of industrial development and the external envi-ronment which the survival and development of an industryrely on Establishment of a mature industrial ecosystemenables symbiosis mutualism and regeneration of industrialelements to maximize the economic and social values[47 48] Industrial development is the result of collectiveeffects of entire industrial ecosystem [46] Competitionamong regional economies is a competition for industrialecologyose regions who can firstly establish the completeindustrial ecosystem will take an advantage in economicdevelopment Currently formation of industrial ecologyexhibits two major characteristics first enterprises in thesame industry or industry cluster gather in a geographicalregion to form an industrial agglomeration second localleading enterprises with unique products and competitive-ness expand its development based on its business modelSuch expansion drives the growth of individual ecologicalelements in surrounding areas and forms a business eco-system A fundamental reason why Chinarsquos super centralcities ie Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou and Shenzhen canmaintain high growth is the establishment of a good in-dustrial ecology In these cities the competition has changedfrom ldquoindustryrdquo to ldquoindustrial ecologyrdquo Moreover the trendof specialization and verticalization of industrial ecology isbecoming more and more obvious To manifest this trendeconomic growth points are continuously emerging majorbreakthroughs are continuously made in emerging indus-tries and technological innovation innovative and emergingindustries are incubated and nurtured and a group ofunicorn enterprises are born as industry leaders that race tocontrol the commanding heights of economy in China oreven in the globe In contrast in many third- and fourth-tiercities economic growth is slow It is partly because of yet-to-improve industrial ecology that lacks attractiveness to re-sources such as talents capital and technology lacks in-novative environment and thus results in the loss ofendogenous economic growth e premise of constructinga sound industrial ecology is to clearly define the industrialpositioning realize the industrial agglomeration and or-ganically integrate industrial elements to catalyze theirldquoecological chemical reactionrdquo With popularized applica-tion of big data cloud computing Internet of ings andintelligent hardware the industrial ecology is being digitallyempowered and flattened managed industrial elements areclosely interconnected and collaborated in an efficient andintelligent way and finally the industrial value chain is beingreshaped Despite this it is still necessary to take measuresfrom multiple dimensions to increase support for industrialecology For example we should improve the construction

12 Complexity

of innovative ecosystems [49] strengthen the support forecological elements such as land [50] and take considerationof responses to climate change [51 52] We must break theinformation barriers among research institutions univer-sities government departments business organizations andfinancial institutions optimize the business environmentstrengthen policy guidance and actively promote the inte-gration of industry-education-research and the transfor-mation of research outcomes thus to form a market-oriented and enterprise-based innovation system In addi-tion it is a wise choice to introduce third-parties to gatherindustrial talents and resources where a platform-type in-dustrial organization is particularly important for theconstruction of regional industrial ecology rough such aplatform it is possible to establish connection with variousresources including talents scientific research capital andmarket and further to establish a network with upstreamand downstream enterprises is would greatly reduce thedifficulties in attracting investment and energize the dy-namics of industrial elements

Liaoning Province as a representative and typicalprovince of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina has been accelerating the transformation and opti-mization of traditional industries since the implementationof the Revitalization Strategy Economic development inLiaoning has shifted from high-speed growth to high-qualitydevelopment While major equipment design andmanufacturing industry is leading the country a regionalinnovation system is gradually taking shape However dueto a long-term influence of the extensive economic growthmodel the traditional industry development model and theconservative management system and mechanism the in-dustrial development pattern has not yet fundamentallychanged which is still mainly based on traditional industriessuch as equipment manufacturing coal mining and pe-troleum smelting Meanwhile there still exist many prob-lems in urban industrial ecology in Liaoning ProvinceFirstly there is a lack of a top-level design of industrialecosystem planning Governments and enterprises at alllevels overemphasize industrial development but fail toorganically integrate industry into industrial ecosystemdevelopment which results in a sole industrial system lackof connection between industrial categories slow develop-ment of industrial ecology and convergence of industrialstructure Consequently the complementary effect of re-gional advantages is not effectively exerted and the regionalcompetitiveness is compromised Secondly there is not astrong capability in independent innovation of industrialecosystems Till now Liaoning still heavily depends ontraditional industrial paths without enough nurture ofemerging pillar industries featuring a low level of industrialstructure and an overweighed secondary sector Meanwhilethere is a lack of effective dynamic circulation system high-tech industries and modern service industries are propor-tionally low the industry of deep processing of raw materialis less developed and the independent innovation ability isweak irdly there is no feedback mechanism for thepractice of industrial ecosystems In the process of industrialdevelopment most traditional industries are still

characterized by the unidirectional consumption of energyresources and the degradation of ecological environmentalservice functionsere is a lack of standards andmethods tosystematically assess economic-environmental dynamicsWithout having established a feedback mechanism to reg-ulate a healthy development of industrial ecosystems it isimpossible to effectively integrate resources for building amodern economic system

Constructing industrial ecosystems is a new strategicmeasure to promote a comprehensive revitalization of theNortheast Region It can effectively address deep-seatedissues in industrial development of the traditional industrialarea in Liaoning overcome constraints of traditional in-dustrial development systems and mechanisms change theindustrial development approach in multiple dimensionssuch as management mechanism operation mode pro-duction method and business environment and realize aneconomic-environmental coupling and sustainable devel-opment It is also an important pathway leading to an ef-fective transformation of economic development inLiaoning In this regard Liaoning Province should pay moreattention to the industrial ecosystem construction and take itas a focus to promote the industrial development in a greencircular and quality way Some recommendations andsuggestions are as follows firstly deepen the reform ofsystems and mechanisms to create a good business envi-ronment for industrial ecosystem construction It is nec-essary to properly handle the government-marketrelationship focusing on addressing such issues as gov-ernmentrsquos direct intervention in resource allocation over-management and the misalignment offside absence andinadequacy of governmental functions and further promotesimplified administration decentralization and optimiza-tion of services Continue to deepen the reform of admin-istrative approval systems commercial systems andinvestment and financing systems Perform governmentfunctions according to law to accelerate the establishmentand improvement of the management model based on thepower lists the responsibility lists and the negative listsImprove the legitimate decision-making mechanism andstrengthen the restriction and supervision of power Sec-ondly unleash the potential in regional collaborative in-novation to build technological innovation capabilities forindustrial ecosystem construction Formulate and imple-ment a system that encourages technological innovation andintellectual property protection improve the innovation andentrepreneurship service model and provide full-chainvalue-added services for innovation and entrepreneurshipactivities to stimulate the independent innovation capabil-ities in the traditional industrial area in Liaoning irdlystrengthen the top-level design of regional collaborativedevelopment to broaden development space for industrialecosystem construction Aim to construct industrial eco-systems integrate the spatial distribution of industrial de-velopment in the province and plan the industrial ecosystemconstruction based on regional macro-policies to establish aregional macro ecosystem integrating industry agricultureservices and high-technology Fourthly innovate and en-hance the supply capacity of ecological products to provide a

Complexity 13

material foundation for industrial ecosystem constructionDeploy in advance the development strategy for alternativeclean and green industries make full use of unique eco-logical resources combine with rural revitalization strate-gies energize new dynamics of rural resource developmentto transform superior ecological resources into high-qualityecological product supply and ecological services and realizeecological industrialization Fifthly engage a multi-partyparticipation mechanism to provide scientific support forindustrial ecosystem construction Promote the knowledgeand cognition of the industrial ecosystem to make enter-prises aware of the importance and advantages of industrialecosystem construction through education amp trainingmedia promotion and the Internet Strengthen scientificsupport by organizing an expert team to research industrialecosystems of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningwhich is an interdisciplinary team engaging multiplestakeholders including governments enterprises researchinstitutions and universities to provide multi-dimensionalsupport for industrial ecosystem construction of the tradi-tional industrial area in Liaoning from policy recommen-dation to top-level design and then to the application ofindustrial ecological technology

42 Conclusions is paper took 14 cities in LiaoningProvince as examples of urban industrial ecosystems oftraditional industrial area in Northeastern China to calculatethe development level of its industrial ecosystem during2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and toconduct a spatial visualization analysis which provides newperspectives and methods for analyzing and interpreting thecomplexity of urban industrial ecosystems e results showthe following (1) from 2000 to 2018 the 14 cities in LiaoningProvince had a moderate level of industrial ecology Exceptfor Shenyang and Dalian with rapid development the dif-ference in the development level of industrial ecosystemsamong other cities was small (2) From 2000 to 2018 thedevelopment level of industrial ecosystems in cities firstincreased and then decreased with some fluctuation edevelopment level of the industrial ecology in these citiesgenerally showed an upward-then-downward trend Re-garding spatial differentiation a high-level industrial eco-logical zone formed with Shenyang and Dalian as the centere ldquodual-corerdquo feature was significant and continuouslystrengthened As a result the whole region exhibited aldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern (3) At the system level of PSRthe constraint grades to the industrial ecosystemrsquos devel-opment level in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province weredifferent e constraint grades of the pressure state andresponse subsystems to the provincersquos industrial ecosystemwere 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicatingthat the main constraint factors affecting the process ofurban industrial ecology in Liaoning Province were both thelack of human response to the ecological environment andthe pressure of human activities on the ecological envi-ronment during the industrial economic development (4)Due to the large differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and development

circumstances among different cities the main constraintfactors to development of industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different but overall regional GDP number ofemployees in the secondary sector gross fixed asset in-vestment industrial sulfur dioxide removal and outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization productwere the main five factors With popularized application ofbig data cloud computing Internet of ings and intelli-gent hardware the main direction of further research in thefuture may point to reshaping the industrial value chainimproving and innovating the ecosystem construction andintroducing third-party forces to gather industrial talentsand resources for creating an industrial symbiosis networkon a city scale However to fully and scientifically under-stand the complexity of the urban industrial ecosystem it isnecessary not only to study at the element level but also tosystematically recognize the complexity of the networkstructure establish a structural model to analyze its evo-lutionary dynamics and then guide the formulation of in-dustrial policy for the development of regional industrialecology which will be the main research direction in thefuture

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of China(41701142 and 41971166) Fundamental Research Funds forthe Central Universities (2020jbkyjc002) Project of GansuProvince Economic and Social Development Serving ofLanzhou University (2019-FWZX-04) and Open Project ofInstitute of County Economy Developments amp Rural Re-vitalization Strategy Lanzhou University (xyjj2019002)

References

[1] T E Graedel and B R Allenby Industrial Ecology PrenticeHall Englewood Cliffs NJ USA 1995

[2] B R Allenby and W E Cooper ldquoUnderstanding industrialecology from a biological systems perspectiverdquo Environ-mental Quality Management vol 3 no 3 pp 343ndash354 1994

[3] S Charmondusit K Bhaktikul C ArunlertareeWWisawapipatC Rattanapan and K Charmondusit ldquoProblem based trainingprogram on industrial ecology and environment for thesustainability management of industryrdquo ProcediamdashSocial andBehavioral Sciences vol 40 pp 31ndash36 2012

[4] R A Frosch and N E Gallopoulos ldquoStrategies formanufacturingrdquo Scientific American vol 261 no 3pp 144ndash152 1989

[5] Y Huang C Lu X Xiao et al ldquoEvolution and reconstructionof industrial ecosystems of mining cities in the traditionalindustrial area of Northeastern China a case study of

14 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

Build a weighted decision matrix ie V as follows

V

v11 v12 middot middot middot v1j

v21 v22 middot middot middot v2j

⋮ ⋮ ⋮

vi1 vi2 middot middot middot vij

⎡⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎢⎣

⎤⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎥⎦

(6)

Determine the positive- and negative-ideal solutionsand calculate the Euclidean distance and grey correlationdegree for all samples e positive- and negative-idealsolutions are as follows

v+j max vij

11138681113868111386811138681113868 i 1 2 n1113882 1113883 v+1 v

+2 v

+n1113864 1113865

vminusj min vij

11138681113868111386811138681113868 i 1 2 n1113882 1113883 vminus1 v

minus2 v

minusn1113864 1113865

(7)

en the calculations for the Euclidean distance of ei-ther positive-ideal or negative-ideal solutions are as follows

D+i

1113944

m

j1vij minus v+

j1113872 11138732

11139741113972

i 1 2 n

Dminusi

1113944

m

j1vij minus vminus

j1113872 11138732

11139741113972

i 1 2 n

(8)

Calculate the grey correlation degree e correlationcoefficient for an index between the sample and the positive-ideal solution can be calculated based on the weightedmatrix

s+ij

miniminjΔvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

Δvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

(9)

where Δvij |v+j minus vij| miniminjΔvij is the minimum dif-

ference between two levels maximaxjΔvij is the maximumdifference between two levels and ρ isin [0 1] is resolutioncoefficient in this study ρ 05 Construct the grey cor-relation coefficient matrix of positive-ideal solution samplesand then calculate the grey correlation degree between eachsample and the positive-ideal solution

W+i

1113936mj1 s+

ij

m i 1 2 n (10)

Calculate the correlation coefficient of each sample andthe negative-ideal solution on different indices

sminusij

miniminjΔvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

Δvij + ρmaximaxjΔvij

(11)

where Δvij |vminusj minus vij|

Calculate the grey correlation between each sample andthe negative-ideal solution as follows

Wminusi

1113936mj1 s+

ij

m i 1 2 n (12)

Calculate the relative proximity Normalize the Eu-clidean distance and grey correlation as follows

εi δi

max1leilem δi( 1113857 i 1 2 n (13)

where εi⟶ D+i Dminus

i W+i Wminus

i After dimensionless pro-cessing they are d+

i dminusi w+

i wminusi

e adjusted formula comprehensively considers theEuclidean distance and grey correlation

T+i θ1d

minusi + θ2w

+i i 1 2 n

Tminusi θ1d

+i + θ2w

minusi i 1 2 n

(14)

θ1 θ2 indicate the degree of preference θ1 + θ2 1 in thispaper θ1 θ2 05 T+

i andTminusi refer to how close the sample

is to either the positive- or negative-ideal solutionsCalculate the relative proximity εi as follows

εi T+

i

T+i + Tminus

i

i 1 2 n (15)

Calculate the constraint grade Analyze and diagnose thestudy case by measuring the factor contribution indexdeviation and constraint grade (1) factor contribution (Gj)represents the degree of influence of single factor on theoverall goal (2) index deviation (Pj) refers to the differencebetween a single factor index and the overall goal of thesystem which is assumed as the difference between thestandardized value of a single index and 100 (3) constraintgrade (Zj) is the degree of influence of a single index or anindex at criterion level on the development level of industrialecosystems e index deviation Pj and the constraint gradeZj are calculated as follows

Pij 1 minus rij

Zij PijGj

111393614j1PijGj

(16)

3 Results

31 Spatiotemporal Evolution Characteristics of the IndustrialEcosystemrsquos Development Level According to the compre-hensive evaluation methodology discussed above weidentified the positive- and negative-ideal solutions of in-dices standardized the data using Excel and conducted greycorrelation analysis using MATLAB thereby revealing thelongitudinal characteristics of the development level of in-dustrial ecosystems in the period of 2000 to 2018 for the 14cities in Liaoning Province (see Figure 2) At the same timebased on ArcGIS software we used the data in 2000 20062012 and 2018 respectively to conduct a spatial visuali-zation analysis of the development level of industrial ecologyfor all the cities in Liaoning Province and then to clarify itsspatial differentiation as shown in Figure 3

From Figure 2 the development level and situation ofindustrial ecosystems in the 14 cities of Liaoning Provincevaried in the study period but generally showed a steadyupward trend e industrial ecosystemrsquos development levelof these cities was in the range of [038 066] Shenyang theprovincial capital city and Dalian a city specifically listed inthe state economic plan had relatively high levels of

6 Complexity

industrial ecosystem development with an obvious upwardtrend and leading ahead but they did not have a significantpull effect on the surrounding cities Meanwhile there wasnot a big difference in industrial ecology developmentamong other cities as they were all at a medium levelLiaoning Province located in the old industrial region ofNortheast China is rich in natural resources but with amedium economic development level in China Its economyhas been dominated by resource-based industries for a longtime and the development of alternative industries was slow[46] Except for Shenyang and Dalian the difference ineconomic development among other cities was relativelysmall moreover the ability to adjust and reorganize thecityrsquos industrial ecosystem was limited and lagged by lowecological construction From a longitudinal perspective thedevelopment of industrial ecosystems in 2000ndash2006 wasrelatively stable there was a rising trend from 2006 to 2013suggesting that the Revitalization Strategy had generatedhuge policy and investment effects Since 2013 there was atrend of decline in industrial ecosystemrsquos developmentDuring the period when the GDP growth rates of all threenortheastern provinces nationally ranked among the bottomten for example ranking the bottom five in the year of 2014and 2015 Liaoning Province the largest economy in theNortheast ranked nationally the lowest economic growthrate of 30 in 2015 and minus25 in 2016 respectively isperiod was called the ldquoNew Northeast Phenomenonrdquo whichhad a significant negative impact on the industrial ecologydevelopment of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina especially in Liaoning Province

From the prefecture-level city level we conclude thefollowing (1) industrial ecosystem development in She-nyang and Dalian showed a rapid upward trend and thedevelopment level was relatively high leading the other 12cities is was closely related to the factors such as theadministrative status geographical location and industrialstructure of the two cities Shenyang as the central city of the

three northeastern provinces has policy advantage large citysize and good market environment thus attracts manyhigh-end talents and quality enterprises and leads theprovince in the overall development of Liaoning Dalian isone of the high-tech industrial bases and a well-knowntourist city in China According to the 2010 China UrbanCompetitiveness Report the comprehensive competitive-ness of Dalian ranked the eighth among all cities in China InDalian the solid technological foundation first-class sci-entific and technological talent concentration convenientsea amp land transportation and comfortable climate amp en-vironment promote its economic development and eco-logical construction (2) Industrial ecosystem developmentin the five cities ie Dandong Jinzhou Fuxin Tieling andHuludao shows a steady upward trend with a fluctuationand is at a medium level Dandong is an important meetingpoint of the Northeast Asian Economic Circle the Bohai BayEconomic Rim and the Yellow Sea Economic Basin It hascurrently formed advantageous industries such as trans-portation equipment manufacturing agricultural amp sidelineproduct processing energy metal mining and smelting amprolling processing In recent years to promote the devel-opment of industrial ecology Dandong has successivelyestablished various ecological and environmental industrialparks and actively carried out ecological restoration projectsBoth Jinzhou and Fuxin are important old industrial cities inNortheast China Jinzhou has gradually formed an industrialsystem featuring petrochemicals new materials and deepprocessing of agricultural products As one of the importantcities in the Shenyang Economic Zone Fuxinrsquos industrialeconomy is dominated by coal Dandong and Fuxin play aleading role in the overall development of the westernLiaoning region with a healthy development momentumTieling is one of the main grain production regions in Chinaa production and processing base of quality agriculturalproducts and an emerging coal-power city Due to thecharacteristics of the industrial structure the industrial

030

035

040

045

050

055

060

065

070

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Indu

stria

l eco

logi

cal l

evel

ShenyangDalianAnshanFushun

BenxiDandongJinzhouYingkou

FuxinLiaoyangPanjinTieling

ZhaoyangHuludao

Figure 2 Development levels of industrial ecosystems in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province (2000ndash2018)

Complexity 7

ecosystem of Tieling is stable Huludao is the west gate ofNortheast China With outstanding geographical advan-tages it has formed a modern industrial system with suchpillar industries as petrochemicals nonferrous metalsmachinery manufacturing shipbuilding and energy andpower production Based on a strong industrial developmentfoundation currently Huludao is in a critical transitionperiod of industrial structure upgrade (3) In the remaining 7cities of Liaoning Province ie Anshan Fushun BenxiYingkou Liaoyang Panjin and Chaoyang the developmentof industrial ecosystems shows a moderate upward trendwhich is slightly weaker and more fluctuating than theoverall development of the five cities mentioned aboveAmong them the development of industrial ecosystems inAnshan Benxi and Yingkou has been in the most severefluctuation indicating that the stability of industrial eco-systems in these three cities is poor and needs to be adjusted

effectively ere is no obvious change in industrial eco-system development in Fushun Liaoyang Panjin andChaoyang ese four cities generally had a single industrialstructure poor environmental stability and weak scientificand technological capacity It is necessary and urgent to takeeffective measures to optimize the industrial ecosystem

From the perspective of spatial distribution the overallspatial differentiation was significant in 2000 ShenyangFushun and Panjin in north-central Liaoning formed anldquouplift beltrdquo while Anshan Liaoyang and Benxi in thecentral-eastern province formed a ldquogroove areardquo Since 2006the spatial differentiation has becomemore significant whenShenyang and Dalian have jointly formed a high-level in-dustrial ecology zone As the ldquodual-corerdquo feature has beensignificant and increasingly strengthened the agglomerationof Shenyang Economic Zone and Coastal Economic Belt wasgradually enhanced while the difference between the ldquouplift

20000394ndash03970398ndash04110412ndash04180419ndash04290430ndash0447120degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

40degN

N

N N

N

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

20060378ndash03850386ndash04010402ndash04270428ndash04570458ndash0505120degE

120degE120degE

201804330434ndash04680469ndash04800481ndash05100511ndash0657

20120442ndash04460447ndash04650466ndash04810482ndash05000501ndash0633

Figure 3 Spatiotemporal evolution patterns of urban industrial ecosystems development level in Liaoning Province

8 Complexity

beltrdquo and the ldquogroove areardquo gradually dimmede industrialecosystemrsquos development level in the southeast has graduallysurpassed that in the northwest Anshan a resource-de-pleted city is slow in industrial transformation and remainsa relatively low level of industrial ecosystem developmentwhile Huludao City always maintains a high level In termsof regional difference there is a remarkable feature ofldquocenter-peripheryrdquo describing the central-northern regioncentered on Shenyang and southeastern amp northwesternregions respectively To summarize the above analysis bothShenyang Economic Zone and Liaoning Coastal EconomicBelt are currently still the engines of industrial ecologydevelopment in the Northeast region while the entireNortheast region has also achieved considerable develop-ment and the overall structure will be further optimized

32 Cluster Analysis of Industrial Ecosystem Based on thecluster analysis of the industrial ecology level for the 14 citiesof Liaoning Province in 2018 the spatial distribution ofhigh-level medium-level and low-level industrial ecosys-tems was identified rough cluster analysis we can con-clude the following (1) the two sub-provincial level citiesShenyang and Dalian have the high-level industrial eco-system (industrial ecosystem development level gt055)eyhave superior geographical locations good industrial eco-nomic development conditions and strong industrialfoundations which provide a strong guarantee for pro-tecting the ecological environment In the two cities thegreen coverage in built-up areas is significantly higher thanthat of other cities the industrial ecosystem development isat a higher level due to strong policy support However thereis still room to improve the ability of ecological environ-mental governance that is there is potential to furtherdevelop the industrial ecology (2) Huludao City has amedium-level industrial ecosystem (05lt development levelof industrial ecosystemle 055) Huludao is a coastal city andhas formed a modern industrial system with petroleumprocessing non-ferrous metals machinery manufacturingship building and energy and power production as the pillarindustries Its industrial foundation is strong However dueto the current situation of transitioning and upgradingindustrial structure various issues such as poor environ-mental stability and weak technological capacity havenegatively affected the improvement of industrial ecosystem(3) Eleven cities including Anshan Fushun and Benxi had alow-level industrial ecosystem (development level of in-dustrial ecosystem le05) Four cities in the Coastal EconomicBelt of eastern Liaoning ie Anshan Yingkou Panjin andJinzhou are developing innovative industries and building alivable and touristic urban agglomeration However thetraditional low-level industrial economy could not provideenough material technical and resource support foraddressing ecological and environmental issues ereforethe environmental improvement is sluggish and the processof sustainable development is slow In Chaoyang Tielingand Fuxin which locate in the northwest of LiaoningProvince the ecological and industrial development is not inharmony due to geographical constraints e

comprehensive competitiveness of these cities is at thelowest end of Liaoning Province with little developmentpotential due to the limitation by geographical conditionsand resource endowment Insufficient motivation for in-dustrial development leads to a low comprehensive level ofindustrial ecosystems Fushun Benxi and Liaoyang arecities dominated by heavy industry which strongly dependon heavy industry enterprises and have a weak economicfoundation e development of heavy industry caused asevere environmental pollution for these three citiesis in-coordination in development of ecology and industry led toa relatively low level in integration of industrial and eco-logical development in the three cities Dandong is a citybordering with North Korea its foreign trade is relativelydeveloped However due to a relatively late starting therehas not been a leading enterprise in the foreign trade that candrive the industrial development into a strong industrialcluster erefore the added economic value is not signif-icant the growth rate is small and the motivation in de-veloping industry is still insufficient

33 Constraint Grade and Main Constraint Factors in In-dustrial Ecosystem Development Constraint factor analysishelps to formulate targeted measures to optimize the in-dustrial ecosystem In this study we calculate the constraintgrade for each specific index indices at either criterion levelor system level as the results shown in Table 2 Further fromthe perspective of time series we analyze the change of mainconstraint factors and the difference of constraint factorsamong cities and diagnose the main constraint factors forthe development level of industrial ecology in LiaoningProvince as the results shown in Table 3 At the same timeto identify the main constraints to the development of theindustrial ecosystem within each city we conduct a diag-nosis of the main constraint factors for the developmentlevel of industrial ecology in 2018 as the results shown inTable 4

As shown in Table 2 from a perspective of the level ofconstraints the constraint grades of the subsystems ofpressure state and response are 4573 2001 and3434 respectively indicating that the main constraintsaffecting the development process of urban industrial eco-systems in Liaoning Province are the pressure of humanactivities on the environment and the inadequate measurestaken by human in response to the ecological environment(1) Constraint grade of the pressure subsystem e con-straint grade of the pressure subsystem to the developmentof industrial ecology is 4573 suggesting that the pressuresubsystem is the greatest constraint in the process of urbanindustrial ecology in Liaoning Province among which theconstraint grade of the criterion layer of industrial economyis 415 and the constraint grade of the criterion layer ofenergy consumption is 42Within the pressure subsystemmany specific indices rank the top 10 by the constraint gradeincluding gross fixed asset investment (P17) 674 grossindustrial output value (P16) 642 regional GDP (P11)617 added value of the secondary sector (P12) 610number of industrial enterprises (P15) 592 number of

Complexity 9

employees in the secondary sector (P13) 578 ey all fallinto the category of industrial economy us it can berevealed that the overall low level of industrial economicdevelopment is the main constraint hindering the devel-opment of industrial ecosystems in Liaoning Province In-adequate capital investment declining economic growthand loss of human resources lead to low levels of industrialecosystem development On the other hand due to eco-nomic downturn excess energy production capacity and

insufficient development motivation at the criterion layer ofenergy consumption the constraint grade is only 43 (2)Constraint grade of the state subsystem e constraintgrade of state subsystem to the development of industrialecology is 2001 proportionally small in comparison withthat of ldquopressurerdquo and ldquoresponserdquo subsystems In this sub-system only the green coverage in the built-up area (S21)ranks in the top 10 indices regarding the constraint gradeie 589 ranking eighth is suggests that in the state

Table 2 Measurements of constraint grade based on PSR model

System layer Normative level Barrier level Indicator Barrier level Sort

PressureIndustrial economy P1 0415

P11 00617 5P12 00610 6P13 00578 9P14 00437 14P15 00592 7P16 00642 3P17 00674 1

Energy consumption P2 0042 P21 00193 18P22 00229 17

State

Discharge of the three wastes P3 0052

S11 00096 23S12 00096 22S13 00162 21S14 00165 20

Greenfield resources S2 0098 S21 00589 8S22 00386 15

Air quality S3 0051 S31 00183 19S32 00323 16

Response

Governance facilities R1 0103 R11 00499 13R12 00528 12

Governance capacity R2 0241

R21 00654 2R22 00543 11R23 00572 10R24 00638 4

Table 3 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province during 2000ndash2018

Year1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

2000 P16 00811 P17 00807 P11 00793 R21 00756 P12 007482001 P17 00745 R21 00728 P16 00706 P11 00709 P15 006992002 P17 00748 R21 00730 P16 00709 P11 00709 P15 006992003 P17 00748 R21 00746 P16 00718 P11 00706 P15 007012004 R21 00766 P17 00757 R24 00724 P16 00722 P11 007112005 R21 00818 P17 00747 R24 00739 P16 00713 P11 007032006 R21 00849 R24 00771 P17 00757 P11 00711 R23 007112007 R21 00900 P17 00811 R24 00765 P11 00761 P16 007592008 R21 00920 P17 00804 R24 00802 P11 00758 P16 007582009 R21 00961 R24 00871 S32 00837 R23 00821 P17 008182010 R24 00959 R21 00930 R23 00865 S32 00823 P17 007772011 R24 00935 R21 00898 R23 00890 S32 00868 P17 007982012 R24 00995 R21 00957 R23 00938 P21 00935 S32 008982013 P21 01119 R23 01021 R24 01013 S32 00958 R21 009212014 S31 01027 R24 00992 P21 00965 S11 00945 R23 009342015 P16 01022 R24 00999 S31 00922 R23 00878 S32 008662016 P16 00984 R21 00912 P15 00887 P17 00844 R23 008062017 R24 01035 P21 00996 R23 00973 R21 00970 S32 009322018 R24 01059 P21 01049 R23 00994 R21 00982 S32 00957Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

10 Complexity

subsystem green space resources have a greater impact onthe development of industrial ecosystems Meanwhile noindices at the criterion level of three-wastes emission and airquality are ranked in the top 10 Overall the constraint gradeof either the damage caused by ldquothree-wastesrdquo emissions orthe maintenance sustained by green space resources to theecological environment or the status of air quality becauseof destruction and maintenance is within the controllablerange for industrial ecosystem development In the futureindustrial development process priority must be given tostrengthening the protection of existing green space re-sources and strictly controlling over excessive land devel-opment (3) Constraint grade of the response subsystemeconstraint grade of the response subsystem to developmentof industrial ecology is 3434 Among them at the criterionlevel the constraint grade of governance facility is 103while that of governance ability is 241 suggesting that thecriterion level of governance ability is the main constraintfactor in the response subsystem In this subsystem thoseindices ranking in the top 10 include industrial sulfur di-oxide removal (R21) with a constraint grade of 654 outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) with a constraint grade of 638 and comprehensiveutilization of industrial solid waste (R23) with a constraintgrade of 572 is indicates that cities in LiaoningProvince generally have problems in the pollution treatmentat the end of industrial production process such as insuf-ficient investment in treatment weak treatment capabilityand low comprehensive utilization rate of wastes

As shown in Table 3 from a perspective of main con-straint factors longitudinally during the 19 years from 2000to 2018 the main constraint factors in the process of in-dustrial ecology development in cities of Liaoning Provincewere industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)gross fixed asset investment (P17) gross industrial outputvalue (P16) comprehensive utilization of industrial solidwaste (R23) regional GDP (P11) inhalable particulate matter

(PM10) (S32) industrial electricity consumption (P21)number of days with air quality reaching or better than ClassII (S31) number of industrial enterprises (P15) gross in-dustrial wastewater discharge (S11) etc However theranking of these major constraint factors changed signifi-cantly with time Among them the ranking of industrialsulfur dioxide removal (R21) and gross fixed asset investment(P17) gradually decreased while the ranking of the outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) fluctuated but all these three always ranked in the topthree In recent years these cities in Liaoning Province haveactively responded to the central governmentrsquos call forsuccessively adopting a series of measures to control airpollution and the emission of sulfur dioxide in factorieswhich has achieved positive outcomes e comprehensiveutilization of ldquothree-wastesrdquo influences recycling resourcesand easing environmental pressure but the current ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization production is associatedwith issues such as high capital investment difficult pro-cessing and low product quality which greatly constrainsthe industrial ecosystem development e highly temporalconsistency of the main constraint factors of different citiesindicates that the differences among the cities wereinsignificant

From Table 4 due to a significant difference in regionaleconomies among the cities the main constraint factors forthe development of the industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different However the main constraint factorsin Fushun Fuxin and Huludao were similar mainly in-cluding regional GDP (P11) number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross industrial output value (P16)gross fixed asset investment (P17) etc e top 5 indices forthe three cities were all the pressure subsystem ie thepressure subsystem became the main constraint factorMoreover for these three cities there were no strong in-dustrial foundations the urban construction was backwardprofessional elites and talents had moved out to provideworkforce for other cities the economy lacked vitality and

Table 4 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province in 2018

Area1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Shenyang R24 01059 R21 00982 S32 00957 R23 00850 P21 00791Dalian P21 01049 R23 00994 R24 00943 P22 00867 S11 00814Anshan R21 00691 R24 00670 P22 00638 P17 00543 P21 00533Fushun P17 00747 P13 00691 P11 00684 P15 00680 P16 00677Benxi R24 00711 P17 00671 P15 00651 R21 00646 P13 00624Dandong R24 00751 R21 00748 P16 00718 P17 00710 P13 00695Jinzhou R21 00688 P17 00678 S22 00659 R24 00656 P13 00651Yingkou P13 00657 P17 00651 R21 00647 S21 00604 P16 00597Fuxin P17 00742 P16 00723 P12 00701 P11 00700 P13 00681Liaoyang P17 00741 P13 00722 P15 00686 R24 00684 R21 00679Panjin R21 00753 R24 00715 R23 00658 P15 00657 P17 00640Tieling R21 00742 P17 00741 P13 00728 P12 00721 S21 00721Zhaoyang R21 00730 R24 00711 P17 00704 S21 00694 P16 00684Huludao P17 00815 P16 00785 P15 00776 P12 00759 P11 00757Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

Complexity 11

the urban comprehensive competitiveness was at the bottomof Liaoning Province Shenyang and Dalian had similarmain constraint factors mainly including industrial elec-tricity consumption (P21) comprehensive utilization ofindustrial solid waste (R23) and output value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24) etc eresponse subsystem was the main constraint factor On theone hand the two cities have strong industrial foundationsand superior geographical locations and have the mostdeveloped industrial economies in the province Howeveron the other hand the ecological environment was not paidenough attention to and investment in environmentalmanagement was not enough in these two cities whichcaused greater constraints to governance capacity than toindustrial ecology e main constraint factors in AnshanBenxi Dandong Jinzhou Liaoyang and Chaoyang citieswere similar mainly including number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17)industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)etc e six cities were at a medium development level inthe province in terms of either urbanization or competi-tiveness of the industrial economy In recent years due tothe policy advantage and the pull effect from economicdevelopment of Shenyang and Dalian the economy de-veloped rapidly in the six cities However without acontinuous improvement of necessary supporting systemssuch as employment market and urban construction thegovernance capacity was limited At present the six citiesshould mainly strengthen talent introduction and urbaninfrastructure construction and investment and simulta-neously emphasize both economic development and en-vironmental governance to overcome constraints toindustrial ecology development e main constraint fac-tors for Yingkou and Tieling cities were similar mainlyincluding number of employees in the secondary sector(P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17) green coverage ofthe built-up area (S21) and industrial sulfur dioxide re-moval (R21) Benefiting from the strategic layout of theEastern Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone Yingkou Cityhad enjoyed preferential policies and achieved a rapideconomic development However there was still a shortagein quality workforce and urban construction investmentMoreover the green coverage of the built-up area and thegovernance capacity of Yingkou were insufficient eseissues constrained the economic development in YingkouCity Tieling a remotely located city had neither a strongindustrial foundation nor a large-scale trade exchange Inaddition the labor force was insufficient us its indus-trial economy ecological environment and governancecapacity were all in an embarrassing situation Regardingspatial scale the main constraint factors affecting the in-ternal industrial ecosystemrsquos development in 14 cities ofLiaoning Province were the pressure and response sub-systems while the state subsystem had little impact Al-though all the cities had made a great progress in activelyresponding to the central governmentrsquos call for controllingenvironmental pollution it is yet to take urgent actions inenergizing industrial economic development motivation

and improving environmental governance capabilities forall cities

4 Discussion and Conclusions

41 Discussion e industrial ecosystem consists of bothvarious elements that have an important impact on thedevelopment of an industry and multiple interactions ofthese elements It is an organic system composed of variousparticipants along the industrial chain the supportingfactors of industrial development and the external envi-ronment which the survival and development of an industryrely on Establishment of a mature industrial ecosystemenables symbiosis mutualism and regeneration of industrialelements to maximize the economic and social values[47 48] Industrial development is the result of collectiveeffects of entire industrial ecosystem [46] Competitionamong regional economies is a competition for industrialecologyose regions who can firstly establish the completeindustrial ecosystem will take an advantage in economicdevelopment Currently formation of industrial ecologyexhibits two major characteristics first enterprises in thesame industry or industry cluster gather in a geographicalregion to form an industrial agglomeration second localleading enterprises with unique products and competitive-ness expand its development based on its business modelSuch expansion drives the growth of individual ecologicalelements in surrounding areas and forms a business eco-system A fundamental reason why Chinarsquos super centralcities ie Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou and Shenzhen canmaintain high growth is the establishment of a good in-dustrial ecology In these cities the competition has changedfrom ldquoindustryrdquo to ldquoindustrial ecologyrdquo Moreover the trendof specialization and verticalization of industrial ecology isbecoming more and more obvious To manifest this trendeconomic growth points are continuously emerging majorbreakthroughs are continuously made in emerging indus-tries and technological innovation innovative and emergingindustries are incubated and nurtured and a group ofunicorn enterprises are born as industry leaders that race tocontrol the commanding heights of economy in China oreven in the globe In contrast in many third- and fourth-tiercities economic growth is slow It is partly because of yet-to-improve industrial ecology that lacks attractiveness to re-sources such as talents capital and technology lacks in-novative environment and thus results in the loss ofendogenous economic growth e premise of constructinga sound industrial ecology is to clearly define the industrialpositioning realize the industrial agglomeration and or-ganically integrate industrial elements to catalyze theirldquoecological chemical reactionrdquo With popularized applica-tion of big data cloud computing Internet of ings andintelligent hardware the industrial ecology is being digitallyempowered and flattened managed industrial elements areclosely interconnected and collaborated in an efficient andintelligent way and finally the industrial value chain is beingreshaped Despite this it is still necessary to take measuresfrom multiple dimensions to increase support for industrialecology For example we should improve the construction

12 Complexity

of innovative ecosystems [49] strengthen the support forecological elements such as land [50] and take considerationof responses to climate change [51 52] We must break theinformation barriers among research institutions univer-sities government departments business organizations andfinancial institutions optimize the business environmentstrengthen policy guidance and actively promote the inte-gration of industry-education-research and the transfor-mation of research outcomes thus to form a market-oriented and enterprise-based innovation system In addi-tion it is a wise choice to introduce third-parties to gatherindustrial talents and resources where a platform-type in-dustrial organization is particularly important for theconstruction of regional industrial ecology rough such aplatform it is possible to establish connection with variousresources including talents scientific research capital andmarket and further to establish a network with upstreamand downstream enterprises is would greatly reduce thedifficulties in attracting investment and energize the dy-namics of industrial elements

Liaoning Province as a representative and typicalprovince of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina has been accelerating the transformation and opti-mization of traditional industries since the implementationof the Revitalization Strategy Economic development inLiaoning has shifted from high-speed growth to high-qualitydevelopment While major equipment design andmanufacturing industry is leading the country a regionalinnovation system is gradually taking shape However dueto a long-term influence of the extensive economic growthmodel the traditional industry development model and theconservative management system and mechanism the in-dustrial development pattern has not yet fundamentallychanged which is still mainly based on traditional industriessuch as equipment manufacturing coal mining and pe-troleum smelting Meanwhile there still exist many prob-lems in urban industrial ecology in Liaoning ProvinceFirstly there is a lack of a top-level design of industrialecosystem planning Governments and enterprises at alllevels overemphasize industrial development but fail toorganically integrate industry into industrial ecosystemdevelopment which results in a sole industrial system lackof connection between industrial categories slow develop-ment of industrial ecology and convergence of industrialstructure Consequently the complementary effect of re-gional advantages is not effectively exerted and the regionalcompetitiveness is compromised Secondly there is not astrong capability in independent innovation of industrialecosystems Till now Liaoning still heavily depends ontraditional industrial paths without enough nurture ofemerging pillar industries featuring a low level of industrialstructure and an overweighed secondary sector Meanwhilethere is a lack of effective dynamic circulation system high-tech industries and modern service industries are propor-tionally low the industry of deep processing of raw materialis less developed and the independent innovation ability isweak irdly there is no feedback mechanism for thepractice of industrial ecosystems In the process of industrialdevelopment most traditional industries are still

characterized by the unidirectional consumption of energyresources and the degradation of ecological environmentalservice functionsere is a lack of standards andmethods tosystematically assess economic-environmental dynamicsWithout having established a feedback mechanism to reg-ulate a healthy development of industrial ecosystems it isimpossible to effectively integrate resources for building amodern economic system

Constructing industrial ecosystems is a new strategicmeasure to promote a comprehensive revitalization of theNortheast Region It can effectively address deep-seatedissues in industrial development of the traditional industrialarea in Liaoning overcome constraints of traditional in-dustrial development systems and mechanisms change theindustrial development approach in multiple dimensionssuch as management mechanism operation mode pro-duction method and business environment and realize aneconomic-environmental coupling and sustainable devel-opment It is also an important pathway leading to an ef-fective transformation of economic development inLiaoning In this regard Liaoning Province should pay moreattention to the industrial ecosystem construction and take itas a focus to promote the industrial development in a greencircular and quality way Some recommendations andsuggestions are as follows firstly deepen the reform ofsystems and mechanisms to create a good business envi-ronment for industrial ecosystem construction It is nec-essary to properly handle the government-marketrelationship focusing on addressing such issues as gov-ernmentrsquos direct intervention in resource allocation over-management and the misalignment offside absence andinadequacy of governmental functions and further promotesimplified administration decentralization and optimiza-tion of services Continue to deepen the reform of admin-istrative approval systems commercial systems andinvestment and financing systems Perform governmentfunctions according to law to accelerate the establishmentand improvement of the management model based on thepower lists the responsibility lists and the negative listsImprove the legitimate decision-making mechanism andstrengthen the restriction and supervision of power Sec-ondly unleash the potential in regional collaborative in-novation to build technological innovation capabilities forindustrial ecosystem construction Formulate and imple-ment a system that encourages technological innovation andintellectual property protection improve the innovation andentrepreneurship service model and provide full-chainvalue-added services for innovation and entrepreneurshipactivities to stimulate the independent innovation capabil-ities in the traditional industrial area in Liaoning irdlystrengthen the top-level design of regional collaborativedevelopment to broaden development space for industrialecosystem construction Aim to construct industrial eco-systems integrate the spatial distribution of industrial de-velopment in the province and plan the industrial ecosystemconstruction based on regional macro-policies to establish aregional macro ecosystem integrating industry agricultureservices and high-technology Fourthly innovate and en-hance the supply capacity of ecological products to provide a

Complexity 13

material foundation for industrial ecosystem constructionDeploy in advance the development strategy for alternativeclean and green industries make full use of unique eco-logical resources combine with rural revitalization strate-gies energize new dynamics of rural resource developmentto transform superior ecological resources into high-qualityecological product supply and ecological services and realizeecological industrialization Fifthly engage a multi-partyparticipation mechanism to provide scientific support forindustrial ecosystem construction Promote the knowledgeand cognition of the industrial ecosystem to make enter-prises aware of the importance and advantages of industrialecosystem construction through education amp trainingmedia promotion and the Internet Strengthen scientificsupport by organizing an expert team to research industrialecosystems of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningwhich is an interdisciplinary team engaging multiplestakeholders including governments enterprises researchinstitutions and universities to provide multi-dimensionalsupport for industrial ecosystem construction of the tradi-tional industrial area in Liaoning from policy recommen-dation to top-level design and then to the application ofindustrial ecological technology

42 Conclusions is paper took 14 cities in LiaoningProvince as examples of urban industrial ecosystems oftraditional industrial area in Northeastern China to calculatethe development level of its industrial ecosystem during2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and toconduct a spatial visualization analysis which provides newperspectives and methods for analyzing and interpreting thecomplexity of urban industrial ecosystems e results showthe following (1) from 2000 to 2018 the 14 cities in LiaoningProvince had a moderate level of industrial ecology Exceptfor Shenyang and Dalian with rapid development the dif-ference in the development level of industrial ecosystemsamong other cities was small (2) From 2000 to 2018 thedevelopment level of industrial ecosystems in cities firstincreased and then decreased with some fluctuation edevelopment level of the industrial ecology in these citiesgenerally showed an upward-then-downward trend Re-garding spatial differentiation a high-level industrial eco-logical zone formed with Shenyang and Dalian as the centere ldquodual-corerdquo feature was significant and continuouslystrengthened As a result the whole region exhibited aldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern (3) At the system level of PSRthe constraint grades to the industrial ecosystemrsquos devel-opment level in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province weredifferent e constraint grades of the pressure state andresponse subsystems to the provincersquos industrial ecosystemwere 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicatingthat the main constraint factors affecting the process ofurban industrial ecology in Liaoning Province were both thelack of human response to the ecological environment andthe pressure of human activities on the ecological envi-ronment during the industrial economic development (4)Due to the large differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and development

circumstances among different cities the main constraintfactors to development of industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different but overall regional GDP number ofemployees in the secondary sector gross fixed asset in-vestment industrial sulfur dioxide removal and outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization productwere the main five factors With popularized application ofbig data cloud computing Internet of ings and intelli-gent hardware the main direction of further research in thefuture may point to reshaping the industrial value chainimproving and innovating the ecosystem construction andintroducing third-party forces to gather industrial talentsand resources for creating an industrial symbiosis networkon a city scale However to fully and scientifically under-stand the complexity of the urban industrial ecosystem it isnecessary not only to study at the element level but also tosystematically recognize the complexity of the networkstructure establish a structural model to analyze its evo-lutionary dynamics and then guide the formulation of in-dustrial policy for the development of regional industrialecology which will be the main research direction in thefuture

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of China(41701142 and 41971166) Fundamental Research Funds forthe Central Universities (2020jbkyjc002) Project of GansuProvince Economic and Social Development Serving ofLanzhou University (2019-FWZX-04) and Open Project ofInstitute of County Economy Developments amp Rural Re-vitalization Strategy Lanzhou University (xyjj2019002)

References

[1] T E Graedel and B R Allenby Industrial Ecology PrenticeHall Englewood Cliffs NJ USA 1995

[2] B R Allenby and W E Cooper ldquoUnderstanding industrialecology from a biological systems perspectiverdquo Environ-mental Quality Management vol 3 no 3 pp 343ndash354 1994

[3] S Charmondusit K Bhaktikul C ArunlertareeWWisawapipatC Rattanapan and K Charmondusit ldquoProblem based trainingprogram on industrial ecology and environment for thesustainability management of industryrdquo ProcediamdashSocial andBehavioral Sciences vol 40 pp 31ndash36 2012

[4] R A Frosch and N E Gallopoulos ldquoStrategies formanufacturingrdquo Scientific American vol 261 no 3pp 144ndash152 1989

[5] Y Huang C Lu X Xiao et al ldquoEvolution and reconstructionof industrial ecosystems of mining cities in the traditionalindustrial area of Northeastern China a case study of

14 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

industrial ecosystem development with an obvious upwardtrend and leading ahead but they did not have a significantpull effect on the surrounding cities Meanwhile there wasnot a big difference in industrial ecology developmentamong other cities as they were all at a medium levelLiaoning Province located in the old industrial region ofNortheast China is rich in natural resources but with amedium economic development level in China Its economyhas been dominated by resource-based industries for a longtime and the development of alternative industries was slow[46] Except for Shenyang and Dalian the difference ineconomic development among other cities was relativelysmall moreover the ability to adjust and reorganize thecityrsquos industrial ecosystem was limited and lagged by lowecological construction From a longitudinal perspective thedevelopment of industrial ecosystems in 2000ndash2006 wasrelatively stable there was a rising trend from 2006 to 2013suggesting that the Revitalization Strategy had generatedhuge policy and investment effects Since 2013 there was atrend of decline in industrial ecosystemrsquos developmentDuring the period when the GDP growth rates of all threenortheastern provinces nationally ranked among the bottomten for example ranking the bottom five in the year of 2014and 2015 Liaoning Province the largest economy in theNortheast ranked nationally the lowest economic growthrate of 30 in 2015 and minus25 in 2016 respectively isperiod was called the ldquoNew Northeast Phenomenonrdquo whichhad a significant negative impact on the industrial ecologydevelopment of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina especially in Liaoning Province

From the prefecture-level city level we conclude thefollowing (1) industrial ecosystem development in She-nyang and Dalian showed a rapid upward trend and thedevelopment level was relatively high leading the other 12cities is was closely related to the factors such as theadministrative status geographical location and industrialstructure of the two cities Shenyang as the central city of the

three northeastern provinces has policy advantage large citysize and good market environment thus attracts manyhigh-end talents and quality enterprises and leads theprovince in the overall development of Liaoning Dalian isone of the high-tech industrial bases and a well-knowntourist city in China According to the 2010 China UrbanCompetitiveness Report the comprehensive competitive-ness of Dalian ranked the eighth among all cities in China InDalian the solid technological foundation first-class sci-entific and technological talent concentration convenientsea amp land transportation and comfortable climate amp en-vironment promote its economic development and eco-logical construction (2) Industrial ecosystem developmentin the five cities ie Dandong Jinzhou Fuxin Tieling andHuludao shows a steady upward trend with a fluctuationand is at a medium level Dandong is an important meetingpoint of the Northeast Asian Economic Circle the Bohai BayEconomic Rim and the Yellow Sea Economic Basin It hascurrently formed advantageous industries such as trans-portation equipment manufacturing agricultural amp sidelineproduct processing energy metal mining and smelting amprolling processing In recent years to promote the devel-opment of industrial ecology Dandong has successivelyestablished various ecological and environmental industrialparks and actively carried out ecological restoration projectsBoth Jinzhou and Fuxin are important old industrial cities inNortheast China Jinzhou has gradually formed an industrialsystem featuring petrochemicals new materials and deepprocessing of agricultural products As one of the importantcities in the Shenyang Economic Zone Fuxinrsquos industrialeconomy is dominated by coal Dandong and Fuxin play aleading role in the overall development of the westernLiaoning region with a healthy development momentumTieling is one of the main grain production regions in Chinaa production and processing base of quality agriculturalproducts and an emerging coal-power city Due to thecharacteristics of the industrial structure the industrial

030

035

040

045

050

055

060

065

070

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Indu

stria

l eco

logi

cal l

evel

ShenyangDalianAnshanFushun

BenxiDandongJinzhouYingkou

FuxinLiaoyangPanjinTieling

ZhaoyangHuludao

Figure 2 Development levels of industrial ecosystems in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province (2000ndash2018)

Complexity 7

ecosystem of Tieling is stable Huludao is the west gate ofNortheast China With outstanding geographical advan-tages it has formed a modern industrial system with suchpillar industries as petrochemicals nonferrous metalsmachinery manufacturing shipbuilding and energy andpower production Based on a strong industrial developmentfoundation currently Huludao is in a critical transitionperiod of industrial structure upgrade (3) In the remaining 7cities of Liaoning Province ie Anshan Fushun BenxiYingkou Liaoyang Panjin and Chaoyang the developmentof industrial ecosystems shows a moderate upward trendwhich is slightly weaker and more fluctuating than theoverall development of the five cities mentioned aboveAmong them the development of industrial ecosystems inAnshan Benxi and Yingkou has been in the most severefluctuation indicating that the stability of industrial eco-systems in these three cities is poor and needs to be adjusted

effectively ere is no obvious change in industrial eco-system development in Fushun Liaoyang Panjin andChaoyang ese four cities generally had a single industrialstructure poor environmental stability and weak scientificand technological capacity It is necessary and urgent to takeeffective measures to optimize the industrial ecosystem

From the perspective of spatial distribution the overallspatial differentiation was significant in 2000 ShenyangFushun and Panjin in north-central Liaoning formed anldquouplift beltrdquo while Anshan Liaoyang and Benxi in thecentral-eastern province formed a ldquogroove areardquo Since 2006the spatial differentiation has becomemore significant whenShenyang and Dalian have jointly formed a high-level in-dustrial ecology zone As the ldquodual-corerdquo feature has beensignificant and increasingly strengthened the agglomerationof Shenyang Economic Zone and Coastal Economic Belt wasgradually enhanced while the difference between the ldquouplift

20000394ndash03970398ndash04110412ndash04180419ndash04290430ndash0447120degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

40degN

N

N N

N

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

20060378ndash03850386ndash04010402ndash04270428ndash04570458ndash0505120degE

120degE120degE

201804330434ndash04680469ndash04800481ndash05100511ndash0657

20120442ndash04460447ndash04650466ndash04810482ndash05000501ndash0633

Figure 3 Spatiotemporal evolution patterns of urban industrial ecosystems development level in Liaoning Province

8 Complexity

beltrdquo and the ldquogroove areardquo gradually dimmede industrialecosystemrsquos development level in the southeast has graduallysurpassed that in the northwest Anshan a resource-de-pleted city is slow in industrial transformation and remainsa relatively low level of industrial ecosystem developmentwhile Huludao City always maintains a high level In termsof regional difference there is a remarkable feature ofldquocenter-peripheryrdquo describing the central-northern regioncentered on Shenyang and southeastern amp northwesternregions respectively To summarize the above analysis bothShenyang Economic Zone and Liaoning Coastal EconomicBelt are currently still the engines of industrial ecologydevelopment in the Northeast region while the entireNortheast region has also achieved considerable develop-ment and the overall structure will be further optimized

32 Cluster Analysis of Industrial Ecosystem Based on thecluster analysis of the industrial ecology level for the 14 citiesof Liaoning Province in 2018 the spatial distribution ofhigh-level medium-level and low-level industrial ecosys-tems was identified rough cluster analysis we can con-clude the following (1) the two sub-provincial level citiesShenyang and Dalian have the high-level industrial eco-system (industrial ecosystem development level gt055)eyhave superior geographical locations good industrial eco-nomic development conditions and strong industrialfoundations which provide a strong guarantee for pro-tecting the ecological environment In the two cities thegreen coverage in built-up areas is significantly higher thanthat of other cities the industrial ecosystem development isat a higher level due to strong policy support However thereis still room to improve the ability of ecological environ-mental governance that is there is potential to furtherdevelop the industrial ecology (2) Huludao City has amedium-level industrial ecosystem (05lt development levelof industrial ecosystemle 055) Huludao is a coastal city andhas formed a modern industrial system with petroleumprocessing non-ferrous metals machinery manufacturingship building and energy and power production as the pillarindustries Its industrial foundation is strong However dueto the current situation of transitioning and upgradingindustrial structure various issues such as poor environ-mental stability and weak technological capacity havenegatively affected the improvement of industrial ecosystem(3) Eleven cities including Anshan Fushun and Benxi had alow-level industrial ecosystem (development level of in-dustrial ecosystem le05) Four cities in the Coastal EconomicBelt of eastern Liaoning ie Anshan Yingkou Panjin andJinzhou are developing innovative industries and building alivable and touristic urban agglomeration However thetraditional low-level industrial economy could not provideenough material technical and resource support foraddressing ecological and environmental issues ereforethe environmental improvement is sluggish and the processof sustainable development is slow In Chaoyang Tielingand Fuxin which locate in the northwest of LiaoningProvince the ecological and industrial development is not inharmony due to geographical constraints e

comprehensive competitiveness of these cities is at thelowest end of Liaoning Province with little developmentpotential due to the limitation by geographical conditionsand resource endowment Insufficient motivation for in-dustrial development leads to a low comprehensive level ofindustrial ecosystems Fushun Benxi and Liaoyang arecities dominated by heavy industry which strongly dependon heavy industry enterprises and have a weak economicfoundation e development of heavy industry caused asevere environmental pollution for these three citiesis in-coordination in development of ecology and industry led toa relatively low level in integration of industrial and eco-logical development in the three cities Dandong is a citybordering with North Korea its foreign trade is relativelydeveloped However due to a relatively late starting therehas not been a leading enterprise in the foreign trade that candrive the industrial development into a strong industrialcluster erefore the added economic value is not signif-icant the growth rate is small and the motivation in de-veloping industry is still insufficient

33 Constraint Grade and Main Constraint Factors in In-dustrial Ecosystem Development Constraint factor analysishelps to formulate targeted measures to optimize the in-dustrial ecosystem In this study we calculate the constraintgrade for each specific index indices at either criterion levelor system level as the results shown in Table 2 Further fromthe perspective of time series we analyze the change of mainconstraint factors and the difference of constraint factorsamong cities and diagnose the main constraint factors forthe development level of industrial ecology in LiaoningProvince as the results shown in Table 3 At the same timeto identify the main constraints to the development of theindustrial ecosystem within each city we conduct a diag-nosis of the main constraint factors for the developmentlevel of industrial ecology in 2018 as the results shown inTable 4

As shown in Table 2 from a perspective of the level ofconstraints the constraint grades of the subsystems ofpressure state and response are 4573 2001 and3434 respectively indicating that the main constraintsaffecting the development process of urban industrial eco-systems in Liaoning Province are the pressure of humanactivities on the environment and the inadequate measurestaken by human in response to the ecological environment(1) Constraint grade of the pressure subsystem e con-straint grade of the pressure subsystem to the developmentof industrial ecology is 4573 suggesting that the pressuresubsystem is the greatest constraint in the process of urbanindustrial ecology in Liaoning Province among which theconstraint grade of the criterion layer of industrial economyis 415 and the constraint grade of the criterion layer ofenergy consumption is 42Within the pressure subsystemmany specific indices rank the top 10 by the constraint gradeincluding gross fixed asset investment (P17) 674 grossindustrial output value (P16) 642 regional GDP (P11)617 added value of the secondary sector (P12) 610number of industrial enterprises (P15) 592 number of

Complexity 9

employees in the secondary sector (P13) 578 ey all fallinto the category of industrial economy us it can berevealed that the overall low level of industrial economicdevelopment is the main constraint hindering the devel-opment of industrial ecosystems in Liaoning Province In-adequate capital investment declining economic growthand loss of human resources lead to low levels of industrialecosystem development On the other hand due to eco-nomic downturn excess energy production capacity and

insufficient development motivation at the criterion layer ofenergy consumption the constraint grade is only 43 (2)Constraint grade of the state subsystem e constraintgrade of state subsystem to the development of industrialecology is 2001 proportionally small in comparison withthat of ldquopressurerdquo and ldquoresponserdquo subsystems In this sub-system only the green coverage in the built-up area (S21)ranks in the top 10 indices regarding the constraint gradeie 589 ranking eighth is suggests that in the state

Table 2 Measurements of constraint grade based on PSR model

System layer Normative level Barrier level Indicator Barrier level Sort

PressureIndustrial economy P1 0415

P11 00617 5P12 00610 6P13 00578 9P14 00437 14P15 00592 7P16 00642 3P17 00674 1

Energy consumption P2 0042 P21 00193 18P22 00229 17

State

Discharge of the three wastes P3 0052

S11 00096 23S12 00096 22S13 00162 21S14 00165 20

Greenfield resources S2 0098 S21 00589 8S22 00386 15

Air quality S3 0051 S31 00183 19S32 00323 16

Response

Governance facilities R1 0103 R11 00499 13R12 00528 12

Governance capacity R2 0241

R21 00654 2R22 00543 11R23 00572 10R24 00638 4

Table 3 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province during 2000ndash2018

Year1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

2000 P16 00811 P17 00807 P11 00793 R21 00756 P12 007482001 P17 00745 R21 00728 P16 00706 P11 00709 P15 006992002 P17 00748 R21 00730 P16 00709 P11 00709 P15 006992003 P17 00748 R21 00746 P16 00718 P11 00706 P15 007012004 R21 00766 P17 00757 R24 00724 P16 00722 P11 007112005 R21 00818 P17 00747 R24 00739 P16 00713 P11 007032006 R21 00849 R24 00771 P17 00757 P11 00711 R23 007112007 R21 00900 P17 00811 R24 00765 P11 00761 P16 007592008 R21 00920 P17 00804 R24 00802 P11 00758 P16 007582009 R21 00961 R24 00871 S32 00837 R23 00821 P17 008182010 R24 00959 R21 00930 R23 00865 S32 00823 P17 007772011 R24 00935 R21 00898 R23 00890 S32 00868 P17 007982012 R24 00995 R21 00957 R23 00938 P21 00935 S32 008982013 P21 01119 R23 01021 R24 01013 S32 00958 R21 009212014 S31 01027 R24 00992 P21 00965 S11 00945 R23 009342015 P16 01022 R24 00999 S31 00922 R23 00878 S32 008662016 P16 00984 R21 00912 P15 00887 P17 00844 R23 008062017 R24 01035 P21 00996 R23 00973 R21 00970 S32 009322018 R24 01059 P21 01049 R23 00994 R21 00982 S32 00957Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

10 Complexity

subsystem green space resources have a greater impact onthe development of industrial ecosystems Meanwhile noindices at the criterion level of three-wastes emission and airquality are ranked in the top 10 Overall the constraint gradeof either the damage caused by ldquothree-wastesrdquo emissions orthe maintenance sustained by green space resources to theecological environment or the status of air quality becauseof destruction and maintenance is within the controllablerange for industrial ecosystem development In the futureindustrial development process priority must be given tostrengthening the protection of existing green space re-sources and strictly controlling over excessive land devel-opment (3) Constraint grade of the response subsystemeconstraint grade of the response subsystem to developmentof industrial ecology is 3434 Among them at the criterionlevel the constraint grade of governance facility is 103while that of governance ability is 241 suggesting that thecriterion level of governance ability is the main constraintfactor in the response subsystem In this subsystem thoseindices ranking in the top 10 include industrial sulfur di-oxide removal (R21) with a constraint grade of 654 outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) with a constraint grade of 638 and comprehensiveutilization of industrial solid waste (R23) with a constraintgrade of 572 is indicates that cities in LiaoningProvince generally have problems in the pollution treatmentat the end of industrial production process such as insuf-ficient investment in treatment weak treatment capabilityand low comprehensive utilization rate of wastes

As shown in Table 3 from a perspective of main con-straint factors longitudinally during the 19 years from 2000to 2018 the main constraint factors in the process of in-dustrial ecology development in cities of Liaoning Provincewere industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)gross fixed asset investment (P17) gross industrial outputvalue (P16) comprehensive utilization of industrial solidwaste (R23) regional GDP (P11) inhalable particulate matter

(PM10) (S32) industrial electricity consumption (P21)number of days with air quality reaching or better than ClassII (S31) number of industrial enterprises (P15) gross in-dustrial wastewater discharge (S11) etc However theranking of these major constraint factors changed signifi-cantly with time Among them the ranking of industrialsulfur dioxide removal (R21) and gross fixed asset investment(P17) gradually decreased while the ranking of the outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) fluctuated but all these three always ranked in the topthree In recent years these cities in Liaoning Province haveactively responded to the central governmentrsquos call forsuccessively adopting a series of measures to control airpollution and the emission of sulfur dioxide in factorieswhich has achieved positive outcomes e comprehensiveutilization of ldquothree-wastesrdquo influences recycling resourcesand easing environmental pressure but the current ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization production is associatedwith issues such as high capital investment difficult pro-cessing and low product quality which greatly constrainsthe industrial ecosystem development e highly temporalconsistency of the main constraint factors of different citiesindicates that the differences among the cities wereinsignificant

From Table 4 due to a significant difference in regionaleconomies among the cities the main constraint factors forthe development of the industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different However the main constraint factorsin Fushun Fuxin and Huludao were similar mainly in-cluding regional GDP (P11) number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross industrial output value (P16)gross fixed asset investment (P17) etc e top 5 indices forthe three cities were all the pressure subsystem ie thepressure subsystem became the main constraint factorMoreover for these three cities there were no strong in-dustrial foundations the urban construction was backwardprofessional elites and talents had moved out to provideworkforce for other cities the economy lacked vitality and

Table 4 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province in 2018

Area1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Shenyang R24 01059 R21 00982 S32 00957 R23 00850 P21 00791Dalian P21 01049 R23 00994 R24 00943 P22 00867 S11 00814Anshan R21 00691 R24 00670 P22 00638 P17 00543 P21 00533Fushun P17 00747 P13 00691 P11 00684 P15 00680 P16 00677Benxi R24 00711 P17 00671 P15 00651 R21 00646 P13 00624Dandong R24 00751 R21 00748 P16 00718 P17 00710 P13 00695Jinzhou R21 00688 P17 00678 S22 00659 R24 00656 P13 00651Yingkou P13 00657 P17 00651 R21 00647 S21 00604 P16 00597Fuxin P17 00742 P16 00723 P12 00701 P11 00700 P13 00681Liaoyang P17 00741 P13 00722 P15 00686 R24 00684 R21 00679Panjin R21 00753 R24 00715 R23 00658 P15 00657 P17 00640Tieling R21 00742 P17 00741 P13 00728 P12 00721 S21 00721Zhaoyang R21 00730 R24 00711 P17 00704 S21 00694 P16 00684Huludao P17 00815 P16 00785 P15 00776 P12 00759 P11 00757Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

Complexity 11

the urban comprehensive competitiveness was at the bottomof Liaoning Province Shenyang and Dalian had similarmain constraint factors mainly including industrial elec-tricity consumption (P21) comprehensive utilization ofindustrial solid waste (R23) and output value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24) etc eresponse subsystem was the main constraint factor On theone hand the two cities have strong industrial foundationsand superior geographical locations and have the mostdeveloped industrial economies in the province Howeveron the other hand the ecological environment was not paidenough attention to and investment in environmentalmanagement was not enough in these two cities whichcaused greater constraints to governance capacity than toindustrial ecology e main constraint factors in AnshanBenxi Dandong Jinzhou Liaoyang and Chaoyang citieswere similar mainly including number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17)industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)etc e six cities were at a medium development level inthe province in terms of either urbanization or competi-tiveness of the industrial economy In recent years due tothe policy advantage and the pull effect from economicdevelopment of Shenyang and Dalian the economy de-veloped rapidly in the six cities However without acontinuous improvement of necessary supporting systemssuch as employment market and urban construction thegovernance capacity was limited At present the six citiesshould mainly strengthen talent introduction and urbaninfrastructure construction and investment and simulta-neously emphasize both economic development and en-vironmental governance to overcome constraints toindustrial ecology development e main constraint fac-tors for Yingkou and Tieling cities were similar mainlyincluding number of employees in the secondary sector(P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17) green coverage ofthe built-up area (S21) and industrial sulfur dioxide re-moval (R21) Benefiting from the strategic layout of theEastern Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone Yingkou Cityhad enjoyed preferential policies and achieved a rapideconomic development However there was still a shortagein quality workforce and urban construction investmentMoreover the green coverage of the built-up area and thegovernance capacity of Yingkou were insufficient eseissues constrained the economic development in YingkouCity Tieling a remotely located city had neither a strongindustrial foundation nor a large-scale trade exchange Inaddition the labor force was insufficient us its indus-trial economy ecological environment and governancecapacity were all in an embarrassing situation Regardingspatial scale the main constraint factors affecting the in-ternal industrial ecosystemrsquos development in 14 cities ofLiaoning Province were the pressure and response sub-systems while the state subsystem had little impact Al-though all the cities had made a great progress in activelyresponding to the central governmentrsquos call for controllingenvironmental pollution it is yet to take urgent actions inenergizing industrial economic development motivation

and improving environmental governance capabilities forall cities

4 Discussion and Conclusions

41 Discussion e industrial ecosystem consists of bothvarious elements that have an important impact on thedevelopment of an industry and multiple interactions ofthese elements It is an organic system composed of variousparticipants along the industrial chain the supportingfactors of industrial development and the external envi-ronment which the survival and development of an industryrely on Establishment of a mature industrial ecosystemenables symbiosis mutualism and regeneration of industrialelements to maximize the economic and social values[47 48] Industrial development is the result of collectiveeffects of entire industrial ecosystem [46] Competitionamong regional economies is a competition for industrialecologyose regions who can firstly establish the completeindustrial ecosystem will take an advantage in economicdevelopment Currently formation of industrial ecologyexhibits two major characteristics first enterprises in thesame industry or industry cluster gather in a geographicalregion to form an industrial agglomeration second localleading enterprises with unique products and competitive-ness expand its development based on its business modelSuch expansion drives the growth of individual ecologicalelements in surrounding areas and forms a business eco-system A fundamental reason why Chinarsquos super centralcities ie Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou and Shenzhen canmaintain high growth is the establishment of a good in-dustrial ecology In these cities the competition has changedfrom ldquoindustryrdquo to ldquoindustrial ecologyrdquo Moreover the trendof specialization and verticalization of industrial ecology isbecoming more and more obvious To manifest this trendeconomic growth points are continuously emerging majorbreakthroughs are continuously made in emerging indus-tries and technological innovation innovative and emergingindustries are incubated and nurtured and a group ofunicorn enterprises are born as industry leaders that race tocontrol the commanding heights of economy in China oreven in the globe In contrast in many third- and fourth-tiercities economic growth is slow It is partly because of yet-to-improve industrial ecology that lacks attractiveness to re-sources such as talents capital and technology lacks in-novative environment and thus results in the loss ofendogenous economic growth e premise of constructinga sound industrial ecology is to clearly define the industrialpositioning realize the industrial agglomeration and or-ganically integrate industrial elements to catalyze theirldquoecological chemical reactionrdquo With popularized applica-tion of big data cloud computing Internet of ings andintelligent hardware the industrial ecology is being digitallyempowered and flattened managed industrial elements areclosely interconnected and collaborated in an efficient andintelligent way and finally the industrial value chain is beingreshaped Despite this it is still necessary to take measuresfrom multiple dimensions to increase support for industrialecology For example we should improve the construction

12 Complexity

of innovative ecosystems [49] strengthen the support forecological elements such as land [50] and take considerationof responses to climate change [51 52] We must break theinformation barriers among research institutions univer-sities government departments business organizations andfinancial institutions optimize the business environmentstrengthen policy guidance and actively promote the inte-gration of industry-education-research and the transfor-mation of research outcomes thus to form a market-oriented and enterprise-based innovation system In addi-tion it is a wise choice to introduce third-parties to gatherindustrial talents and resources where a platform-type in-dustrial organization is particularly important for theconstruction of regional industrial ecology rough such aplatform it is possible to establish connection with variousresources including talents scientific research capital andmarket and further to establish a network with upstreamand downstream enterprises is would greatly reduce thedifficulties in attracting investment and energize the dy-namics of industrial elements

Liaoning Province as a representative and typicalprovince of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina has been accelerating the transformation and opti-mization of traditional industries since the implementationof the Revitalization Strategy Economic development inLiaoning has shifted from high-speed growth to high-qualitydevelopment While major equipment design andmanufacturing industry is leading the country a regionalinnovation system is gradually taking shape However dueto a long-term influence of the extensive economic growthmodel the traditional industry development model and theconservative management system and mechanism the in-dustrial development pattern has not yet fundamentallychanged which is still mainly based on traditional industriessuch as equipment manufacturing coal mining and pe-troleum smelting Meanwhile there still exist many prob-lems in urban industrial ecology in Liaoning ProvinceFirstly there is a lack of a top-level design of industrialecosystem planning Governments and enterprises at alllevels overemphasize industrial development but fail toorganically integrate industry into industrial ecosystemdevelopment which results in a sole industrial system lackof connection between industrial categories slow develop-ment of industrial ecology and convergence of industrialstructure Consequently the complementary effect of re-gional advantages is not effectively exerted and the regionalcompetitiveness is compromised Secondly there is not astrong capability in independent innovation of industrialecosystems Till now Liaoning still heavily depends ontraditional industrial paths without enough nurture ofemerging pillar industries featuring a low level of industrialstructure and an overweighed secondary sector Meanwhilethere is a lack of effective dynamic circulation system high-tech industries and modern service industries are propor-tionally low the industry of deep processing of raw materialis less developed and the independent innovation ability isweak irdly there is no feedback mechanism for thepractice of industrial ecosystems In the process of industrialdevelopment most traditional industries are still

characterized by the unidirectional consumption of energyresources and the degradation of ecological environmentalservice functionsere is a lack of standards andmethods tosystematically assess economic-environmental dynamicsWithout having established a feedback mechanism to reg-ulate a healthy development of industrial ecosystems it isimpossible to effectively integrate resources for building amodern economic system

Constructing industrial ecosystems is a new strategicmeasure to promote a comprehensive revitalization of theNortheast Region It can effectively address deep-seatedissues in industrial development of the traditional industrialarea in Liaoning overcome constraints of traditional in-dustrial development systems and mechanisms change theindustrial development approach in multiple dimensionssuch as management mechanism operation mode pro-duction method and business environment and realize aneconomic-environmental coupling and sustainable devel-opment It is also an important pathway leading to an ef-fective transformation of economic development inLiaoning In this regard Liaoning Province should pay moreattention to the industrial ecosystem construction and take itas a focus to promote the industrial development in a greencircular and quality way Some recommendations andsuggestions are as follows firstly deepen the reform ofsystems and mechanisms to create a good business envi-ronment for industrial ecosystem construction It is nec-essary to properly handle the government-marketrelationship focusing on addressing such issues as gov-ernmentrsquos direct intervention in resource allocation over-management and the misalignment offside absence andinadequacy of governmental functions and further promotesimplified administration decentralization and optimiza-tion of services Continue to deepen the reform of admin-istrative approval systems commercial systems andinvestment and financing systems Perform governmentfunctions according to law to accelerate the establishmentand improvement of the management model based on thepower lists the responsibility lists and the negative listsImprove the legitimate decision-making mechanism andstrengthen the restriction and supervision of power Sec-ondly unleash the potential in regional collaborative in-novation to build technological innovation capabilities forindustrial ecosystem construction Formulate and imple-ment a system that encourages technological innovation andintellectual property protection improve the innovation andentrepreneurship service model and provide full-chainvalue-added services for innovation and entrepreneurshipactivities to stimulate the independent innovation capabil-ities in the traditional industrial area in Liaoning irdlystrengthen the top-level design of regional collaborativedevelopment to broaden development space for industrialecosystem construction Aim to construct industrial eco-systems integrate the spatial distribution of industrial de-velopment in the province and plan the industrial ecosystemconstruction based on regional macro-policies to establish aregional macro ecosystem integrating industry agricultureservices and high-technology Fourthly innovate and en-hance the supply capacity of ecological products to provide a

Complexity 13

material foundation for industrial ecosystem constructionDeploy in advance the development strategy for alternativeclean and green industries make full use of unique eco-logical resources combine with rural revitalization strate-gies energize new dynamics of rural resource developmentto transform superior ecological resources into high-qualityecological product supply and ecological services and realizeecological industrialization Fifthly engage a multi-partyparticipation mechanism to provide scientific support forindustrial ecosystem construction Promote the knowledgeand cognition of the industrial ecosystem to make enter-prises aware of the importance and advantages of industrialecosystem construction through education amp trainingmedia promotion and the Internet Strengthen scientificsupport by organizing an expert team to research industrialecosystems of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningwhich is an interdisciplinary team engaging multiplestakeholders including governments enterprises researchinstitutions and universities to provide multi-dimensionalsupport for industrial ecosystem construction of the tradi-tional industrial area in Liaoning from policy recommen-dation to top-level design and then to the application ofindustrial ecological technology

42 Conclusions is paper took 14 cities in LiaoningProvince as examples of urban industrial ecosystems oftraditional industrial area in Northeastern China to calculatethe development level of its industrial ecosystem during2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and toconduct a spatial visualization analysis which provides newperspectives and methods for analyzing and interpreting thecomplexity of urban industrial ecosystems e results showthe following (1) from 2000 to 2018 the 14 cities in LiaoningProvince had a moderate level of industrial ecology Exceptfor Shenyang and Dalian with rapid development the dif-ference in the development level of industrial ecosystemsamong other cities was small (2) From 2000 to 2018 thedevelopment level of industrial ecosystems in cities firstincreased and then decreased with some fluctuation edevelopment level of the industrial ecology in these citiesgenerally showed an upward-then-downward trend Re-garding spatial differentiation a high-level industrial eco-logical zone formed with Shenyang and Dalian as the centere ldquodual-corerdquo feature was significant and continuouslystrengthened As a result the whole region exhibited aldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern (3) At the system level of PSRthe constraint grades to the industrial ecosystemrsquos devel-opment level in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province weredifferent e constraint grades of the pressure state andresponse subsystems to the provincersquos industrial ecosystemwere 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicatingthat the main constraint factors affecting the process ofurban industrial ecology in Liaoning Province were both thelack of human response to the ecological environment andthe pressure of human activities on the ecological envi-ronment during the industrial economic development (4)Due to the large differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and development

circumstances among different cities the main constraintfactors to development of industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different but overall regional GDP number ofemployees in the secondary sector gross fixed asset in-vestment industrial sulfur dioxide removal and outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization productwere the main five factors With popularized application ofbig data cloud computing Internet of ings and intelli-gent hardware the main direction of further research in thefuture may point to reshaping the industrial value chainimproving and innovating the ecosystem construction andintroducing third-party forces to gather industrial talentsand resources for creating an industrial symbiosis networkon a city scale However to fully and scientifically under-stand the complexity of the urban industrial ecosystem it isnecessary not only to study at the element level but also tosystematically recognize the complexity of the networkstructure establish a structural model to analyze its evo-lutionary dynamics and then guide the formulation of in-dustrial policy for the development of regional industrialecology which will be the main research direction in thefuture

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of China(41701142 and 41971166) Fundamental Research Funds forthe Central Universities (2020jbkyjc002) Project of GansuProvince Economic and Social Development Serving ofLanzhou University (2019-FWZX-04) and Open Project ofInstitute of County Economy Developments amp Rural Re-vitalization Strategy Lanzhou University (xyjj2019002)

References

[1] T E Graedel and B R Allenby Industrial Ecology PrenticeHall Englewood Cliffs NJ USA 1995

[2] B R Allenby and W E Cooper ldquoUnderstanding industrialecology from a biological systems perspectiverdquo Environ-mental Quality Management vol 3 no 3 pp 343ndash354 1994

[3] S Charmondusit K Bhaktikul C ArunlertareeWWisawapipatC Rattanapan and K Charmondusit ldquoProblem based trainingprogram on industrial ecology and environment for thesustainability management of industryrdquo ProcediamdashSocial andBehavioral Sciences vol 40 pp 31ndash36 2012

[4] R A Frosch and N E Gallopoulos ldquoStrategies formanufacturingrdquo Scientific American vol 261 no 3pp 144ndash152 1989

[5] Y Huang C Lu X Xiao et al ldquoEvolution and reconstructionof industrial ecosystems of mining cities in the traditionalindustrial area of Northeastern China a case study of

14 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

ecosystem of Tieling is stable Huludao is the west gate ofNortheast China With outstanding geographical advan-tages it has formed a modern industrial system with suchpillar industries as petrochemicals nonferrous metalsmachinery manufacturing shipbuilding and energy andpower production Based on a strong industrial developmentfoundation currently Huludao is in a critical transitionperiod of industrial structure upgrade (3) In the remaining 7cities of Liaoning Province ie Anshan Fushun BenxiYingkou Liaoyang Panjin and Chaoyang the developmentof industrial ecosystems shows a moderate upward trendwhich is slightly weaker and more fluctuating than theoverall development of the five cities mentioned aboveAmong them the development of industrial ecosystems inAnshan Benxi and Yingkou has been in the most severefluctuation indicating that the stability of industrial eco-systems in these three cities is poor and needs to be adjusted

effectively ere is no obvious change in industrial eco-system development in Fushun Liaoyang Panjin andChaoyang ese four cities generally had a single industrialstructure poor environmental stability and weak scientificand technological capacity It is necessary and urgent to takeeffective measures to optimize the industrial ecosystem

From the perspective of spatial distribution the overallspatial differentiation was significant in 2000 ShenyangFushun and Panjin in north-central Liaoning formed anldquouplift beltrdquo while Anshan Liaoyang and Benxi in thecentral-eastern province formed a ldquogroove areardquo Since 2006the spatial differentiation has becomemore significant whenShenyang and Dalian have jointly formed a high-level in-dustrial ecology zone As the ldquodual-corerdquo feature has beensignificant and increasingly strengthened the agglomerationof Shenyang Economic Zone and Coastal Economic Belt wasgradually enhanced while the difference between the ldquouplift

20000394ndash03970398ndash04110412ndash04180419ndash04290430ndash0447120degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

0 50 100km

125degE

40degN

N

N N

N

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

40degN

42degN

20060378ndash03850386ndash04010402ndash04270428ndash04570458ndash0505120degE

120degE120degE

201804330434ndash04680469ndash04800481ndash05100511ndash0657

20120442ndash04460447ndash04650466ndash04810482ndash05000501ndash0633

Figure 3 Spatiotemporal evolution patterns of urban industrial ecosystems development level in Liaoning Province

8 Complexity

beltrdquo and the ldquogroove areardquo gradually dimmede industrialecosystemrsquos development level in the southeast has graduallysurpassed that in the northwest Anshan a resource-de-pleted city is slow in industrial transformation and remainsa relatively low level of industrial ecosystem developmentwhile Huludao City always maintains a high level In termsof regional difference there is a remarkable feature ofldquocenter-peripheryrdquo describing the central-northern regioncentered on Shenyang and southeastern amp northwesternregions respectively To summarize the above analysis bothShenyang Economic Zone and Liaoning Coastal EconomicBelt are currently still the engines of industrial ecologydevelopment in the Northeast region while the entireNortheast region has also achieved considerable develop-ment and the overall structure will be further optimized

32 Cluster Analysis of Industrial Ecosystem Based on thecluster analysis of the industrial ecology level for the 14 citiesof Liaoning Province in 2018 the spatial distribution ofhigh-level medium-level and low-level industrial ecosys-tems was identified rough cluster analysis we can con-clude the following (1) the two sub-provincial level citiesShenyang and Dalian have the high-level industrial eco-system (industrial ecosystem development level gt055)eyhave superior geographical locations good industrial eco-nomic development conditions and strong industrialfoundations which provide a strong guarantee for pro-tecting the ecological environment In the two cities thegreen coverage in built-up areas is significantly higher thanthat of other cities the industrial ecosystem development isat a higher level due to strong policy support However thereis still room to improve the ability of ecological environ-mental governance that is there is potential to furtherdevelop the industrial ecology (2) Huludao City has amedium-level industrial ecosystem (05lt development levelof industrial ecosystemle 055) Huludao is a coastal city andhas formed a modern industrial system with petroleumprocessing non-ferrous metals machinery manufacturingship building and energy and power production as the pillarindustries Its industrial foundation is strong However dueto the current situation of transitioning and upgradingindustrial structure various issues such as poor environ-mental stability and weak technological capacity havenegatively affected the improvement of industrial ecosystem(3) Eleven cities including Anshan Fushun and Benxi had alow-level industrial ecosystem (development level of in-dustrial ecosystem le05) Four cities in the Coastal EconomicBelt of eastern Liaoning ie Anshan Yingkou Panjin andJinzhou are developing innovative industries and building alivable and touristic urban agglomeration However thetraditional low-level industrial economy could not provideenough material technical and resource support foraddressing ecological and environmental issues ereforethe environmental improvement is sluggish and the processof sustainable development is slow In Chaoyang Tielingand Fuxin which locate in the northwest of LiaoningProvince the ecological and industrial development is not inharmony due to geographical constraints e

comprehensive competitiveness of these cities is at thelowest end of Liaoning Province with little developmentpotential due to the limitation by geographical conditionsand resource endowment Insufficient motivation for in-dustrial development leads to a low comprehensive level ofindustrial ecosystems Fushun Benxi and Liaoyang arecities dominated by heavy industry which strongly dependon heavy industry enterprises and have a weak economicfoundation e development of heavy industry caused asevere environmental pollution for these three citiesis in-coordination in development of ecology and industry led toa relatively low level in integration of industrial and eco-logical development in the three cities Dandong is a citybordering with North Korea its foreign trade is relativelydeveloped However due to a relatively late starting therehas not been a leading enterprise in the foreign trade that candrive the industrial development into a strong industrialcluster erefore the added economic value is not signif-icant the growth rate is small and the motivation in de-veloping industry is still insufficient

33 Constraint Grade and Main Constraint Factors in In-dustrial Ecosystem Development Constraint factor analysishelps to formulate targeted measures to optimize the in-dustrial ecosystem In this study we calculate the constraintgrade for each specific index indices at either criterion levelor system level as the results shown in Table 2 Further fromthe perspective of time series we analyze the change of mainconstraint factors and the difference of constraint factorsamong cities and diagnose the main constraint factors forthe development level of industrial ecology in LiaoningProvince as the results shown in Table 3 At the same timeto identify the main constraints to the development of theindustrial ecosystem within each city we conduct a diag-nosis of the main constraint factors for the developmentlevel of industrial ecology in 2018 as the results shown inTable 4

As shown in Table 2 from a perspective of the level ofconstraints the constraint grades of the subsystems ofpressure state and response are 4573 2001 and3434 respectively indicating that the main constraintsaffecting the development process of urban industrial eco-systems in Liaoning Province are the pressure of humanactivities on the environment and the inadequate measurestaken by human in response to the ecological environment(1) Constraint grade of the pressure subsystem e con-straint grade of the pressure subsystem to the developmentof industrial ecology is 4573 suggesting that the pressuresubsystem is the greatest constraint in the process of urbanindustrial ecology in Liaoning Province among which theconstraint grade of the criterion layer of industrial economyis 415 and the constraint grade of the criterion layer ofenergy consumption is 42Within the pressure subsystemmany specific indices rank the top 10 by the constraint gradeincluding gross fixed asset investment (P17) 674 grossindustrial output value (P16) 642 regional GDP (P11)617 added value of the secondary sector (P12) 610number of industrial enterprises (P15) 592 number of

Complexity 9

employees in the secondary sector (P13) 578 ey all fallinto the category of industrial economy us it can berevealed that the overall low level of industrial economicdevelopment is the main constraint hindering the devel-opment of industrial ecosystems in Liaoning Province In-adequate capital investment declining economic growthand loss of human resources lead to low levels of industrialecosystem development On the other hand due to eco-nomic downturn excess energy production capacity and

insufficient development motivation at the criterion layer ofenergy consumption the constraint grade is only 43 (2)Constraint grade of the state subsystem e constraintgrade of state subsystem to the development of industrialecology is 2001 proportionally small in comparison withthat of ldquopressurerdquo and ldquoresponserdquo subsystems In this sub-system only the green coverage in the built-up area (S21)ranks in the top 10 indices regarding the constraint gradeie 589 ranking eighth is suggests that in the state

Table 2 Measurements of constraint grade based on PSR model

System layer Normative level Barrier level Indicator Barrier level Sort

PressureIndustrial economy P1 0415

P11 00617 5P12 00610 6P13 00578 9P14 00437 14P15 00592 7P16 00642 3P17 00674 1

Energy consumption P2 0042 P21 00193 18P22 00229 17

State

Discharge of the three wastes P3 0052

S11 00096 23S12 00096 22S13 00162 21S14 00165 20

Greenfield resources S2 0098 S21 00589 8S22 00386 15

Air quality S3 0051 S31 00183 19S32 00323 16

Response

Governance facilities R1 0103 R11 00499 13R12 00528 12

Governance capacity R2 0241

R21 00654 2R22 00543 11R23 00572 10R24 00638 4

Table 3 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province during 2000ndash2018

Year1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

2000 P16 00811 P17 00807 P11 00793 R21 00756 P12 007482001 P17 00745 R21 00728 P16 00706 P11 00709 P15 006992002 P17 00748 R21 00730 P16 00709 P11 00709 P15 006992003 P17 00748 R21 00746 P16 00718 P11 00706 P15 007012004 R21 00766 P17 00757 R24 00724 P16 00722 P11 007112005 R21 00818 P17 00747 R24 00739 P16 00713 P11 007032006 R21 00849 R24 00771 P17 00757 P11 00711 R23 007112007 R21 00900 P17 00811 R24 00765 P11 00761 P16 007592008 R21 00920 P17 00804 R24 00802 P11 00758 P16 007582009 R21 00961 R24 00871 S32 00837 R23 00821 P17 008182010 R24 00959 R21 00930 R23 00865 S32 00823 P17 007772011 R24 00935 R21 00898 R23 00890 S32 00868 P17 007982012 R24 00995 R21 00957 R23 00938 P21 00935 S32 008982013 P21 01119 R23 01021 R24 01013 S32 00958 R21 009212014 S31 01027 R24 00992 P21 00965 S11 00945 R23 009342015 P16 01022 R24 00999 S31 00922 R23 00878 S32 008662016 P16 00984 R21 00912 P15 00887 P17 00844 R23 008062017 R24 01035 P21 00996 R23 00973 R21 00970 S32 009322018 R24 01059 P21 01049 R23 00994 R21 00982 S32 00957Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

10 Complexity

subsystem green space resources have a greater impact onthe development of industrial ecosystems Meanwhile noindices at the criterion level of three-wastes emission and airquality are ranked in the top 10 Overall the constraint gradeof either the damage caused by ldquothree-wastesrdquo emissions orthe maintenance sustained by green space resources to theecological environment or the status of air quality becauseof destruction and maintenance is within the controllablerange for industrial ecosystem development In the futureindustrial development process priority must be given tostrengthening the protection of existing green space re-sources and strictly controlling over excessive land devel-opment (3) Constraint grade of the response subsystemeconstraint grade of the response subsystem to developmentof industrial ecology is 3434 Among them at the criterionlevel the constraint grade of governance facility is 103while that of governance ability is 241 suggesting that thecriterion level of governance ability is the main constraintfactor in the response subsystem In this subsystem thoseindices ranking in the top 10 include industrial sulfur di-oxide removal (R21) with a constraint grade of 654 outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) with a constraint grade of 638 and comprehensiveutilization of industrial solid waste (R23) with a constraintgrade of 572 is indicates that cities in LiaoningProvince generally have problems in the pollution treatmentat the end of industrial production process such as insuf-ficient investment in treatment weak treatment capabilityand low comprehensive utilization rate of wastes

As shown in Table 3 from a perspective of main con-straint factors longitudinally during the 19 years from 2000to 2018 the main constraint factors in the process of in-dustrial ecology development in cities of Liaoning Provincewere industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)gross fixed asset investment (P17) gross industrial outputvalue (P16) comprehensive utilization of industrial solidwaste (R23) regional GDP (P11) inhalable particulate matter

(PM10) (S32) industrial electricity consumption (P21)number of days with air quality reaching or better than ClassII (S31) number of industrial enterprises (P15) gross in-dustrial wastewater discharge (S11) etc However theranking of these major constraint factors changed signifi-cantly with time Among them the ranking of industrialsulfur dioxide removal (R21) and gross fixed asset investment(P17) gradually decreased while the ranking of the outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) fluctuated but all these three always ranked in the topthree In recent years these cities in Liaoning Province haveactively responded to the central governmentrsquos call forsuccessively adopting a series of measures to control airpollution and the emission of sulfur dioxide in factorieswhich has achieved positive outcomes e comprehensiveutilization of ldquothree-wastesrdquo influences recycling resourcesand easing environmental pressure but the current ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization production is associatedwith issues such as high capital investment difficult pro-cessing and low product quality which greatly constrainsthe industrial ecosystem development e highly temporalconsistency of the main constraint factors of different citiesindicates that the differences among the cities wereinsignificant

From Table 4 due to a significant difference in regionaleconomies among the cities the main constraint factors forthe development of the industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different However the main constraint factorsin Fushun Fuxin and Huludao were similar mainly in-cluding regional GDP (P11) number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross industrial output value (P16)gross fixed asset investment (P17) etc e top 5 indices forthe three cities were all the pressure subsystem ie thepressure subsystem became the main constraint factorMoreover for these three cities there were no strong in-dustrial foundations the urban construction was backwardprofessional elites and talents had moved out to provideworkforce for other cities the economy lacked vitality and

Table 4 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province in 2018

Area1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Shenyang R24 01059 R21 00982 S32 00957 R23 00850 P21 00791Dalian P21 01049 R23 00994 R24 00943 P22 00867 S11 00814Anshan R21 00691 R24 00670 P22 00638 P17 00543 P21 00533Fushun P17 00747 P13 00691 P11 00684 P15 00680 P16 00677Benxi R24 00711 P17 00671 P15 00651 R21 00646 P13 00624Dandong R24 00751 R21 00748 P16 00718 P17 00710 P13 00695Jinzhou R21 00688 P17 00678 S22 00659 R24 00656 P13 00651Yingkou P13 00657 P17 00651 R21 00647 S21 00604 P16 00597Fuxin P17 00742 P16 00723 P12 00701 P11 00700 P13 00681Liaoyang P17 00741 P13 00722 P15 00686 R24 00684 R21 00679Panjin R21 00753 R24 00715 R23 00658 P15 00657 P17 00640Tieling R21 00742 P17 00741 P13 00728 P12 00721 S21 00721Zhaoyang R21 00730 R24 00711 P17 00704 S21 00694 P16 00684Huludao P17 00815 P16 00785 P15 00776 P12 00759 P11 00757Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

Complexity 11

the urban comprehensive competitiveness was at the bottomof Liaoning Province Shenyang and Dalian had similarmain constraint factors mainly including industrial elec-tricity consumption (P21) comprehensive utilization ofindustrial solid waste (R23) and output value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24) etc eresponse subsystem was the main constraint factor On theone hand the two cities have strong industrial foundationsand superior geographical locations and have the mostdeveloped industrial economies in the province Howeveron the other hand the ecological environment was not paidenough attention to and investment in environmentalmanagement was not enough in these two cities whichcaused greater constraints to governance capacity than toindustrial ecology e main constraint factors in AnshanBenxi Dandong Jinzhou Liaoyang and Chaoyang citieswere similar mainly including number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17)industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)etc e six cities were at a medium development level inthe province in terms of either urbanization or competi-tiveness of the industrial economy In recent years due tothe policy advantage and the pull effect from economicdevelopment of Shenyang and Dalian the economy de-veloped rapidly in the six cities However without acontinuous improvement of necessary supporting systemssuch as employment market and urban construction thegovernance capacity was limited At present the six citiesshould mainly strengthen talent introduction and urbaninfrastructure construction and investment and simulta-neously emphasize both economic development and en-vironmental governance to overcome constraints toindustrial ecology development e main constraint fac-tors for Yingkou and Tieling cities were similar mainlyincluding number of employees in the secondary sector(P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17) green coverage ofthe built-up area (S21) and industrial sulfur dioxide re-moval (R21) Benefiting from the strategic layout of theEastern Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone Yingkou Cityhad enjoyed preferential policies and achieved a rapideconomic development However there was still a shortagein quality workforce and urban construction investmentMoreover the green coverage of the built-up area and thegovernance capacity of Yingkou were insufficient eseissues constrained the economic development in YingkouCity Tieling a remotely located city had neither a strongindustrial foundation nor a large-scale trade exchange Inaddition the labor force was insufficient us its indus-trial economy ecological environment and governancecapacity were all in an embarrassing situation Regardingspatial scale the main constraint factors affecting the in-ternal industrial ecosystemrsquos development in 14 cities ofLiaoning Province were the pressure and response sub-systems while the state subsystem had little impact Al-though all the cities had made a great progress in activelyresponding to the central governmentrsquos call for controllingenvironmental pollution it is yet to take urgent actions inenergizing industrial economic development motivation

and improving environmental governance capabilities forall cities

4 Discussion and Conclusions

41 Discussion e industrial ecosystem consists of bothvarious elements that have an important impact on thedevelopment of an industry and multiple interactions ofthese elements It is an organic system composed of variousparticipants along the industrial chain the supportingfactors of industrial development and the external envi-ronment which the survival and development of an industryrely on Establishment of a mature industrial ecosystemenables symbiosis mutualism and regeneration of industrialelements to maximize the economic and social values[47 48] Industrial development is the result of collectiveeffects of entire industrial ecosystem [46] Competitionamong regional economies is a competition for industrialecologyose regions who can firstly establish the completeindustrial ecosystem will take an advantage in economicdevelopment Currently formation of industrial ecologyexhibits two major characteristics first enterprises in thesame industry or industry cluster gather in a geographicalregion to form an industrial agglomeration second localleading enterprises with unique products and competitive-ness expand its development based on its business modelSuch expansion drives the growth of individual ecologicalelements in surrounding areas and forms a business eco-system A fundamental reason why Chinarsquos super centralcities ie Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou and Shenzhen canmaintain high growth is the establishment of a good in-dustrial ecology In these cities the competition has changedfrom ldquoindustryrdquo to ldquoindustrial ecologyrdquo Moreover the trendof specialization and verticalization of industrial ecology isbecoming more and more obvious To manifest this trendeconomic growth points are continuously emerging majorbreakthroughs are continuously made in emerging indus-tries and technological innovation innovative and emergingindustries are incubated and nurtured and a group ofunicorn enterprises are born as industry leaders that race tocontrol the commanding heights of economy in China oreven in the globe In contrast in many third- and fourth-tiercities economic growth is slow It is partly because of yet-to-improve industrial ecology that lacks attractiveness to re-sources such as talents capital and technology lacks in-novative environment and thus results in the loss ofendogenous economic growth e premise of constructinga sound industrial ecology is to clearly define the industrialpositioning realize the industrial agglomeration and or-ganically integrate industrial elements to catalyze theirldquoecological chemical reactionrdquo With popularized applica-tion of big data cloud computing Internet of ings andintelligent hardware the industrial ecology is being digitallyempowered and flattened managed industrial elements areclosely interconnected and collaborated in an efficient andintelligent way and finally the industrial value chain is beingreshaped Despite this it is still necessary to take measuresfrom multiple dimensions to increase support for industrialecology For example we should improve the construction

12 Complexity

of innovative ecosystems [49] strengthen the support forecological elements such as land [50] and take considerationof responses to climate change [51 52] We must break theinformation barriers among research institutions univer-sities government departments business organizations andfinancial institutions optimize the business environmentstrengthen policy guidance and actively promote the inte-gration of industry-education-research and the transfor-mation of research outcomes thus to form a market-oriented and enterprise-based innovation system In addi-tion it is a wise choice to introduce third-parties to gatherindustrial talents and resources where a platform-type in-dustrial organization is particularly important for theconstruction of regional industrial ecology rough such aplatform it is possible to establish connection with variousresources including talents scientific research capital andmarket and further to establish a network with upstreamand downstream enterprises is would greatly reduce thedifficulties in attracting investment and energize the dy-namics of industrial elements

Liaoning Province as a representative and typicalprovince of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina has been accelerating the transformation and opti-mization of traditional industries since the implementationof the Revitalization Strategy Economic development inLiaoning has shifted from high-speed growth to high-qualitydevelopment While major equipment design andmanufacturing industry is leading the country a regionalinnovation system is gradually taking shape However dueto a long-term influence of the extensive economic growthmodel the traditional industry development model and theconservative management system and mechanism the in-dustrial development pattern has not yet fundamentallychanged which is still mainly based on traditional industriessuch as equipment manufacturing coal mining and pe-troleum smelting Meanwhile there still exist many prob-lems in urban industrial ecology in Liaoning ProvinceFirstly there is a lack of a top-level design of industrialecosystem planning Governments and enterprises at alllevels overemphasize industrial development but fail toorganically integrate industry into industrial ecosystemdevelopment which results in a sole industrial system lackof connection between industrial categories slow develop-ment of industrial ecology and convergence of industrialstructure Consequently the complementary effect of re-gional advantages is not effectively exerted and the regionalcompetitiveness is compromised Secondly there is not astrong capability in independent innovation of industrialecosystems Till now Liaoning still heavily depends ontraditional industrial paths without enough nurture ofemerging pillar industries featuring a low level of industrialstructure and an overweighed secondary sector Meanwhilethere is a lack of effective dynamic circulation system high-tech industries and modern service industries are propor-tionally low the industry of deep processing of raw materialis less developed and the independent innovation ability isweak irdly there is no feedback mechanism for thepractice of industrial ecosystems In the process of industrialdevelopment most traditional industries are still

characterized by the unidirectional consumption of energyresources and the degradation of ecological environmentalservice functionsere is a lack of standards andmethods tosystematically assess economic-environmental dynamicsWithout having established a feedback mechanism to reg-ulate a healthy development of industrial ecosystems it isimpossible to effectively integrate resources for building amodern economic system

Constructing industrial ecosystems is a new strategicmeasure to promote a comprehensive revitalization of theNortheast Region It can effectively address deep-seatedissues in industrial development of the traditional industrialarea in Liaoning overcome constraints of traditional in-dustrial development systems and mechanisms change theindustrial development approach in multiple dimensionssuch as management mechanism operation mode pro-duction method and business environment and realize aneconomic-environmental coupling and sustainable devel-opment It is also an important pathway leading to an ef-fective transformation of economic development inLiaoning In this regard Liaoning Province should pay moreattention to the industrial ecosystem construction and take itas a focus to promote the industrial development in a greencircular and quality way Some recommendations andsuggestions are as follows firstly deepen the reform ofsystems and mechanisms to create a good business envi-ronment for industrial ecosystem construction It is nec-essary to properly handle the government-marketrelationship focusing on addressing such issues as gov-ernmentrsquos direct intervention in resource allocation over-management and the misalignment offside absence andinadequacy of governmental functions and further promotesimplified administration decentralization and optimiza-tion of services Continue to deepen the reform of admin-istrative approval systems commercial systems andinvestment and financing systems Perform governmentfunctions according to law to accelerate the establishmentand improvement of the management model based on thepower lists the responsibility lists and the negative listsImprove the legitimate decision-making mechanism andstrengthen the restriction and supervision of power Sec-ondly unleash the potential in regional collaborative in-novation to build technological innovation capabilities forindustrial ecosystem construction Formulate and imple-ment a system that encourages technological innovation andintellectual property protection improve the innovation andentrepreneurship service model and provide full-chainvalue-added services for innovation and entrepreneurshipactivities to stimulate the independent innovation capabil-ities in the traditional industrial area in Liaoning irdlystrengthen the top-level design of regional collaborativedevelopment to broaden development space for industrialecosystem construction Aim to construct industrial eco-systems integrate the spatial distribution of industrial de-velopment in the province and plan the industrial ecosystemconstruction based on regional macro-policies to establish aregional macro ecosystem integrating industry agricultureservices and high-technology Fourthly innovate and en-hance the supply capacity of ecological products to provide a

Complexity 13

material foundation for industrial ecosystem constructionDeploy in advance the development strategy for alternativeclean and green industries make full use of unique eco-logical resources combine with rural revitalization strate-gies energize new dynamics of rural resource developmentto transform superior ecological resources into high-qualityecological product supply and ecological services and realizeecological industrialization Fifthly engage a multi-partyparticipation mechanism to provide scientific support forindustrial ecosystem construction Promote the knowledgeand cognition of the industrial ecosystem to make enter-prises aware of the importance and advantages of industrialecosystem construction through education amp trainingmedia promotion and the Internet Strengthen scientificsupport by organizing an expert team to research industrialecosystems of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningwhich is an interdisciplinary team engaging multiplestakeholders including governments enterprises researchinstitutions and universities to provide multi-dimensionalsupport for industrial ecosystem construction of the tradi-tional industrial area in Liaoning from policy recommen-dation to top-level design and then to the application ofindustrial ecological technology

42 Conclusions is paper took 14 cities in LiaoningProvince as examples of urban industrial ecosystems oftraditional industrial area in Northeastern China to calculatethe development level of its industrial ecosystem during2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and toconduct a spatial visualization analysis which provides newperspectives and methods for analyzing and interpreting thecomplexity of urban industrial ecosystems e results showthe following (1) from 2000 to 2018 the 14 cities in LiaoningProvince had a moderate level of industrial ecology Exceptfor Shenyang and Dalian with rapid development the dif-ference in the development level of industrial ecosystemsamong other cities was small (2) From 2000 to 2018 thedevelopment level of industrial ecosystems in cities firstincreased and then decreased with some fluctuation edevelopment level of the industrial ecology in these citiesgenerally showed an upward-then-downward trend Re-garding spatial differentiation a high-level industrial eco-logical zone formed with Shenyang and Dalian as the centere ldquodual-corerdquo feature was significant and continuouslystrengthened As a result the whole region exhibited aldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern (3) At the system level of PSRthe constraint grades to the industrial ecosystemrsquos devel-opment level in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province weredifferent e constraint grades of the pressure state andresponse subsystems to the provincersquos industrial ecosystemwere 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicatingthat the main constraint factors affecting the process ofurban industrial ecology in Liaoning Province were both thelack of human response to the ecological environment andthe pressure of human activities on the ecological envi-ronment during the industrial economic development (4)Due to the large differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and development

circumstances among different cities the main constraintfactors to development of industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different but overall regional GDP number ofemployees in the secondary sector gross fixed asset in-vestment industrial sulfur dioxide removal and outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization productwere the main five factors With popularized application ofbig data cloud computing Internet of ings and intelli-gent hardware the main direction of further research in thefuture may point to reshaping the industrial value chainimproving and innovating the ecosystem construction andintroducing third-party forces to gather industrial talentsand resources for creating an industrial symbiosis networkon a city scale However to fully and scientifically under-stand the complexity of the urban industrial ecosystem it isnecessary not only to study at the element level but also tosystematically recognize the complexity of the networkstructure establish a structural model to analyze its evo-lutionary dynamics and then guide the formulation of in-dustrial policy for the development of regional industrialecology which will be the main research direction in thefuture

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of China(41701142 and 41971166) Fundamental Research Funds forthe Central Universities (2020jbkyjc002) Project of GansuProvince Economic and Social Development Serving ofLanzhou University (2019-FWZX-04) and Open Project ofInstitute of County Economy Developments amp Rural Re-vitalization Strategy Lanzhou University (xyjj2019002)

References

[1] T E Graedel and B R Allenby Industrial Ecology PrenticeHall Englewood Cliffs NJ USA 1995

[2] B R Allenby and W E Cooper ldquoUnderstanding industrialecology from a biological systems perspectiverdquo Environ-mental Quality Management vol 3 no 3 pp 343ndash354 1994

[3] S Charmondusit K Bhaktikul C ArunlertareeWWisawapipatC Rattanapan and K Charmondusit ldquoProblem based trainingprogram on industrial ecology and environment for thesustainability management of industryrdquo ProcediamdashSocial andBehavioral Sciences vol 40 pp 31ndash36 2012

[4] R A Frosch and N E Gallopoulos ldquoStrategies formanufacturingrdquo Scientific American vol 261 no 3pp 144ndash152 1989

[5] Y Huang C Lu X Xiao et al ldquoEvolution and reconstructionof industrial ecosystems of mining cities in the traditionalindustrial area of Northeastern China a case study of

14 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

beltrdquo and the ldquogroove areardquo gradually dimmede industrialecosystemrsquos development level in the southeast has graduallysurpassed that in the northwest Anshan a resource-de-pleted city is slow in industrial transformation and remainsa relatively low level of industrial ecosystem developmentwhile Huludao City always maintains a high level In termsof regional difference there is a remarkable feature ofldquocenter-peripheryrdquo describing the central-northern regioncentered on Shenyang and southeastern amp northwesternregions respectively To summarize the above analysis bothShenyang Economic Zone and Liaoning Coastal EconomicBelt are currently still the engines of industrial ecologydevelopment in the Northeast region while the entireNortheast region has also achieved considerable develop-ment and the overall structure will be further optimized

32 Cluster Analysis of Industrial Ecosystem Based on thecluster analysis of the industrial ecology level for the 14 citiesof Liaoning Province in 2018 the spatial distribution ofhigh-level medium-level and low-level industrial ecosys-tems was identified rough cluster analysis we can con-clude the following (1) the two sub-provincial level citiesShenyang and Dalian have the high-level industrial eco-system (industrial ecosystem development level gt055)eyhave superior geographical locations good industrial eco-nomic development conditions and strong industrialfoundations which provide a strong guarantee for pro-tecting the ecological environment In the two cities thegreen coverage in built-up areas is significantly higher thanthat of other cities the industrial ecosystem development isat a higher level due to strong policy support However thereis still room to improve the ability of ecological environ-mental governance that is there is potential to furtherdevelop the industrial ecology (2) Huludao City has amedium-level industrial ecosystem (05lt development levelof industrial ecosystemle 055) Huludao is a coastal city andhas formed a modern industrial system with petroleumprocessing non-ferrous metals machinery manufacturingship building and energy and power production as the pillarindustries Its industrial foundation is strong However dueto the current situation of transitioning and upgradingindustrial structure various issues such as poor environ-mental stability and weak technological capacity havenegatively affected the improvement of industrial ecosystem(3) Eleven cities including Anshan Fushun and Benxi had alow-level industrial ecosystem (development level of in-dustrial ecosystem le05) Four cities in the Coastal EconomicBelt of eastern Liaoning ie Anshan Yingkou Panjin andJinzhou are developing innovative industries and building alivable and touristic urban agglomeration However thetraditional low-level industrial economy could not provideenough material technical and resource support foraddressing ecological and environmental issues ereforethe environmental improvement is sluggish and the processof sustainable development is slow In Chaoyang Tielingand Fuxin which locate in the northwest of LiaoningProvince the ecological and industrial development is not inharmony due to geographical constraints e

comprehensive competitiveness of these cities is at thelowest end of Liaoning Province with little developmentpotential due to the limitation by geographical conditionsand resource endowment Insufficient motivation for in-dustrial development leads to a low comprehensive level ofindustrial ecosystems Fushun Benxi and Liaoyang arecities dominated by heavy industry which strongly dependon heavy industry enterprises and have a weak economicfoundation e development of heavy industry caused asevere environmental pollution for these three citiesis in-coordination in development of ecology and industry led toa relatively low level in integration of industrial and eco-logical development in the three cities Dandong is a citybordering with North Korea its foreign trade is relativelydeveloped However due to a relatively late starting therehas not been a leading enterprise in the foreign trade that candrive the industrial development into a strong industrialcluster erefore the added economic value is not signif-icant the growth rate is small and the motivation in de-veloping industry is still insufficient

33 Constraint Grade and Main Constraint Factors in In-dustrial Ecosystem Development Constraint factor analysishelps to formulate targeted measures to optimize the in-dustrial ecosystem In this study we calculate the constraintgrade for each specific index indices at either criterion levelor system level as the results shown in Table 2 Further fromthe perspective of time series we analyze the change of mainconstraint factors and the difference of constraint factorsamong cities and diagnose the main constraint factors forthe development level of industrial ecology in LiaoningProvince as the results shown in Table 3 At the same timeto identify the main constraints to the development of theindustrial ecosystem within each city we conduct a diag-nosis of the main constraint factors for the developmentlevel of industrial ecology in 2018 as the results shown inTable 4

As shown in Table 2 from a perspective of the level ofconstraints the constraint grades of the subsystems ofpressure state and response are 4573 2001 and3434 respectively indicating that the main constraintsaffecting the development process of urban industrial eco-systems in Liaoning Province are the pressure of humanactivities on the environment and the inadequate measurestaken by human in response to the ecological environment(1) Constraint grade of the pressure subsystem e con-straint grade of the pressure subsystem to the developmentof industrial ecology is 4573 suggesting that the pressuresubsystem is the greatest constraint in the process of urbanindustrial ecology in Liaoning Province among which theconstraint grade of the criterion layer of industrial economyis 415 and the constraint grade of the criterion layer ofenergy consumption is 42Within the pressure subsystemmany specific indices rank the top 10 by the constraint gradeincluding gross fixed asset investment (P17) 674 grossindustrial output value (P16) 642 regional GDP (P11)617 added value of the secondary sector (P12) 610number of industrial enterprises (P15) 592 number of

Complexity 9

employees in the secondary sector (P13) 578 ey all fallinto the category of industrial economy us it can berevealed that the overall low level of industrial economicdevelopment is the main constraint hindering the devel-opment of industrial ecosystems in Liaoning Province In-adequate capital investment declining economic growthand loss of human resources lead to low levels of industrialecosystem development On the other hand due to eco-nomic downturn excess energy production capacity and

insufficient development motivation at the criterion layer ofenergy consumption the constraint grade is only 43 (2)Constraint grade of the state subsystem e constraintgrade of state subsystem to the development of industrialecology is 2001 proportionally small in comparison withthat of ldquopressurerdquo and ldquoresponserdquo subsystems In this sub-system only the green coverage in the built-up area (S21)ranks in the top 10 indices regarding the constraint gradeie 589 ranking eighth is suggests that in the state

Table 2 Measurements of constraint grade based on PSR model

System layer Normative level Barrier level Indicator Barrier level Sort

PressureIndustrial economy P1 0415

P11 00617 5P12 00610 6P13 00578 9P14 00437 14P15 00592 7P16 00642 3P17 00674 1

Energy consumption P2 0042 P21 00193 18P22 00229 17

State

Discharge of the three wastes P3 0052

S11 00096 23S12 00096 22S13 00162 21S14 00165 20

Greenfield resources S2 0098 S21 00589 8S22 00386 15

Air quality S3 0051 S31 00183 19S32 00323 16

Response

Governance facilities R1 0103 R11 00499 13R12 00528 12

Governance capacity R2 0241

R21 00654 2R22 00543 11R23 00572 10R24 00638 4

Table 3 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province during 2000ndash2018

Year1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

2000 P16 00811 P17 00807 P11 00793 R21 00756 P12 007482001 P17 00745 R21 00728 P16 00706 P11 00709 P15 006992002 P17 00748 R21 00730 P16 00709 P11 00709 P15 006992003 P17 00748 R21 00746 P16 00718 P11 00706 P15 007012004 R21 00766 P17 00757 R24 00724 P16 00722 P11 007112005 R21 00818 P17 00747 R24 00739 P16 00713 P11 007032006 R21 00849 R24 00771 P17 00757 P11 00711 R23 007112007 R21 00900 P17 00811 R24 00765 P11 00761 P16 007592008 R21 00920 P17 00804 R24 00802 P11 00758 P16 007582009 R21 00961 R24 00871 S32 00837 R23 00821 P17 008182010 R24 00959 R21 00930 R23 00865 S32 00823 P17 007772011 R24 00935 R21 00898 R23 00890 S32 00868 P17 007982012 R24 00995 R21 00957 R23 00938 P21 00935 S32 008982013 P21 01119 R23 01021 R24 01013 S32 00958 R21 009212014 S31 01027 R24 00992 P21 00965 S11 00945 R23 009342015 P16 01022 R24 00999 S31 00922 R23 00878 S32 008662016 P16 00984 R21 00912 P15 00887 P17 00844 R23 008062017 R24 01035 P21 00996 R23 00973 R21 00970 S32 009322018 R24 01059 P21 01049 R23 00994 R21 00982 S32 00957Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

10 Complexity

subsystem green space resources have a greater impact onthe development of industrial ecosystems Meanwhile noindices at the criterion level of three-wastes emission and airquality are ranked in the top 10 Overall the constraint gradeof either the damage caused by ldquothree-wastesrdquo emissions orthe maintenance sustained by green space resources to theecological environment or the status of air quality becauseof destruction and maintenance is within the controllablerange for industrial ecosystem development In the futureindustrial development process priority must be given tostrengthening the protection of existing green space re-sources and strictly controlling over excessive land devel-opment (3) Constraint grade of the response subsystemeconstraint grade of the response subsystem to developmentof industrial ecology is 3434 Among them at the criterionlevel the constraint grade of governance facility is 103while that of governance ability is 241 suggesting that thecriterion level of governance ability is the main constraintfactor in the response subsystem In this subsystem thoseindices ranking in the top 10 include industrial sulfur di-oxide removal (R21) with a constraint grade of 654 outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) with a constraint grade of 638 and comprehensiveutilization of industrial solid waste (R23) with a constraintgrade of 572 is indicates that cities in LiaoningProvince generally have problems in the pollution treatmentat the end of industrial production process such as insuf-ficient investment in treatment weak treatment capabilityand low comprehensive utilization rate of wastes

As shown in Table 3 from a perspective of main con-straint factors longitudinally during the 19 years from 2000to 2018 the main constraint factors in the process of in-dustrial ecology development in cities of Liaoning Provincewere industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)gross fixed asset investment (P17) gross industrial outputvalue (P16) comprehensive utilization of industrial solidwaste (R23) regional GDP (P11) inhalable particulate matter

(PM10) (S32) industrial electricity consumption (P21)number of days with air quality reaching or better than ClassII (S31) number of industrial enterprises (P15) gross in-dustrial wastewater discharge (S11) etc However theranking of these major constraint factors changed signifi-cantly with time Among them the ranking of industrialsulfur dioxide removal (R21) and gross fixed asset investment(P17) gradually decreased while the ranking of the outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) fluctuated but all these three always ranked in the topthree In recent years these cities in Liaoning Province haveactively responded to the central governmentrsquos call forsuccessively adopting a series of measures to control airpollution and the emission of sulfur dioxide in factorieswhich has achieved positive outcomes e comprehensiveutilization of ldquothree-wastesrdquo influences recycling resourcesand easing environmental pressure but the current ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization production is associatedwith issues such as high capital investment difficult pro-cessing and low product quality which greatly constrainsthe industrial ecosystem development e highly temporalconsistency of the main constraint factors of different citiesindicates that the differences among the cities wereinsignificant

From Table 4 due to a significant difference in regionaleconomies among the cities the main constraint factors forthe development of the industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different However the main constraint factorsin Fushun Fuxin and Huludao were similar mainly in-cluding regional GDP (P11) number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross industrial output value (P16)gross fixed asset investment (P17) etc e top 5 indices forthe three cities were all the pressure subsystem ie thepressure subsystem became the main constraint factorMoreover for these three cities there were no strong in-dustrial foundations the urban construction was backwardprofessional elites and talents had moved out to provideworkforce for other cities the economy lacked vitality and

Table 4 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province in 2018

Area1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Shenyang R24 01059 R21 00982 S32 00957 R23 00850 P21 00791Dalian P21 01049 R23 00994 R24 00943 P22 00867 S11 00814Anshan R21 00691 R24 00670 P22 00638 P17 00543 P21 00533Fushun P17 00747 P13 00691 P11 00684 P15 00680 P16 00677Benxi R24 00711 P17 00671 P15 00651 R21 00646 P13 00624Dandong R24 00751 R21 00748 P16 00718 P17 00710 P13 00695Jinzhou R21 00688 P17 00678 S22 00659 R24 00656 P13 00651Yingkou P13 00657 P17 00651 R21 00647 S21 00604 P16 00597Fuxin P17 00742 P16 00723 P12 00701 P11 00700 P13 00681Liaoyang P17 00741 P13 00722 P15 00686 R24 00684 R21 00679Panjin R21 00753 R24 00715 R23 00658 P15 00657 P17 00640Tieling R21 00742 P17 00741 P13 00728 P12 00721 S21 00721Zhaoyang R21 00730 R24 00711 P17 00704 S21 00694 P16 00684Huludao P17 00815 P16 00785 P15 00776 P12 00759 P11 00757Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

Complexity 11

the urban comprehensive competitiveness was at the bottomof Liaoning Province Shenyang and Dalian had similarmain constraint factors mainly including industrial elec-tricity consumption (P21) comprehensive utilization ofindustrial solid waste (R23) and output value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24) etc eresponse subsystem was the main constraint factor On theone hand the two cities have strong industrial foundationsand superior geographical locations and have the mostdeveloped industrial economies in the province Howeveron the other hand the ecological environment was not paidenough attention to and investment in environmentalmanagement was not enough in these two cities whichcaused greater constraints to governance capacity than toindustrial ecology e main constraint factors in AnshanBenxi Dandong Jinzhou Liaoyang and Chaoyang citieswere similar mainly including number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17)industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)etc e six cities were at a medium development level inthe province in terms of either urbanization or competi-tiveness of the industrial economy In recent years due tothe policy advantage and the pull effect from economicdevelopment of Shenyang and Dalian the economy de-veloped rapidly in the six cities However without acontinuous improvement of necessary supporting systemssuch as employment market and urban construction thegovernance capacity was limited At present the six citiesshould mainly strengthen talent introduction and urbaninfrastructure construction and investment and simulta-neously emphasize both economic development and en-vironmental governance to overcome constraints toindustrial ecology development e main constraint fac-tors for Yingkou and Tieling cities were similar mainlyincluding number of employees in the secondary sector(P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17) green coverage ofthe built-up area (S21) and industrial sulfur dioxide re-moval (R21) Benefiting from the strategic layout of theEastern Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone Yingkou Cityhad enjoyed preferential policies and achieved a rapideconomic development However there was still a shortagein quality workforce and urban construction investmentMoreover the green coverage of the built-up area and thegovernance capacity of Yingkou were insufficient eseissues constrained the economic development in YingkouCity Tieling a remotely located city had neither a strongindustrial foundation nor a large-scale trade exchange Inaddition the labor force was insufficient us its indus-trial economy ecological environment and governancecapacity were all in an embarrassing situation Regardingspatial scale the main constraint factors affecting the in-ternal industrial ecosystemrsquos development in 14 cities ofLiaoning Province were the pressure and response sub-systems while the state subsystem had little impact Al-though all the cities had made a great progress in activelyresponding to the central governmentrsquos call for controllingenvironmental pollution it is yet to take urgent actions inenergizing industrial economic development motivation

and improving environmental governance capabilities forall cities

4 Discussion and Conclusions

41 Discussion e industrial ecosystem consists of bothvarious elements that have an important impact on thedevelopment of an industry and multiple interactions ofthese elements It is an organic system composed of variousparticipants along the industrial chain the supportingfactors of industrial development and the external envi-ronment which the survival and development of an industryrely on Establishment of a mature industrial ecosystemenables symbiosis mutualism and regeneration of industrialelements to maximize the economic and social values[47 48] Industrial development is the result of collectiveeffects of entire industrial ecosystem [46] Competitionamong regional economies is a competition for industrialecologyose regions who can firstly establish the completeindustrial ecosystem will take an advantage in economicdevelopment Currently formation of industrial ecologyexhibits two major characteristics first enterprises in thesame industry or industry cluster gather in a geographicalregion to form an industrial agglomeration second localleading enterprises with unique products and competitive-ness expand its development based on its business modelSuch expansion drives the growth of individual ecologicalelements in surrounding areas and forms a business eco-system A fundamental reason why Chinarsquos super centralcities ie Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou and Shenzhen canmaintain high growth is the establishment of a good in-dustrial ecology In these cities the competition has changedfrom ldquoindustryrdquo to ldquoindustrial ecologyrdquo Moreover the trendof specialization and verticalization of industrial ecology isbecoming more and more obvious To manifest this trendeconomic growth points are continuously emerging majorbreakthroughs are continuously made in emerging indus-tries and technological innovation innovative and emergingindustries are incubated and nurtured and a group ofunicorn enterprises are born as industry leaders that race tocontrol the commanding heights of economy in China oreven in the globe In contrast in many third- and fourth-tiercities economic growth is slow It is partly because of yet-to-improve industrial ecology that lacks attractiveness to re-sources such as talents capital and technology lacks in-novative environment and thus results in the loss ofendogenous economic growth e premise of constructinga sound industrial ecology is to clearly define the industrialpositioning realize the industrial agglomeration and or-ganically integrate industrial elements to catalyze theirldquoecological chemical reactionrdquo With popularized applica-tion of big data cloud computing Internet of ings andintelligent hardware the industrial ecology is being digitallyempowered and flattened managed industrial elements areclosely interconnected and collaborated in an efficient andintelligent way and finally the industrial value chain is beingreshaped Despite this it is still necessary to take measuresfrom multiple dimensions to increase support for industrialecology For example we should improve the construction

12 Complexity

of innovative ecosystems [49] strengthen the support forecological elements such as land [50] and take considerationof responses to climate change [51 52] We must break theinformation barriers among research institutions univer-sities government departments business organizations andfinancial institutions optimize the business environmentstrengthen policy guidance and actively promote the inte-gration of industry-education-research and the transfor-mation of research outcomes thus to form a market-oriented and enterprise-based innovation system In addi-tion it is a wise choice to introduce third-parties to gatherindustrial talents and resources where a platform-type in-dustrial organization is particularly important for theconstruction of regional industrial ecology rough such aplatform it is possible to establish connection with variousresources including talents scientific research capital andmarket and further to establish a network with upstreamand downstream enterprises is would greatly reduce thedifficulties in attracting investment and energize the dy-namics of industrial elements

Liaoning Province as a representative and typicalprovince of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina has been accelerating the transformation and opti-mization of traditional industries since the implementationof the Revitalization Strategy Economic development inLiaoning has shifted from high-speed growth to high-qualitydevelopment While major equipment design andmanufacturing industry is leading the country a regionalinnovation system is gradually taking shape However dueto a long-term influence of the extensive economic growthmodel the traditional industry development model and theconservative management system and mechanism the in-dustrial development pattern has not yet fundamentallychanged which is still mainly based on traditional industriessuch as equipment manufacturing coal mining and pe-troleum smelting Meanwhile there still exist many prob-lems in urban industrial ecology in Liaoning ProvinceFirstly there is a lack of a top-level design of industrialecosystem planning Governments and enterprises at alllevels overemphasize industrial development but fail toorganically integrate industry into industrial ecosystemdevelopment which results in a sole industrial system lackof connection between industrial categories slow develop-ment of industrial ecology and convergence of industrialstructure Consequently the complementary effect of re-gional advantages is not effectively exerted and the regionalcompetitiveness is compromised Secondly there is not astrong capability in independent innovation of industrialecosystems Till now Liaoning still heavily depends ontraditional industrial paths without enough nurture ofemerging pillar industries featuring a low level of industrialstructure and an overweighed secondary sector Meanwhilethere is a lack of effective dynamic circulation system high-tech industries and modern service industries are propor-tionally low the industry of deep processing of raw materialis less developed and the independent innovation ability isweak irdly there is no feedback mechanism for thepractice of industrial ecosystems In the process of industrialdevelopment most traditional industries are still

characterized by the unidirectional consumption of energyresources and the degradation of ecological environmentalservice functionsere is a lack of standards andmethods tosystematically assess economic-environmental dynamicsWithout having established a feedback mechanism to reg-ulate a healthy development of industrial ecosystems it isimpossible to effectively integrate resources for building amodern economic system

Constructing industrial ecosystems is a new strategicmeasure to promote a comprehensive revitalization of theNortheast Region It can effectively address deep-seatedissues in industrial development of the traditional industrialarea in Liaoning overcome constraints of traditional in-dustrial development systems and mechanisms change theindustrial development approach in multiple dimensionssuch as management mechanism operation mode pro-duction method and business environment and realize aneconomic-environmental coupling and sustainable devel-opment It is also an important pathway leading to an ef-fective transformation of economic development inLiaoning In this regard Liaoning Province should pay moreattention to the industrial ecosystem construction and take itas a focus to promote the industrial development in a greencircular and quality way Some recommendations andsuggestions are as follows firstly deepen the reform ofsystems and mechanisms to create a good business envi-ronment for industrial ecosystem construction It is nec-essary to properly handle the government-marketrelationship focusing on addressing such issues as gov-ernmentrsquos direct intervention in resource allocation over-management and the misalignment offside absence andinadequacy of governmental functions and further promotesimplified administration decentralization and optimiza-tion of services Continue to deepen the reform of admin-istrative approval systems commercial systems andinvestment and financing systems Perform governmentfunctions according to law to accelerate the establishmentand improvement of the management model based on thepower lists the responsibility lists and the negative listsImprove the legitimate decision-making mechanism andstrengthen the restriction and supervision of power Sec-ondly unleash the potential in regional collaborative in-novation to build technological innovation capabilities forindustrial ecosystem construction Formulate and imple-ment a system that encourages technological innovation andintellectual property protection improve the innovation andentrepreneurship service model and provide full-chainvalue-added services for innovation and entrepreneurshipactivities to stimulate the independent innovation capabil-ities in the traditional industrial area in Liaoning irdlystrengthen the top-level design of regional collaborativedevelopment to broaden development space for industrialecosystem construction Aim to construct industrial eco-systems integrate the spatial distribution of industrial de-velopment in the province and plan the industrial ecosystemconstruction based on regional macro-policies to establish aregional macro ecosystem integrating industry agricultureservices and high-technology Fourthly innovate and en-hance the supply capacity of ecological products to provide a

Complexity 13

material foundation for industrial ecosystem constructionDeploy in advance the development strategy for alternativeclean and green industries make full use of unique eco-logical resources combine with rural revitalization strate-gies energize new dynamics of rural resource developmentto transform superior ecological resources into high-qualityecological product supply and ecological services and realizeecological industrialization Fifthly engage a multi-partyparticipation mechanism to provide scientific support forindustrial ecosystem construction Promote the knowledgeand cognition of the industrial ecosystem to make enter-prises aware of the importance and advantages of industrialecosystem construction through education amp trainingmedia promotion and the Internet Strengthen scientificsupport by organizing an expert team to research industrialecosystems of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningwhich is an interdisciplinary team engaging multiplestakeholders including governments enterprises researchinstitutions and universities to provide multi-dimensionalsupport for industrial ecosystem construction of the tradi-tional industrial area in Liaoning from policy recommen-dation to top-level design and then to the application ofindustrial ecological technology

42 Conclusions is paper took 14 cities in LiaoningProvince as examples of urban industrial ecosystems oftraditional industrial area in Northeastern China to calculatethe development level of its industrial ecosystem during2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and toconduct a spatial visualization analysis which provides newperspectives and methods for analyzing and interpreting thecomplexity of urban industrial ecosystems e results showthe following (1) from 2000 to 2018 the 14 cities in LiaoningProvince had a moderate level of industrial ecology Exceptfor Shenyang and Dalian with rapid development the dif-ference in the development level of industrial ecosystemsamong other cities was small (2) From 2000 to 2018 thedevelopment level of industrial ecosystems in cities firstincreased and then decreased with some fluctuation edevelopment level of the industrial ecology in these citiesgenerally showed an upward-then-downward trend Re-garding spatial differentiation a high-level industrial eco-logical zone formed with Shenyang and Dalian as the centere ldquodual-corerdquo feature was significant and continuouslystrengthened As a result the whole region exhibited aldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern (3) At the system level of PSRthe constraint grades to the industrial ecosystemrsquos devel-opment level in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province weredifferent e constraint grades of the pressure state andresponse subsystems to the provincersquos industrial ecosystemwere 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicatingthat the main constraint factors affecting the process ofurban industrial ecology in Liaoning Province were both thelack of human response to the ecological environment andthe pressure of human activities on the ecological envi-ronment during the industrial economic development (4)Due to the large differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and development

circumstances among different cities the main constraintfactors to development of industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different but overall regional GDP number ofemployees in the secondary sector gross fixed asset in-vestment industrial sulfur dioxide removal and outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization productwere the main five factors With popularized application ofbig data cloud computing Internet of ings and intelli-gent hardware the main direction of further research in thefuture may point to reshaping the industrial value chainimproving and innovating the ecosystem construction andintroducing third-party forces to gather industrial talentsand resources for creating an industrial symbiosis networkon a city scale However to fully and scientifically under-stand the complexity of the urban industrial ecosystem it isnecessary not only to study at the element level but also tosystematically recognize the complexity of the networkstructure establish a structural model to analyze its evo-lutionary dynamics and then guide the formulation of in-dustrial policy for the development of regional industrialecology which will be the main research direction in thefuture

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of China(41701142 and 41971166) Fundamental Research Funds forthe Central Universities (2020jbkyjc002) Project of GansuProvince Economic and Social Development Serving ofLanzhou University (2019-FWZX-04) and Open Project ofInstitute of County Economy Developments amp Rural Re-vitalization Strategy Lanzhou University (xyjj2019002)

References

[1] T E Graedel and B R Allenby Industrial Ecology PrenticeHall Englewood Cliffs NJ USA 1995

[2] B R Allenby and W E Cooper ldquoUnderstanding industrialecology from a biological systems perspectiverdquo Environ-mental Quality Management vol 3 no 3 pp 343ndash354 1994

[3] S Charmondusit K Bhaktikul C ArunlertareeWWisawapipatC Rattanapan and K Charmondusit ldquoProblem based trainingprogram on industrial ecology and environment for thesustainability management of industryrdquo ProcediamdashSocial andBehavioral Sciences vol 40 pp 31ndash36 2012

[4] R A Frosch and N E Gallopoulos ldquoStrategies formanufacturingrdquo Scientific American vol 261 no 3pp 144ndash152 1989

[5] Y Huang C Lu X Xiao et al ldquoEvolution and reconstructionof industrial ecosystems of mining cities in the traditionalindustrial area of Northeastern China a case study of

14 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

employees in the secondary sector (P13) 578 ey all fallinto the category of industrial economy us it can berevealed that the overall low level of industrial economicdevelopment is the main constraint hindering the devel-opment of industrial ecosystems in Liaoning Province In-adequate capital investment declining economic growthand loss of human resources lead to low levels of industrialecosystem development On the other hand due to eco-nomic downturn excess energy production capacity and

insufficient development motivation at the criterion layer ofenergy consumption the constraint grade is only 43 (2)Constraint grade of the state subsystem e constraintgrade of state subsystem to the development of industrialecology is 2001 proportionally small in comparison withthat of ldquopressurerdquo and ldquoresponserdquo subsystems In this sub-system only the green coverage in the built-up area (S21)ranks in the top 10 indices regarding the constraint gradeie 589 ranking eighth is suggests that in the state

Table 2 Measurements of constraint grade based on PSR model

System layer Normative level Barrier level Indicator Barrier level Sort

PressureIndustrial economy P1 0415

P11 00617 5P12 00610 6P13 00578 9P14 00437 14P15 00592 7P16 00642 3P17 00674 1

Energy consumption P2 0042 P21 00193 18P22 00229 17

State

Discharge of the three wastes P3 0052

S11 00096 23S12 00096 22S13 00162 21S14 00165 20

Greenfield resources S2 0098 S21 00589 8S22 00386 15

Air quality S3 0051 S31 00183 19S32 00323 16

Response

Governance facilities R1 0103 R11 00499 13R12 00528 12

Governance capacity R2 0241

R21 00654 2R22 00543 11R23 00572 10R24 00638 4

Table 3 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province during 2000ndash2018

Year1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

2000 P16 00811 P17 00807 P11 00793 R21 00756 P12 007482001 P17 00745 R21 00728 P16 00706 P11 00709 P15 006992002 P17 00748 R21 00730 P16 00709 P11 00709 P15 006992003 P17 00748 R21 00746 P16 00718 P11 00706 P15 007012004 R21 00766 P17 00757 R24 00724 P16 00722 P11 007112005 R21 00818 P17 00747 R24 00739 P16 00713 P11 007032006 R21 00849 R24 00771 P17 00757 P11 00711 R23 007112007 R21 00900 P17 00811 R24 00765 P11 00761 P16 007592008 R21 00920 P17 00804 R24 00802 P11 00758 P16 007582009 R21 00961 R24 00871 S32 00837 R23 00821 P17 008182010 R24 00959 R21 00930 R23 00865 S32 00823 P17 007772011 R24 00935 R21 00898 R23 00890 S32 00868 P17 007982012 R24 00995 R21 00957 R23 00938 P21 00935 S32 008982013 P21 01119 R23 01021 R24 01013 S32 00958 R21 009212014 S31 01027 R24 00992 P21 00965 S11 00945 R23 009342015 P16 01022 R24 00999 S31 00922 R23 00878 S32 008662016 P16 00984 R21 00912 P15 00887 P17 00844 R23 008062017 R24 01035 P21 00996 R23 00973 R21 00970 S32 009322018 R24 01059 P21 01049 R23 00994 R21 00982 S32 00957Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

10 Complexity

subsystem green space resources have a greater impact onthe development of industrial ecosystems Meanwhile noindices at the criterion level of three-wastes emission and airquality are ranked in the top 10 Overall the constraint gradeof either the damage caused by ldquothree-wastesrdquo emissions orthe maintenance sustained by green space resources to theecological environment or the status of air quality becauseof destruction and maintenance is within the controllablerange for industrial ecosystem development In the futureindustrial development process priority must be given tostrengthening the protection of existing green space re-sources and strictly controlling over excessive land devel-opment (3) Constraint grade of the response subsystemeconstraint grade of the response subsystem to developmentof industrial ecology is 3434 Among them at the criterionlevel the constraint grade of governance facility is 103while that of governance ability is 241 suggesting that thecriterion level of governance ability is the main constraintfactor in the response subsystem In this subsystem thoseindices ranking in the top 10 include industrial sulfur di-oxide removal (R21) with a constraint grade of 654 outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) with a constraint grade of 638 and comprehensiveutilization of industrial solid waste (R23) with a constraintgrade of 572 is indicates that cities in LiaoningProvince generally have problems in the pollution treatmentat the end of industrial production process such as insuf-ficient investment in treatment weak treatment capabilityand low comprehensive utilization rate of wastes

As shown in Table 3 from a perspective of main con-straint factors longitudinally during the 19 years from 2000to 2018 the main constraint factors in the process of in-dustrial ecology development in cities of Liaoning Provincewere industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)gross fixed asset investment (P17) gross industrial outputvalue (P16) comprehensive utilization of industrial solidwaste (R23) regional GDP (P11) inhalable particulate matter

(PM10) (S32) industrial electricity consumption (P21)number of days with air quality reaching or better than ClassII (S31) number of industrial enterprises (P15) gross in-dustrial wastewater discharge (S11) etc However theranking of these major constraint factors changed signifi-cantly with time Among them the ranking of industrialsulfur dioxide removal (R21) and gross fixed asset investment(P17) gradually decreased while the ranking of the outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) fluctuated but all these three always ranked in the topthree In recent years these cities in Liaoning Province haveactively responded to the central governmentrsquos call forsuccessively adopting a series of measures to control airpollution and the emission of sulfur dioxide in factorieswhich has achieved positive outcomes e comprehensiveutilization of ldquothree-wastesrdquo influences recycling resourcesand easing environmental pressure but the current ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization production is associatedwith issues such as high capital investment difficult pro-cessing and low product quality which greatly constrainsthe industrial ecosystem development e highly temporalconsistency of the main constraint factors of different citiesindicates that the differences among the cities wereinsignificant

From Table 4 due to a significant difference in regionaleconomies among the cities the main constraint factors forthe development of the industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different However the main constraint factorsin Fushun Fuxin and Huludao were similar mainly in-cluding regional GDP (P11) number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross industrial output value (P16)gross fixed asset investment (P17) etc e top 5 indices forthe three cities were all the pressure subsystem ie thepressure subsystem became the main constraint factorMoreover for these three cities there were no strong in-dustrial foundations the urban construction was backwardprofessional elites and talents had moved out to provideworkforce for other cities the economy lacked vitality and

Table 4 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province in 2018

Area1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Shenyang R24 01059 R21 00982 S32 00957 R23 00850 P21 00791Dalian P21 01049 R23 00994 R24 00943 P22 00867 S11 00814Anshan R21 00691 R24 00670 P22 00638 P17 00543 P21 00533Fushun P17 00747 P13 00691 P11 00684 P15 00680 P16 00677Benxi R24 00711 P17 00671 P15 00651 R21 00646 P13 00624Dandong R24 00751 R21 00748 P16 00718 P17 00710 P13 00695Jinzhou R21 00688 P17 00678 S22 00659 R24 00656 P13 00651Yingkou P13 00657 P17 00651 R21 00647 S21 00604 P16 00597Fuxin P17 00742 P16 00723 P12 00701 P11 00700 P13 00681Liaoyang P17 00741 P13 00722 P15 00686 R24 00684 R21 00679Panjin R21 00753 R24 00715 R23 00658 P15 00657 P17 00640Tieling R21 00742 P17 00741 P13 00728 P12 00721 S21 00721Zhaoyang R21 00730 R24 00711 P17 00704 S21 00694 P16 00684Huludao P17 00815 P16 00785 P15 00776 P12 00759 P11 00757Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

Complexity 11

the urban comprehensive competitiveness was at the bottomof Liaoning Province Shenyang and Dalian had similarmain constraint factors mainly including industrial elec-tricity consumption (P21) comprehensive utilization ofindustrial solid waste (R23) and output value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24) etc eresponse subsystem was the main constraint factor On theone hand the two cities have strong industrial foundationsand superior geographical locations and have the mostdeveloped industrial economies in the province Howeveron the other hand the ecological environment was not paidenough attention to and investment in environmentalmanagement was not enough in these two cities whichcaused greater constraints to governance capacity than toindustrial ecology e main constraint factors in AnshanBenxi Dandong Jinzhou Liaoyang and Chaoyang citieswere similar mainly including number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17)industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)etc e six cities were at a medium development level inthe province in terms of either urbanization or competi-tiveness of the industrial economy In recent years due tothe policy advantage and the pull effect from economicdevelopment of Shenyang and Dalian the economy de-veloped rapidly in the six cities However without acontinuous improvement of necessary supporting systemssuch as employment market and urban construction thegovernance capacity was limited At present the six citiesshould mainly strengthen talent introduction and urbaninfrastructure construction and investment and simulta-neously emphasize both economic development and en-vironmental governance to overcome constraints toindustrial ecology development e main constraint fac-tors for Yingkou and Tieling cities were similar mainlyincluding number of employees in the secondary sector(P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17) green coverage ofthe built-up area (S21) and industrial sulfur dioxide re-moval (R21) Benefiting from the strategic layout of theEastern Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone Yingkou Cityhad enjoyed preferential policies and achieved a rapideconomic development However there was still a shortagein quality workforce and urban construction investmentMoreover the green coverage of the built-up area and thegovernance capacity of Yingkou were insufficient eseissues constrained the economic development in YingkouCity Tieling a remotely located city had neither a strongindustrial foundation nor a large-scale trade exchange Inaddition the labor force was insufficient us its indus-trial economy ecological environment and governancecapacity were all in an embarrassing situation Regardingspatial scale the main constraint factors affecting the in-ternal industrial ecosystemrsquos development in 14 cities ofLiaoning Province were the pressure and response sub-systems while the state subsystem had little impact Al-though all the cities had made a great progress in activelyresponding to the central governmentrsquos call for controllingenvironmental pollution it is yet to take urgent actions inenergizing industrial economic development motivation

and improving environmental governance capabilities forall cities

4 Discussion and Conclusions

41 Discussion e industrial ecosystem consists of bothvarious elements that have an important impact on thedevelopment of an industry and multiple interactions ofthese elements It is an organic system composed of variousparticipants along the industrial chain the supportingfactors of industrial development and the external envi-ronment which the survival and development of an industryrely on Establishment of a mature industrial ecosystemenables symbiosis mutualism and regeneration of industrialelements to maximize the economic and social values[47 48] Industrial development is the result of collectiveeffects of entire industrial ecosystem [46] Competitionamong regional economies is a competition for industrialecologyose regions who can firstly establish the completeindustrial ecosystem will take an advantage in economicdevelopment Currently formation of industrial ecologyexhibits two major characteristics first enterprises in thesame industry or industry cluster gather in a geographicalregion to form an industrial agglomeration second localleading enterprises with unique products and competitive-ness expand its development based on its business modelSuch expansion drives the growth of individual ecologicalelements in surrounding areas and forms a business eco-system A fundamental reason why Chinarsquos super centralcities ie Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou and Shenzhen canmaintain high growth is the establishment of a good in-dustrial ecology In these cities the competition has changedfrom ldquoindustryrdquo to ldquoindustrial ecologyrdquo Moreover the trendof specialization and verticalization of industrial ecology isbecoming more and more obvious To manifest this trendeconomic growth points are continuously emerging majorbreakthroughs are continuously made in emerging indus-tries and technological innovation innovative and emergingindustries are incubated and nurtured and a group ofunicorn enterprises are born as industry leaders that race tocontrol the commanding heights of economy in China oreven in the globe In contrast in many third- and fourth-tiercities economic growth is slow It is partly because of yet-to-improve industrial ecology that lacks attractiveness to re-sources such as talents capital and technology lacks in-novative environment and thus results in the loss ofendogenous economic growth e premise of constructinga sound industrial ecology is to clearly define the industrialpositioning realize the industrial agglomeration and or-ganically integrate industrial elements to catalyze theirldquoecological chemical reactionrdquo With popularized applica-tion of big data cloud computing Internet of ings andintelligent hardware the industrial ecology is being digitallyempowered and flattened managed industrial elements areclosely interconnected and collaborated in an efficient andintelligent way and finally the industrial value chain is beingreshaped Despite this it is still necessary to take measuresfrom multiple dimensions to increase support for industrialecology For example we should improve the construction

12 Complexity

of innovative ecosystems [49] strengthen the support forecological elements such as land [50] and take considerationof responses to climate change [51 52] We must break theinformation barriers among research institutions univer-sities government departments business organizations andfinancial institutions optimize the business environmentstrengthen policy guidance and actively promote the inte-gration of industry-education-research and the transfor-mation of research outcomes thus to form a market-oriented and enterprise-based innovation system In addi-tion it is a wise choice to introduce third-parties to gatherindustrial talents and resources where a platform-type in-dustrial organization is particularly important for theconstruction of regional industrial ecology rough such aplatform it is possible to establish connection with variousresources including talents scientific research capital andmarket and further to establish a network with upstreamand downstream enterprises is would greatly reduce thedifficulties in attracting investment and energize the dy-namics of industrial elements

Liaoning Province as a representative and typicalprovince of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina has been accelerating the transformation and opti-mization of traditional industries since the implementationof the Revitalization Strategy Economic development inLiaoning has shifted from high-speed growth to high-qualitydevelopment While major equipment design andmanufacturing industry is leading the country a regionalinnovation system is gradually taking shape However dueto a long-term influence of the extensive economic growthmodel the traditional industry development model and theconservative management system and mechanism the in-dustrial development pattern has not yet fundamentallychanged which is still mainly based on traditional industriessuch as equipment manufacturing coal mining and pe-troleum smelting Meanwhile there still exist many prob-lems in urban industrial ecology in Liaoning ProvinceFirstly there is a lack of a top-level design of industrialecosystem planning Governments and enterprises at alllevels overemphasize industrial development but fail toorganically integrate industry into industrial ecosystemdevelopment which results in a sole industrial system lackof connection between industrial categories slow develop-ment of industrial ecology and convergence of industrialstructure Consequently the complementary effect of re-gional advantages is not effectively exerted and the regionalcompetitiveness is compromised Secondly there is not astrong capability in independent innovation of industrialecosystems Till now Liaoning still heavily depends ontraditional industrial paths without enough nurture ofemerging pillar industries featuring a low level of industrialstructure and an overweighed secondary sector Meanwhilethere is a lack of effective dynamic circulation system high-tech industries and modern service industries are propor-tionally low the industry of deep processing of raw materialis less developed and the independent innovation ability isweak irdly there is no feedback mechanism for thepractice of industrial ecosystems In the process of industrialdevelopment most traditional industries are still

characterized by the unidirectional consumption of energyresources and the degradation of ecological environmentalservice functionsere is a lack of standards andmethods tosystematically assess economic-environmental dynamicsWithout having established a feedback mechanism to reg-ulate a healthy development of industrial ecosystems it isimpossible to effectively integrate resources for building amodern economic system

Constructing industrial ecosystems is a new strategicmeasure to promote a comprehensive revitalization of theNortheast Region It can effectively address deep-seatedissues in industrial development of the traditional industrialarea in Liaoning overcome constraints of traditional in-dustrial development systems and mechanisms change theindustrial development approach in multiple dimensionssuch as management mechanism operation mode pro-duction method and business environment and realize aneconomic-environmental coupling and sustainable devel-opment It is also an important pathway leading to an ef-fective transformation of economic development inLiaoning In this regard Liaoning Province should pay moreattention to the industrial ecosystem construction and take itas a focus to promote the industrial development in a greencircular and quality way Some recommendations andsuggestions are as follows firstly deepen the reform ofsystems and mechanisms to create a good business envi-ronment for industrial ecosystem construction It is nec-essary to properly handle the government-marketrelationship focusing on addressing such issues as gov-ernmentrsquos direct intervention in resource allocation over-management and the misalignment offside absence andinadequacy of governmental functions and further promotesimplified administration decentralization and optimiza-tion of services Continue to deepen the reform of admin-istrative approval systems commercial systems andinvestment and financing systems Perform governmentfunctions according to law to accelerate the establishmentand improvement of the management model based on thepower lists the responsibility lists and the negative listsImprove the legitimate decision-making mechanism andstrengthen the restriction and supervision of power Sec-ondly unleash the potential in regional collaborative in-novation to build technological innovation capabilities forindustrial ecosystem construction Formulate and imple-ment a system that encourages technological innovation andintellectual property protection improve the innovation andentrepreneurship service model and provide full-chainvalue-added services for innovation and entrepreneurshipactivities to stimulate the independent innovation capabil-ities in the traditional industrial area in Liaoning irdlystrengthen the top-level design of regional collaborativedevelopment to broaden development space for industrialecosystem construction Aim to construct industrial eco-systems integrate the spatial distribution of industrial de-velopment in the province and plan the industrial ecosystemconstruction based on regional macro-policies to establish aregional macro ecosystem integrating industry agricultureservices and high-technology Fourthly innovate and en-hance the supply capacity of ecological products to provide a

Complexity 13

material foundation for industrial ecosystem constructionDeploy in advance the development strategy for alternativeclean and green industries make full use of unique eco-logical resources combine with rural revitalization strate-gies energize new dynamics of rural resource developmentto transform superior ecological resources into high-qualityecological product supply and ecological services and realizeecological industrialization Fifthly engage a multi-partyparticipation mechanism to provide scientific support forindustrial ecosystem construction Promote the knowledgeand cognition of the industrial ecosystem to make enter-prises aware of the importance and advantages of industrialecosystem construction through education amp trainingmedia promotion and the Internet Strengthen scientificsupport by organizing an expert team to research industrialecosystems of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningwhich is an interdisciplinary team engaging multiplestakeholders including governments enterprises researchinstitutions and universities to provide multi-dimensionalsupport for industrial ecosystem construction of the tradi-tional industrial area in Liaoning from policy recommen-dation to top-level design and then to the application ofindustrial ecological technology

42 Conclusions is paper took 14 cities in LiaoningProvince as examples of urban industrial ecosystems oftraditional industrial area in Northeastern China to calculatethe development level of its industrial ecosystem during2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and toconduct a spatial visualization analysis which provides newperspectives and methods for analyzing and interpreting thecomplexity of urban industrial ecosystems e results showthe following (1) from 2000 to 2018 the 14 cities in LiaoningProvince had a moderate level of industrial ecology Exceptfor Shenyang and Dalian with rapid development the dif-ference in the development level of industrial ecosystemsamong other cities was small (2) From 2000 to 2018 thedevelopment level of industrial ecosystems in cities firstincreased and then decreased with some fluctuation edevelopment level of the industrial ecology in these citiesgenerally showed an upward-then-downward trend Re-garding spatial differentiation a high-level industrial eco-logical zone formed with Shenyang and Dalian as the centere ldquodual-corerdquo feature was significant and continuouslystrengthened As a result the whole region exhibited aldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern (3) At the system level of PSRthe constraint grades to the industrial ecosystemrsquos devel-opment level in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province weredifferent e constraint grades of the pressure state andresponse subsystems to the provincersquos industrial ecosystemwere 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicatingthat the main constraint factors affecting the process ofurban industrial ecology in Liaoning Province were both thelack of human response to the ecological environment andthe pressure of human activities on the ecological envi-ronment during the industrial economic development (4)Due to the large differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and development

circumstances among different cities the main constraintfactors to development of industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different but overall regional GDP number ofemployees in the secondary sector gross fixed asset in-vestment industrial sulfur dioxide removal and outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization productwere the main five factors With popularized application ofbig data cloud computing Internet of ings and intelli-gent hardware the main direction of further research in thefuture may point to reshaping the industrial value chainimproving and innovating the ecosystem construction andintroducing third-party forces to gather industrial talentsand resources for creating an industrial symbiosis networkon a city scale However to fully and scientifically under-stand the complexity of the urban industrial ecosystem it isnecessary not only to study at the element level but also tosystematically recognize the complexity of the networkstructure establish a structural model to analyze its evo-lutionary dynamics and then guide the formulation of in-dustrial policy for the development of regional industrialecology which will be the main research direction in thefuture

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of China(41701142 and 41971166) Fundamental Research Funds forthe Central Universities (2020jbkyjc002) Project of GansuProvince Economic and Social Development Serving ofLanzhou University (2019-FWZX-04) and Open Project ofInstitute of County Economy Developments amp Rural Re-vitalization Strategy Lanzhou University (xyjj2019002)

References

[1] T E Graedel and B R Allenby Industrial Ecology PrenticeHall Englewood Cliffs NJ USA 1995

[2] B R Allenby and W E Cooper ldquoUnderstanding industrialecology from a biological systems perspectiverdquo Environ-mental Quality Management vol 3 no 3 pp 343ndash354 1994

[3] S Charmondusit K Bhaktikul C ArunlertareeWWisawapipatC Rattanapan and K Charmondusit ldquoProblem based trainingprogram on industrial ecology and environment for thesustainability management of industryrdquo ProcediamdashSocial andBehavioral Sciences vol 40 pp 31ndash36 2012

[4] R A Frosch and N E Gallopoulos ldquoStrategies formanufacturingrdquo Scientific American vol 261 no 3pp 144ndash152 1989

[5] Y Huang C Lu X Xiao et al ldquoEvolution and reconstructionof industrial ecosystems of mining cities in the traditionalindustrial area of Northeastern China a case study of

14 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

subsystem green space resources have a greater impact onthe development of industrial ecosystems Meanwhile noindices at the criterion level of three-wastes emission and airquality are ranked in the top 10 Overall the constraint gradeof either the damage caused by ldquothree-wastesrdquo emissions orthe maintenance sustained by green space resources to theecological environment or the status of air quality becauseof destruction and maintenance is within the controllablerange for industrial ecosystem development In the futureindustrial development process priority must be given tostrengthening the protection of existing green space re-sources and strictly controlling over excessive land devel-opment (3) Constraint grade of the response subsystemeconstraint grade of the response subsystem to developmentof industrial ecology is 3434 Among them at the criterionlevel the constraint grade of governance facility is 103while that of governance ability is 241 suggesting that thecriterion level of governance ability is the main constraintfactor in the response subsystem In this subsystem thoseindices ranking in the top 10 include industrial sulfur di-oxide removal (R21) with a constraint grade of 654 outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) with a constraint grade of 638 and comprehensiveutilization of industrial solid waste (R23) with a constraintgrade of 572 is indicates that cities in LiaoningProvince generally have problems in the pollution treatmentat the end of industrial production process such as insuf-ficient investment in treatment weak treatment capabilityand low comprehensive utilization rate of wastes

As shown in Table 3 from a perspective of main con-straint factors longitudinally during the 19 years from 2000to 2018 the main constraint factors in the process of in-dustrial ecology development in cities of Liaoning Provincewere industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)gross fixed asset investment (P17) gross industrial outputvalue (P16) comprehensive utilization of industrial solidwaste (R23) regional GDP (P11) inhalable particulate matter

(PM10) (S32) industrial electricity consumption (P21)number of days with air quality reaching or better than ClassII (S31) number of industrial enterprises (P15) gross in-dustrial wastewater discharge (S11) etc However theranking of these major constraint factors changed signifi-cantly with time Among them the ranking of industrialsulfur dioxide removal (R21) and gross fixed asset investment(P17) gradually decreased while the ranking of the outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products(R24) fluctuated but all these three always ranked in the topthree In recent years these cities in Liaoning Province haveactively responded to the central governmentrsquos call forsuccessively adopting a series of measures to control airpollution and the emission of sulfur dioxide in factorieswhich has achieved positive outcomes e comprehensiveutilization of ldquothree-wastesrdquo influences recycling resourcesand easing environmental pressure but the current ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization production is associatedwith issues such as high capital investment difficult pro-cessing and low product quality which greatly constrainsthe industrial ecosystem development e highly temporalconsistency of the main constraint factors of different citiesindicates that the differences among the cities wereinsignificant

From Table 4 due to a significant difference in regionaleconomies among the cities the main constraint factors forthe development of the industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different However the main constraint factorsin Fushun Fuxin and Huludao were similar mainly in-cluding regional GDP (P11) number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross industrial output value (P16)gross fixed asset investment (P17) etc e top 5 indices forthe three cities were all the pressure subsystem ie thepressure subsystem became the main constraint factorMoreover for these three cities there were no strong in-dustrial foundations the urban construction was backwardprofessional elites and talents had moved out to provideworkforce for other cities the economy lacked vitality and

Table 4 Main constraint factors of industrial ecosystem development of 14 cities in Liaoning Province in 2018

Area1 2 3 4 5

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Barrierfactor

Barrierlevel

Shenyang R24 01059 R21 00982 S32 00957 R23 00850 P21 00791Dalian P21 01049 R23 00994 R24 00943 P22 00867 S11 00814Anshan R21 00691 R24 00670 P22 00638 P17 00543 P21 00533Fushun P17 00747 P13 00691 P11 00684 P15 00680 P16 00677Benxi R24 00711 P17 00671 P15 00651 R21 00646 P13 00624Dandong R24 00751 R21 00748 P16 00718 P17 00710 P13 00695Jinzhou R21 00688 P17 00678 S22 00659 R24 00656 P13 00651Yingkou P13 00657 P17 00651 R21 00647 S21 00604 P16 00597Fuxin P17 00742 P16 00723 P12 00701 P11 00700 P13 00681Liaoyang P17 00741 P13 00722 P15 00686 R24 00684 R21 00679Panjin R21 00753 R24 00715 R23 00658 P15 00657 P17 00640Tieling R21 00742 P17 00741 P13 00728 P12 00721 S21 00721Zhaoyang R21 00730 R24 00711 P17 00704 S21 00694 P16 00684Huludao P17 00815 P16 00785 P15 00776 P12 00759 P11 00757Note Only the top five constraint factors are listed in the table

Complexity 11

the urban comprehensive competitiveness was at the bottomof Liaoning Province Shenyang and Dalian had similarmain constraint factors mainly including industrial elec-tricity consumption (P21) comprehensive utilization ofindustrial solid waste (R23) and output value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24) etc eresponse subsystem was the main constraint factor On theone hand the two cities have strong industrial foundationsand superior geographical locations and have the mostdeveloped industrial economies in the province Howeveron the other hand the ecological environment was not paidenough attention to and investment in environmentalmanagement was not enough in these two cities whichcaused greater constraints to governance capacity than toindustrial ecology e main constraint factors in AnshanBenxi Dandong Jinzhou Liaoyang and Chaoyang citieswere similar mainly including number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17)industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)etc e six cities were at a medium development level inthe province in terms of either urbanization or competi-tiveness of the industrial economy In recent years due tothe policy advantage and the pull effect from economicdevelopment of Shenyang and Dalian the economy de-veloped rapidly in the six cities However without acontinuous improvement of necessary supporting systemssuch as employment market and urban construction thegovernance capacity was limited At present the six citiesshould mainly strengthen talent introduction and urbaninfrastructure construction and investment and simulta-neously emphasize both economic development and en-vironmental governance to overcome constraints toindustrial ecology development e main constraint fac-tors for Yingkou and Tieling cities were similar mainlyincluding number of employees in the secondary sector(P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17) green coverage ofthe built-up area (S21) and industrial sulfur dioxide re-moval (R21) Benefiting from the strategic layout of theEastern Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone Yingkou Cityhad enjoyed preferential policies and achieved a rapideconomic development However there was still a shortagein quality workforce and urban construction investmentMoreover the green coverage of the built-up area and thegovernance capacity of Yingkou were insufficient eseissues constrained the economic development in YingkouCity Tieling a remotely located city had neither a strongindustrial foundation nor a large-scale trade exchange Inaddition the labor force was insufficient us its indus-trial economy ecological environment and governancecapacity were all in an embarrassing situation Regardingspatial scale the main constraint factors affecting the in-ternal industrial ecosystemrsquos development in 14 cities ofLiaoning Province were the pressure and response sub-systems while the state subsystem had little impact Al-though all the cities had made a great progress in activelyresponding to the central governmentrsquos call for controllingenvironmental pollution it is yet to take urgent actions inenergizing industrial economic development motivation

and improving environmental governance capabilities forall cities

4 Discussion and Conclusions

41 Discussion e industrial ecosystem consists of bothvarious elements that have an important impact on thedevelopment of an industry and multiple interactions ofthese elements It is an organic system composed of variousparticipants along the industrial chain the supportingfactors of industrial development and the external envi-ronment which the survival and development of an industryrely on Establishment of a mature industrial ecosystemenables symbiosis mutualism and regeneration of industrialelements to maximize the economic and social values[47 48] Industrial development is the result of collectiveeffects of entire industrial ecosystem [46] Competitionamong regional economies is a competition for industrialecologyose regions who can firstly establish the completeindustrial ecosystem will take an advantage in economicdevelopment Currently formation of industrial ecologyexhibits two major characteristics first enterprises in thesame industry or industry cluster gather in a geographicalregion to form an industrial agglomeration second localleading enterprises with unique products and competitive-ness expand its development based on its business modelSuch expansion drives the growth of individual ecologicalelements in surrounding areas and forms a business eco-system A fundamental reason why Chinarsquos super centralcities ie Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou and Shenzhen canmaintain high growth is the establishment of a good in-dustrial ecology In these cities the competition has changedfrom ldquoindustryrdquo to ldquoindustrial ecologyrdquo Moreover the trendof specialization and verticalization of industrial ecology isbecoming more and more obvious To manifest this trendeconomic growth points are continuously emerging majorbreakthroughs are continuously made in emerging indus-tries and technological innovation innovative and emergingindustries are incubated and nurtured and a group ofunicorn enterprises are born as industry leaders that race tocontrol the commanding heights of economy in China oreven in the globe In contrast in many third- and fourth-tiercities economic growth is slow It is partly because of yet-to-improve industrial ecology that lacks attractiveness to re-sources such as talents capital and technology lacks in-novative environment and thus results in the loss ofendogenous economic growth e premise of constructinga sound industrial ecology is to clearly define the industrialpositioning realize the industrial agglomeration and or-ganically integrate industrial elements to catalyze theirldquoecological chemical reactionrdquo With popularized applica-tion of big data cloud computing Internet of ings andintelligent hardware the industrial ecology is being digitallyempowered and flattened managed industrial elements areclosely interconnected and collaborated in an efficient andintelligent way and finally the industrial value chain is beingreshaped Despite this it is still necessary to take measuresfrom multiple dimensions to increase support for industrialecology For example we should improve the construction

12 Complexity

of innovative ecosystems [49] strengthen the support forecological elements such as land [50] and take considerationof responses to climate change [51 52] We must break theinformation barriers among research institutions univer-sities government departments business organizations andfinancial institutions optimize the business environmentstrengthen policy guidance and actively promote the inte-gration of industry-education-research and the transfor-mation of research outcomes thus to form a market-oriented and enterprise-based innovation system In addi-tion it is a wise choice to introduce third-parties to gatherindustrial talents and resources where a platform-type in-dustrial organization is particularly important for theconstruction of regional industrial ecology rough such aplatform it is possible to establish connection with variousresources including talents scientific research capital andmarket and further to establish a network with upstreamand downstream enterprises is would greatly reduce thedifficulties in attracting investment and energize the dy-namics of industrial elements

Liaoning Province as a representative and typicalprovince of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina has been accelerating the transformation and opti-mization of traditional industries since the implementationof the Revitalization Strategy Economic development inLiaoning has shifted from high-speed growth to high-qualitydevelopment While major equipment design andmanufacturing industry is leading the country a regionalinnovation system is gradually taking shape However dueto a long-term influence of the extensive economic growthmodel the traditional industry development model and theconservative management system and mechanism the in-dustrial development pattern has not yet fundamentallychanged which is still mainly based on traditional industriessuch as equipment manufacturing coal mining and pe-troleum smelting Meanwhile there still exist many prob-lems in urban industrial ecology in Liaoning ProvinceFirstly there is a lack of a top-level design of industrialecosystem planning Governments and enterprises at alllevels overemphasize industrial development but fail toorganically integrate industry into industrial ecosystemdevelopment which results in a sole industrial system lackof connection between industrial categories slow develop-ment of industrial ecology and convergence of industrialstructure Consequently the complementary effect of re-gional advantages is not effectively exerted and the regionalcompetitiveness is compromised Secondly there is not astrong capability in independent innovation of industrialecosystems Till now Liaoning still heavily depends ontraditional industrial paths without enough nurture ofemerging pillar industries featuring a low level of industrialstructure and an overweighed secondary sector Meanwhilethere is a lack of effective dynamic circulation system high-tech industries and modern service industries are propor-tionally low the industry of deep processing of raw materialis less developed and the independent innovation ability isweak irdly there is no feedback mechanism for thepractice of industrial ecosystems In the process of industrialdevelopment most traditional industries are still

characterized by the unidirectional consumption of energyresources and the degradation of ecological environmentalservice functionsere is a lack of standards andmethods tosystematically assess economic-environmental dynamicsWithout having established a feedback mechanism to reg-ulate a healthy development of industrial ecosystems it isimpossible to effectively integrate resources for building amodern economic system

Constructing industrial ecosystems is a new strategicmeasure to promote a comprehensive revitalization of theNortheast Region It can effectively address deep-seatedissues in industrial development of the traditional industrialarea in Liaoning overcome constraints of traditional in-dustrial development systems and mechanisms change theindustrial development approach in multiple dimensionssuch as management mechanism operation mode pro-duction method and business environment and realize aneconomic-environmental coupling and sustainable devel-opment It is also an important pathway leading to an ef-fective transformation of economic development inLiaoning In this regard Liaoning Province should pay moreattention to the industrial ecosystem construction and take itas a focus to promote the industrial development in a greencircular and quality way Some recommendations andsuggestions are as follows firstly deepen the reform ofsystems and mechanisms to create a good business envi-ronment for industrial ecosystem construction It is nec-essary to properly handle the government-marketrelationship focusing on addressing such issues as gov-ernmentrsquos direct intervention in resource allocation over-management and the misalignment offside absence andinadequacy of governmental functions and further promotesimplified administration decentralization and optimiza-tion of services Continue to deepen the reform of admin-istrative approval systems commercial systems andinvestment and financing systems Perform governmentfunctions according to law to accelerate the establishmentand improvement of the management model based on thepower lists the responsibility lists and the negative listsImprove the legitimate decision-making mechanism andstrengthen the restriction and supervision of power Sec-ondly unleash the potential in regional collaborative in-novation to build technological innovation capabilities forindustrial ecosystem construction Formulate and imple-ment a system that encourages technological innovation andintellectual property protection improve the innovation andentrepreneurship service model and provide full-chainvalue-added services for innovation and entrepreneurshipactivities to stimulate the independent innovation capabil-ities in the traditional industrial area in Liaoning irdlystrengthen the top-level design of regional collaborativedevelopment to broaden development space for industrialecosystem construction Aim to construct industrial eco-systems integrate the spatial distribution of industrial de-velopment in the province and plan the industrial ecosystemconstruction based on regional macro-policies to establish aregional macro ecosystem integrating industry agricultureservices and high-technology Fourthly innovate and en-hance the supply capacity of ecological products to provide a

Complexity 13

material foundation for industrial ecosystem constructionDeploy in advance the development strategy for alternativeclean and green industries make full use of unique eco-logical resources combine with rural revitalization strate-gies energize new dynamics of rural resource developmentto transform superior ecological resources into high-qualityecological product supply and ecological services and realizeecological industrialization Fifthly engage a multi-partyparticipation mechanism to provide scientific support forindustrial ecosystem construction Promote the knowledgeand cognition of the industrial ecosystem to make enter-prises aware of the importance and advantages of industrialecosystem construction through education amp trainingmedia promotion and the Internet Strengthen scientificsupport by organizing an expert team to research industrialecosystems of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningwhich is an interdisciplinary team engaging multiplestakeholders including governments enterprises researchinstitutions and universities to provide multi-dimensionalsupport for industrial ecosystem construction of the tradi-tional industrial area in Liaoning from policy recommen-dation to top-level design and then to the application ofindustrial ecological technology

42 Conclusions is paper took 14 cities in LiaoningProvince as examples of urban industrial ecosystems oftraditional industrial area in Northeastern China to calculatethe development level of its industrial ecosystem during2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and toconduct a spatial visualization analysis which provides newperspectives and methods for analyzing and interpreting thecomplexity of urban industrial ecosystems e results showthe following (1) from 2000 to 2018 the 14 cities in LiaoningProvince had a moderate level of industrial ecology Exceptfor Shenyang and Dalian with rapid development the dif-ference in the development level of industrial ecosystemsamong other cities was small (2) From 2000 to 2018 thedevelopment level of industrial ecosystems in cities firstincreased and then decreased with some fluctuation edevelopment level of the industrial ecology in these citiesgenerally showed an upward-then-downward trend Re-garding spatial differentiation a high-level industrial eco-logical zone formed with Shenyang and Dalian as the centere ldquodual-corerdquo feature was significant and continuouslystrengthened As a result the whole region exhibited aldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern (3) At the system level of PSRthe constraint grades to the industrial ecosystemrsquos devel-opment level in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province weredifferent e constraint grades of the pressure state andresponse subsystems to the provincersquos industrial ecosystemwere 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicatingthat the main constraint factors affecting the process ofurban industrial ecology in Liaoning Province were both thelack of human response to the ecological environment andthe pressure of human activities on the ecological envi-ronment during the industrial economic development (4)Due to the large differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and development

circumstances among different cities the main constraintfactors to development of industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different but overall regional GDP number ofemployees in the secondary sector gross fixed asset in-vestment industrial sulfur dioxide removal and outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization productwere the main five factors With popularized application ofbig data cloud computing Internet of ings and intelli-gent hardware the main direction of further research in thefuture may point to reshaping the industrial value chainimproving and innovating the ecosystem construction andintroducing third-party forces to gather industrial talentsand resources for creating an industrial symbiosis networkon a city scale However to fully and scientifically under-stand the complexity of the urban industrial ecosystem it isnecessary not only to study at the element level but also tosystematically recognize the complexity of the networkstructure establish a structural model to analyze its evo-lutionary dynamics and then guide the formulation of in-dustrial policy for the development of regional industrialecology which will be the main research direction in thefuture

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of China(41701142 and 41971166) Fundamental Research Funds forthe Central Universities (2020jbkyjc002) Project of GansuProvince Economic and Social Development Serving ofLanzhou University (2019-FWZX-04) and Open Project ofInstitute of County Economy Developments amp Rural Re-vitalization Strategy Lanzhou University (xyjj2019002)

References

[1] T E Graedel and B R Allenby Industrial Ecology PrenticeHall Englewood Cliffs NJ USA 1995

[2] B R Allenby and W E Cooper ldquoUnderstanding industrialecology from a biological systems perspectiverdquo Environ-mental Quality Management vol 3 no 3 pp 343ndash354 1994

[3] S Charmondusit K Bhaktikul C ArunlertareeWWisawapipatC Rattanapan and K Charmondusit ldquoProblem based trainingprogram on industrial ecology and environment for thesustainability management of industryrdquo ProcediamdashSocial andBehavioral Sciences vol 40 pp 31ndash36 2012

[4] R A Frosch and N E Gallopoulos ldquoStrategies formanufacturingrdquo Scientific American vol 261 no 3pp 144ndash152 1989

[5] Y Huang C Lu X Xiao et al ldquoEvolution and reconstructionof industrial ecosystems of mining cities in the traditionalindustrial area of Northeastern China a case study of

14 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

the urban comprehensive competitiveness was at the bottomof Liaoning Province Shenyang and Dalian had similarmain constraint factors mainly including industrial elec-tricity consumption (P21) comprehensive utilization ofindustrial solid waste (R23) and output value of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24) etc eresponse subsystem was the main constraint factor On theone hand the two cities have strong industrial foundationsand superior geographical locations and have the mostdeveloped industrial economies in the province Howeveron the other hand the ecological environment was not paidenough attention to and investment in environmentalmanagement was not enough in these two cities whichcaused greater constraints to governance capacity than toindustrial ecology e main constraint factors in AnshanBenxi Dandong Jinzhou Liaoyang and Chaoyang citieswere similar mainly including number of employees in thesecondary sector (P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17)industrial sulfur dioxide removal (R21) output value ofldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization products (R24)etc e six cities were at a medium development level inthe province in terms of either urbanization or competi-tiveness of the industrial economy In recent years due tothe policy advantage and the pull effect from economicdevelopment of Shenyang and Dalian the economy de-veloped rapidly in the six cities However without acontinuous improvement of necessary supporting systemssuch as employment market and urban construction thegovernance capacity was limited At present the six citiesshould mainly strengthen talent introduction and urbaninfrastructure construction and investment and simulta-neously emphasize both economic development and en-vironmental governance to overcome constraints toindustrial ecology development e main constraint fac-tors for Yingkou and Tieling cities were similar mainlyincluding number of employees in the secondary sector(P13) gross fixed asset investment (P17) green coverage ofthe built-up area (S21) and industrial sulfur dioxide re-moval (R21) Benefiting from the strategic layout of theEastern Liaoning Coastal Economic Zone Yingkou Cityhad enjoyed preferential policies and achieved a rapideconomic development However there was still a shortagein quality workforce and urban construction investmentMoreover the green coverage of the built-up area and thegovernance capacity of Yingkou were insufficient eseissues constrained the economic development in YingkouCity Tieling a remotely located city had neither a strongindustrial foundation nor a large-scale trade exchange Inaddition the labor force was insufficient us its indus-trial economy ecological environment and governancecapacity were all in an embarrassing situation Regardingspatial scale the main constraint factors affecting the in-ternal industrial ecosystemrsquos development in 14 cities ofLiaoning Province were the pressure and response sub-systems while the state subsystem had little impact Al-though all the cities had made a great progress in activelyresponding to the central governmentrsquos call for controllingenvironmental pollution it is yet to take urgent actions inenergizing industrial economic development motivation

and improving environmental governance capabilities forall cities

4 Discussion and Conclusions

41 Discussion e industrial ecosystem consists of bothvarious elements that have an important impact on thedevelopment of an industry and multiple interactions ofthese elements It is an organic system composed of variousparticipants along the industrial chain the supportingfactors of industrial development and the external envi-ronment which the survival and development of an industryrely on Establishment of a mature industrial ecosystemenables symbiosis mutualism and regeneration of industrialelements to maximize the economic and social values[47 48] Industrial development is the result of collectiveeffects of entire industrial ecosystem [46] Competitionamong regional economies is a competition for industrialecologyose regions who can firstly establish the completeindustrial ecosystem will take an advantage in economicdevelopment Currently formation of industrial ecologyexhibits two major characteristics first enterprises in thesame industry or industry cluster gather in a geographicalregion to form an industrial agglomeration second localleading enterprises with unique products and competitive-ness expand its development based on its business modelSuch expansion drives the growth of individual ecologicalelements in surrounding areas and forms a business eco-system A fundamental reason why Chinarsquos super centralcities ie Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou and Shenzhen canmaintain high growth is the establishment of a good in-dustrial ecology In these cities the competition has changedfrom ldquoindustryrdquo to ldquoindustrial ecologyrdquo Moreover the trendof specialization and verticalization of industrial ecology isbecoming more and more obvious To manifest this trendeconomic growth points are continuously emerging majorbreakthroughs are continuously made in emerging indus-tries and technological innovation innovative and emergingindustries are incubated and nurtured and a group ofunicorn enterprises are born as industry leaders that race tocontrol the commanding heights of economy in China oreven in the globe In contrast in many third- and fourth-tiercities economic growth is slow It is partly because of yet-to-improve industrial ecology that lacks attractiveness to re-sources such as talents capital and technology lacks in-novative environment and thus results in the loss ofendogenous economic growth e premise of constructinga sound industrial ecology is to clearly define the industrialpositioning realize the industrial agglomeration and or-ganically integrate industrial elements to catalyze theirldquoecological chemical reactionrdquo With popularized applica-tion of big data cloud computing Internet of ings andintelligent hardware the industrial ecology is being digitallyempowered and flattened managed industrial elements areclosely interconnected and collaborated in an efficient andintelligent way and finally the industrial value chain is beingreshaped Despite this it is still necessary to take measuresfrom multiple dimensions to increase support for industrialecology For example we should improve the construction

12 Complexity

of innovative ecosystems [49] strengthen the support forecological elements such as land [50] and take considerationof responses to climate change [51 52] We must break theinformation barriers among research institutions univer-sities government departments business organizations andfinancial institutions optimize the business environmentstrengthen policy guidance and actively promote the inte-gration of industry-education-research and the transfor-mation of research outcomes thus to form a market-oriented and enterprise-based innovation system In addi-tion it is a wise choice to introduce third-parties to gatherindustrial talents and resources where a platform-type in-dustrial organization is particularly important for theconstruction of regional industrial ecology rough such aplatform it is possible to establish connection with variousresources including talents scientific research capital andmarket and further to establish a network with upstreamand downstream enterprises is would greatly reduce thedifficulties in attracting investment and energize the dy-namics of industrial elements

Liaoning Province as a representative and typicalprovince of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina has been accelerating the transformation and opti-mization of traditional industries since the implementationof the Revitalization Strategy Economic development inLiaoning has shifted from high-speed growth to high-qualitydevelopment While major equipment design andmanufacturing industry is leading the country a regionalinnovation system is gradually taking shape However dueto a long-term influence of the extensive economic growthmodel the traditional industry development model and theconservative management system and mechanism the in-dustrial development pattern has not yet fundamentallychanged which is still mainly based on traditional industriessuch as equipment manufacturing coal mining and pe-troleum smelting Meanwhile there still exist many prob-lems in urban industrial ecology in Liaoning ProvinceFirstly there is a lack of a top-level design of industrialecosystem planning Governments and enterprises at alllevels overemphasize industrial development but fail toorganically integrate industry into industrial ecosystemdevelopment which results in a sole industrial system lackof connection between industrial categories slow develop-ment of industrial ecology and convergence of industrialstructure Consequently the complementary effect of re-gional advantages is not effectively exerted and the regionalcompetitiveness is compromised Secondly there is not astrong capability in independent innovation of industrialecosystems Till now Liaoning still heavily depends ontraditional industrial paths without enough nurture ofemerging pillar industries featuring a low level of industrialstructure and an overweighed secondary sector Meanwhilethere is a lack of effective dynamic circulation system high-tech industries and modern service industries are propor-tionally low the industry of deep processing of raw materialis less developed and the independent innovation ability isweak irdly there is no feedback mechanism for thepractice of industrial ecosystems In the process of industrialdevelopment most traditional industries are still

characterized by the unidirectional consumption of energyresources and the degradation of ecological environmentalservice functionsere is a lack of standards andmethods tosystematically assess economic-environmental dynamicsWithout having established a feedback mechanism to reg-ulate a healthy development of industrial ecosystems it isimpossible to effectively integrate resources for building amodern economic system

Constructing industrial ecosystems is a new strategicmeasure to promote a comprehensive revitalization of theNortheast Region It can effectively address deep-seatedissues in industrial development of the traditional industrialarea in Liaoning overcome constraints of traditional in-dustrial development systems and mechanisms change theindustrial development approach in multiple dimensionssuch as management mechanism operation mode pro-duction method and business environment and realize aneconomic-environmental coupling and sustainable devel-opment It is also an important pathway leading to an ef-fective transformation of economic development inLiaoning In this regard Liaoning Province should pay moreattention to the industrial ecosystem construction and take itas a focus to promote the industrial development in a greencircular and quality way Some recommendations andsuggestions are as follows firstly deepen the reform ofsystems and mechanisms to create a good business envi-ronment for industrial ecosystem construction It is nec-essary to properly handle the government-marketrelationship focusing on addressing such issues as gov-ernmentrsquos direct intervention in resource allocation over-management and the misalignment offside absence andinadequacy of governmental functions and further promotesimplified administration decentralization and optimiza-tion of services Continue to deepen the reform of admin-istrative approval systems commercial systems andinvestment and financing systems Perform governmentfunctions according to law to accelerate the establishmentand improvement of the management model based on thepower lists the responsibility lists and the negative listsImprove the legitimate decision-making mechanism andstrengthen the restriction and supervision of power Sec-ondly unleash the potential in regional collaborative in-novation to build technological innovation capabilities forindustrial ecosystem construction Formulate and imple-ment a system that encourages technological innovation andintellectual property protection improve the innovation andentrepreneurship service model and provide full-chainvalue-added services for innovation and entrepreneurshipactivities to stimulate the independent innovation capabil-ities in the traditional industrial area in Liaoning irdlystrengthen the top-level design of regional collaborativedevelopment to broaden development space for industrialecosystem construction Aim to construct industrial eco-systems integrate the spatial distribution of industrial de-velopment in the province and plan the industrial ecosystemconstruction based on regional macro-policies to establish aregional macro ecosystem integrating industry agricultureservices and high-technology Fourthly innovate and en-hance the supply capacity of ecological products to provide a

Complexity 13

material foundation for industrial ecosystem constructionDeploy in advance the development strategy for alternativeclean and green industries make full use of unique eco-logical resources combine with rural revitalization strate-gies energize new dynamics of rural resource developmentto transform superior ecological resources into high-qualityecological product supply and ecological services and realizeecological industrialization Fifthly engage a multi-partyparticipation mechanism to provide scientific support forindustrial ecosystem construction Promote the knowledgeand cognition of the industrial ecosystem to make enter-prises aware of the importance and advantages of industrialecosystem construction through education amp trainingmedia promotion and the Internet Strengthen scientificsupport by organizing an expert team to research industrialecosystems of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningwhich is an interdisciplinary team engaging multiplestakeholders including governments enterprises researchinstitutions and universities to provide multi-dimensionalsupport for industrial ecosystem construction of the tradi-tional industrial area in Liaoning from policy recommen-dation to top-level design and then to the application ofindustrial ecological technology

42 Conclusions is paper took 14 cities in LiaoningProvince as examples of urban industrial ecosystems oftraditional industrial area in Northeastern China to calculatethe development level of its industrial ecosystem during2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and toconduct a spatial visualization analysis which provides newperspectives and methods for analyzing and interpreting thecomplexity of urban industrial ecosystems e results showthe following (1) from 2000 to 2018 the 14 cities in LiaoningProvince had a moderate level of industrial ecology Exceptfor Shenyang and Dalian with rapid development the dif-ference in the development level of industrial ecosystemsamong other cities was small (2) From 2000 to 2018 thedevelopment level of industrial ecosystems in cities firstincreased and then decreased with some fluctuation edevelopment level of the industrial ecology in these citiesgenerally showed an upward-then-downward trend Re-garding spatial differentiation a high-level industrial eco-logical zone formed with Shenyang and Dalian as the centere ldquodual-corerdquo feature was significant and continuouslystrengthened As a result the whole region exhibited aldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern (3) At the system level of PSRthe constraint grades to the industrial ecosystemrsquos devel-opment level in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province weredifferent e constraint grades of the pressure state andresponse subsystems to the provincersquos industrial ecosystemwere 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicatingthat the main constraint factors affecting the process ofurban industrial ecology in Liaoning Province were both thelack of human response to the ecological environment andthe pressure of human activities on the ecological envi-ronment during the industrial economic development (4)Due to the large differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and development

circumstances among different cities the main constraintfactors to development of industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different but overall regional GDP number ofemployees in the secondary sector gross fixed asset in-vestment industrial sulfur dioxide removal and outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization productwere the main five factors With popularized application ofbig data cloud computing Internet of ings and intelli-gent hardware the main direction of further research in thefuture may point to reshaping the industrial value chainimproving and innovating the ecosystem construction andintroducing third-party forces to gather industrial talentsand resources for creating an industrial symbiosis networkon a city scale However to fully and scientifically under-stand the complexity of the urban industrial ecosystem it isnecessary not only to study at the element level but also tosystematically recognize the complexity of the networkstructure establish a structural model to analyze its evo-lutionary dynamics and then guide the formulation of in-dustrial policy for the development of regional industrialecology which will be the main research direction in thefuture

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of China(41701142 and 41971166) Fundamental Research Funds forthe Central Universities (2020jbkyjc002) Project of GansuProvince Economic and Social Development Serving ofLanzhou University (2019-FWZX-04) and Open Project ofInstitute of County Economy Developments amp Rural Re-vitalization Strategy Lanzhou University (xyjj2019002)

References

[1] T E Graedel and B R Allenby Industrial Ecology PrenticeHall Englewood Cliffs NJ USA 1995

[2] B R Allenby and W E Cooper ldquoUnderstanding industrialecology from a biological systems perspectiverdquo Environ-mental Quality Management vol 3 no 3 pp 343ndash354 1994

[3] S Charmondusit K Bhaktikul C ArunlertareeWWisawapipatC Rattanapan and K Charmondusit ldquoProblem based trainingprogram on industrial ecology and environment for thesustainability management of industryrdquo ProcediamdashSocial andBehavioral Sciences vol 40 pp 31ndash36 2012

[4] R A Frosch and N E Gallopoulos ldquoStrategies formanufacturingrdquo Scientific American vol 261 no 3pp 144ndash152 1989

[5] Y Huang C Lu X Xiao et al ldquoEvolution and reconstructionof industrial ecosystems of mining cities in the traditionalindustrial area of Northeastern China a case study of

14 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

of innovative ecosystems [49] strengthen the support forecological elements such as land [50] and take considerationof responses to climate change [51 52] We must break theinformation barriers among research institutions univer-sities government departments business organizations andfinancial institutions optimize the business environmentstrengthen policy guidance and actively promote the inte-gration of industry-education-research and the transfor-mation of research outcomes thus to form a market-oriented and enterprise-based innovation system In addi-tion it is a wise choice to introduce third-parties to gatherindustrial talents and resources where a platform-type in-dustrial organization is particularly important for theconstruction of regional industrial ecology rough such aplatform it is possible to establish connection with variousresources including talents scientific research capital andmarket and further to establish a network with upstreamand downstream enterprises is would greatly reduce thedifficulties in attracting investment and energize the dy-namics of industrial elements

Liaoning Province as a representative and typicalprovince of the traditional industrial area in NortheastChina has been accelerating the transformation and opti-mization of traditional industries since the implementationof the Revitalization Strategy Economic development inLiaoning has shifted from high-speed growth to high-qualitydevelopment While major equipment design andmanufacturing industry is leading the country a regionalinnovation system is gradually taking shape However dueto a long-term influence of the extensive economic growthmodel the traditional industry development model and theconservative management system and mechanism the in-dustrial development pattern has not yet fundamentallychanged which is still mainly based on traditional industriessuch as equipment manufacturing coal mining and pe-troleum smelting Meanwhile there still exist many prob-lems in urban industrial ecology in Liaoning ProvinceFirstly there is a lack of a top-level design of industrialecosystem planning Governments and enterprises at alllevels overemphasize industrial development but fail toorganically integrate industry into industrial ecosystemdevelopment which results in a sole industrial system lackof connection between industrial categories slow develop-ment of industrial ecology and convergence of industrialstructure Consequently the complementary effect of re-gional advantages is not effectively exerted and the regionalcompetitiveness is compromised Secondly there is not astrong capability in independent innovation of industrialecosystems Till now Liaoning still heavily depends ontraditional industrial paths without enough nurture ofemerging pillar industries featuring a low level of industrialstructure and an overweighed secondary sector Meanwhilethere is a lack of effective dynamic circulation system high-tech industries and modern service industries are propor-tionally low the industry of deep processing of raw materialis less developed and the independent innovation ability isweak irdly there is no feedback mechanism for thepractice of industrial ecosystems In the process of industrialdevelopment most traditional industries are still

characterized by the unidirectional consumption of energyresources and the degradation of ecological environmentalservice functionsere is a lack of standards andmethods tosystematically assess economic-environmental dynamicsWithout having established a feedback mechanism to reg-ulate a healthy development of industrial ecosystems it isimpossible to effectively integrate resources for building amodern economic system

Constructing industrial ecosystems is a new strategicmeasure to promote a comprehensive revitalization of theNortheast Region It can effectively address deep-seatedissues in industrial development of the traditional industrialarea in Liaoning overcome constraints of traditional in-dustrial development systems and mechanisms change theindustrial development approach in multiple dimensionssuch as management mechanism operation mode pro-duction method and business environment and realize aneconomic-environmental coupling and sustainable devel-opment It is also an important pathway leading to an ef-fective transformation of economic development inLiaoning In this regard Liaoning Province should pay moreattention to the industrial ecosystem construction and take itas a focus to promote the industrial development in a greencircular and quality way Some recommendations andsuggestions are as follows firstly deepen the reform ofsystems and mechanisms to create a good business envi-ronment for industrial ecosystem construction It is nec-essary to properly handle the government-marketrelationship focusing on addressing such issues as gov-ernmentrsquos direct intervention in resource allocation over-management and the misalignment offside absence andinadequacy of governmental functions and further promotesimplified administration decentralization and optimiza-tion of services Continue to deepen the reform of admin-istrative approval systems commercial systems andinvestment and financing systems Perform governmentfunctions according to law to accelerate the establishmentand improvement of the management model based on thepower lists the responsibility lists and the negative listsImprove the legitimate decision-making mechanism andstrengthen the restriction and supervision of power Sec-ondly unleash the potential in regional collaborative in-novation to build technological innovation capabilities forindustrial ecosystem construction Formulate and imple-ment a system that encourages technological innovation andintellectual property protection improve the innovation andentrepreneurship service model and provide full-chainvalue-added services for innovation and entrepreneurshipactivities to stimulate the independent innovation capabil-ities in the traditional industrial area in Liaoning irdlystrengthen the top-level design of regional collaborativedevelopment to broaden development space for industrialecosystem construction Aim to construct industrial eco-systems integrate the spatial distribution of industrial de-velopment in the province and plan the industrial ecosystemconstruction based on regional macro-policies to establish aregional macro ecosystem integrating industry agricultureservices and high-technology Fourthly innovate and en-hance the supply capacity of ecological products to provide a

Complexity 13

material foundation for industrial ecosystem constructionDeploy in advance the development strategy for alternativeclean and green industries make full use of unique eco-logical resources combine with rural revitalization strate-gies energize new dynamics of rural resource developmentto transform superior ecological resources into high-qualityecological product supply and ecological services and realizeecological industrialization Fifthly engage a multi-partyparticipation mechanism to provide scientific support forindustrial ecosystem construction Promote the knowledgeand cognition of the industrial ecosystem to make enter-prises aware of the importance and advantages of industrialecosystem construction through education amp trainingmedia promotion and the Internet Strengthen scientificsupport by organizing an expert team to research industrialecosystems of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningwhich is an interdisciplinary team engaging multiplestakeholders including governments enterprises researchinstitutions and universities to provide multi-dimensionalsupport for industrial ecosystem construction of the tradi-tional industrial area in Liaoning from policy recommen-dation to top-level design and then to the application ofindustrial ecological technology

42 Conclusions is paper took 14 cities in LiaoningProvince as examples of urban industrial ecosystems oftraditional industrial area in Northeastern China to calculatethe development level of its industrial ecosystem during2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and toconduct a spatial visualization analysis which provides newperspectives and methods for analyzing and interpreting thecomplexity of urban industrial ecosystems e results showthe following (1) from 2000 to 2018 the 14 cities in LiaoningProvince had a moderate level of industrial ecology Exceptfor Shenyang and Dalian with rapid development the dif-ference in the development level of industrial ecosystemsamong other cities was small (2) From 2000 to 2018 thedevelopment level of industrial ecosystems in cities firstincreased and then decreased with some fluctuation edevelopment level of the industrial ecology in these citiesgenerally showed an upward-then-downward trend Re-garding spatial differentiation a high-level industrial eco-logical zone formed with Shenyang and Dalian as the centere ldquodual-corerdquo feature was significant and continuouslystrengthened As a result the whole region exhibited aldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern (3) At the system level of PSRthe constraint grades to the industrial ecosystemrsquos devel-opment level in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province weredifferent e constraint grades of the pressure state andresponse subsystems to the provincersquos industrial ecosystemwere 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicatingthat the main constraint factors affecting the process ofurban industrial ecology in Liaoning Province were both thelack of human response to the ecological environment andthe pressure of human activities on the ecological envi-ronment during the industrial economic development (4)Due to the large differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and development

circumstances among different cities the main constraintfactors to development of industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different but overall regional GDP number ofemployees in the secondary sector gross fixed asset in-vestment industrial sulfur dioxide removal and outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization productwere the main five factors With popularized application ofbig data cloud computing Internet of ings and intelli-gent hardware the main direction of further research in thefuture may point to reshaping the industrial value chainimproving and innovating the ecosystem construction andintroducing third-party forces to gather industrial talentsand resources for creating an industrial symbiosis networkon a city scale However to fully and scientifically under-stand the complexity of the urban industrial ecosystem it isnecessary not only to study at the element level but also tosystematically recognize the complexity of the networkstructure establish a structural model to analyze its evo-lutionary dynamics and then guide the formulation of in-dustrial policy for the development of regional industrialecology which will be the main research direction in thefuture

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of China(41701142 and 41971166) Fundamental Research Funds forthe Central Universities (2020jbkyjc002) Project of GansuProvince Economic and Social Development Serving ofLanzhou University (2019-FWZX-04) and Open Project ofInstitute of County Economy Developments amp Rural Re-vitalization Strategy Lanzhou University (xyjj2019002)

References

[1] T E Graedel and B R Allenby Industrial Ecology PrenticeHall Englewood Cliffs NJ USA 1995

[2] B R Allenby and W E Cooper ldquoUnderstanding industrialecology from a biological systems perspectiverdquo Environ-mental Quality Management vol 3 no 3 pp 343ndash354 1994

[3] S Charmondusit K Bhaktikul C ArunlertareeWWisawapipatC Rattanapan and K Charmondusit ldquoProblem based trainingprogram on industrial ecology and environment for thesustainability management of industryrdquo ProcediamdashSocial andBehavioral Sciences vol 40 pp 31ndash36 2012

[4] R A Frosch and N E Gallopoulos ldquoStrategies formanufacturingrdquo Scientific American vol 261 no 3pp 144ndash152 1989

[5] Y Huang C Lu X Xiao et al ldquoEvolution and reconstructionof industrial ecosystems of mining cities in the traditionalindustrial area of Northeastern China a case study of

14 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

material foundation for industrial ecosystem constructionDeploy in advance the development strategy for alternativeclean and green industries make full use of unique eco-logical resources combine with rural revitalization strate-gies energize new dynamics of rural resource developmentto transform superior ecological resources into high-qualityecological product supply and ecological services and realizeecological industrialization Fifthly engage a multi-partyparticipation mechanism to provide scientific support forindustrial ecosystem construction Promote the knowledgeand cognition of the industrial ecosystem to make enter-prises aware of the importance and advantages of industrialecosystem construction through education amp trainingmedia promotion and the Internet Strengthen scientificsupport by organizing an expert team to research industrialecosystems of the traditional industrial area in Liaoningwhich is an interdisciplinary team engaging multiplestakeholders including governments enterprises researchinstitutions and universities to provide multi-dimensionalsupport for industrial ecosystem construction of the tradi-tional industrial area in Liaoning from policy recommen-dation to top-level design and then to the application ofindustrial ecological technology

42 Conclusions is paper took 14 cities in LiaoningProvince as examples of urban industrial ecosystems oftraditional industrial area in Northeastern China to calculatethe development level of its industrial ecosystem during2000ndash2018 using an improved Topsis method and toconduct a spatial visualization analysis which provides newperspectives and methods for analyzing and interpreting thecomplexity of urban industrial ecosystems e results showthe following (1) from 2000 to 2018 the 14 cities in LiaoningProvince had a moderate level of industrial ecology Exceptfor Shenyang and Dalian with rapid development the dif-ference in the development level of industrial ecosystemsamong other cities was small (2) From 2000 to 2018 thedevelopment level of industrial ecosystems in cities firstincreased and then decreased with some fluctuation edevelopment level of the industrial ecology in these citiesgenerally showed an upward-then-downward trend Re-garding spatial differentiation a high-level industrial eco-logical zone formed with Shenyang and Dalian as the centere ldquodual-corerdquo feature was significant and continuouslystrengthened As a result the whole region exhibited aldquocenter-peripheryrdquo pattern (3) At the system level of PSRthe constraint grades to the industrial ecosystemrsquos devel-opment level in the 14 cities of Liaoning Province weredifferent e constraint grades of the pressure state andresponse subsystems to the provincersquos industrial ecosystemwere 4573 2001 and 3434 respectively indicatingthat the main constraint factors affecting the process ofurban industrial ecology in Liaoning Province were both thelack of human response to the ecological environment andthe pressure of human activities on the ecological envi-ronment during the industrial economic development (4)Due to the large differences in geographical environmentseconomic bases industrial structures and development

circumstances among different cities the main constraintfactors to development of industrial ecosystems were alsosignificantly different but overall regional GDP number ofemployees in the secondary sector gross fixed asset in-vestment industrial sulfur dioxide removal and outputvalue of ldquothree-wastesrdquo comprehensive utilization productwere the main five factors With popularized application ofbig data cloud computing Internet of ings and intelli-gent hardware the main direction of further research in thefuture may point to reshaping the industrial value chainimproving and innovating the ecosystem construction andintroducing third-party forces to gather industrial talentsand resources for creating an industrial symbiosis networkon a city scale However to fully and scientifically under-stand the complexity of the urban industrial ecosystem it isnecessary not only to study at the element level but also tosystematically recognize the complexity of the networkstructure establish a structural model to analyze its evo-lutionary dynamics and then guide the formulation of in-dustrial policy for the development of regional industrialecology which will be the main research direction in thefuture

Data Availability

e data used to support the findings of this study areavailable from the corresponding author upon request

Conflicts of Interest

e authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

e authors thank the Natural Science Foundation of China(41701142 and 41971166) Fundamental Research Funds forthe Central Universities (2020jbkyjc002) Project of GansuProvince Economic and Social Development Serving ofLanzhou University (2019-FWZX-04) and Open Project ofInstitute of County Economy Developments amp Rural Re-vitalization Strategy Lanzhou University (xyjj2019002)

References

[1] T E Graedel and B R Allenby Industrial Ecology PrenticeHall Englewood Cliffs NJ USA 1995

[2] B R Allenby and W E Cooper ldquoUnderstanding industrialecology from a biological systems perspectiverdquo Environ-mental Quality Management vol 3 no 3 pp 343ndash354 1994

[3] S Charmondusit K Bhaktikul C ArunlertareeWWisawapipatC Rattanapan and K Charmondusit ldquoProblem based trainingprogram on industrial ecology and environment for thesustainability management of industryrdquo ProcediamdashSocial andBehavioral Sciences vol 40 pp 31ndash36 2012

[4] R A Frosch and N E Gallopoulos ldquoStrategies formanufacturingrdquo Scientific American vol 261 no 3pp 144ndash152 1989

[5] Y Huang C Lu X Xiao et al ldquoEvolution and reconstructionof industrial ecosystems of mining cities in the traditionalindustrial area of Northeastern China a case study of

14 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

Dashiqiao in Liaoning Provincerdquo Chinese Journal of Ecologyvol 37 no 10 pp 3146ndash3154 2018

[6] D Wang and Y Gao ldquoCompetitive evolution and coevolu-tionrdquo Chinese Journal of Ecology vol 24 no 10 pp 1182ndash1186 2005

[7] R Zhang and X Qian ldquoResearch on regional industrialecosystem and its ecological propertiesrdquo RampD Managementvol 21 no 1 pp 45ndash50 2009

[8] M Li ldquoComplexity evolutionary analysis of Beijing industrialsystemrdquo China Market vol 52 pp 90ndash101 2016

[9] Y Xiao e Optimization of Spatial Analysis Model inComplex Urban Conditions Dalian University of TechnologyDalian China 2015

[10] L Chen R Wang J Yang and Y Shi ldquoStructural complexityanalysis for industrial ecosystems a case study on LuBeiindustrial ecosystem in Chinardquo Ecological Complexity vol 7no 2 pp 179ndash187 2010

[11] Z Zhou Research on Complex Adaptive Systems for EcologicalIndustries Tsinghua University Beijing China 2005

[12] F Dong Y Wang L Zheng J Li and S Xie ldquoCan industrialagglomeration promote pollution agglomeration Evidencefrom Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 246 ArticleID 118960 2020

[13] P Wu G Guang Z Kong et al ldquoe evolvement and cul-tivation of industrial eco-system based on self-organization ofsystemrdquo Chinese Journal of Nature vol 30 no 6 pp 354ndash3582008

[14] M Fuji T Fujita L Dong et al ldquoPossibility of developinglow-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asiancitiesrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 114 pp 376ndash3862016

[15] Y Zhang W Lu V Wing-Yan Tam and Y Feng ldquoFromurban metabolism to industrial ecosystem metabolism astudy of construction in Shanghai from 2004 to 2014rdquo Journalof Cleaner Production vol 202 pp 428ndash438 2018

[16] L Wang X Dong X Liu and H Yin ldquoA quantitative studyon the coordinative relationship between tourism and de-velopment of eco-civilized city in Dunhuangrdquo EcologicalScience vol 36 no 4 pp 194ndash201 2017

[17] E A Lowe and L K Evans ldquoIndustrial ecology and industrialecosystemsrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 3 no 1-2pp 47ndash53 1995

[18] F Qiu L Tong and M Jiang ldquoAdaptability assessment ofindustrial ecological system of mining cities in NortheastChinardquo Geographical Research vol 30 no 3 pp 243ndash2552011

[19] C Lu Study on System Evolution and Symbiosis Effects ofIndustrial Symbiosis-Case of Jinchang Lanzhou UniversityLanzhou China 2013

[20] H Ruoslahti ldquoComplexity in project co-creation of knowl-edge for innovationrdquo Journal of Innovation amp Knowledgevol 4 2020

[21] J Fan S Hu D Chen and Y Zhou ldquoStudy on the con-struction and optimization of a resource-based industrialecosystemrdquo Resources Conservation and Recycling vol 119pp 97ndash108 2017

[22] J Rosenhead L A Franco K Grint and B Friedl ldquoCom-plexity theory and leadership practice a review a critique andsome recommendationsrdquo e Leadership Quarterly vol 30no 5 Article ID 101304 2019

[23] Q Zhao and X Shi ldquoCharacteristics and evolution of anurban industrial ecological network a case study of Bei-jingrdquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 14 pp 4873ndash48822017

[24] R U Ayres ldquoIndustrial metabolismrdquo in Technology andEnvironment J H Ausubel and H E Sladovich Edspp 23ndash49 National Academics Press Washington DC USA1989

[25] S S Chopra and V Khanna ldquoUnderstanding resilience inindustrial symbiosis networks insights from network anal-ysisrdquo Journal of Environmental Management vol 141pp 86ndash94 2014

[26] S Chen and B Chen ldquoNetwork environ perspective for urbanmetabolism and carbon emissions a case study of ViennaAustriardquo Environmental Science amp Technology vol 46 no 8pp 4498ndash4506 2012

[27] R V Berkel T Fujita S Hashimoto and Y Geng ldquoIndustrialand urban symbiosis in Japan analysis of the eco-townprogram 1997ndash2006rdquo Journal of Environmental Managementvol 90 no 3 pp 1544ndash1556 2009

[28] Q Zhu E A Lowe Y Wei and D Barnes ldquoIndustrialsymbiosis in China a case study of the Guitang GrouprdquoJournal of Industrial Ecology vol 11 no 1 pp 31ndash42 2007

[29] M Zhang Research on the Forming Machanism and Stabilityof Industrial Symbiosis Network Harbin Institute of Tech-nology Harbin China 2008

[30] J Huang and R E Ulanowicz ldquoEcological network analysisfor economic systems growth and development and impli-cations for sustainable developmentrdquo PLoS One vol 9 no 6Article ID e100923 2014

[31] Y Zhang H Zheng B D Fath et al ldquoEcological networkanalysis of an urban metabolic system based on input-outputtables model development and case study for Beijingrdquo Scienceof the Total Environment vol 468-469 pp 642ndash653 2014

[32] W Wang and T Zhou ldquoEco-economic system of the Chineseindustryrdquo Journal of Southeast University (Philosophy andSocial Science) vol 17 no 4 pp 73ndash78 2015

[33] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng et al ldquoSpatial-restructuring analysisof human-land relationships in an old industrial area the caseof the Tiexi district Shenyangrdquo Scientia Geographica Sinicavol 35 no 7 pp 890ndash897 2015

[34] H Li and P Zhang ldquoe evolution and coping timing ofeconomic vulnerability of mining cities a case study inNortheast Chinardquo Economic Geography vol 34 no 1pp 82ndash88 2014

[35] F Dong J Li K Li et al ldquoCausal chain of haze decouplingefforts and its action mechanism evidence from 30 provincesin Chinardquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 10 2020

[36] C Lu B Xue C Lu et al ldquoSustainability investigation ofresource-based cities in Northeastern Chinardquo Sustainabilityvol 8 no 10 p 1058 2016

[37] B Xue L Zhang Y Geng Yong B Mitchell and W RenldquoExtended land use categories in urban brownfield re-de-velopment of China case of Tiexi district Shenyang ofChinardquo Journal of Urban Planning and Development vol 142no 3 pp 1ndash11 2016

[38] Q Yang C Lu F Zhou et al ldquoAn emergy-ecological foot-print model-based evaluation of ecological security at the oldindustrial area in Northeast China a case study of Liaoningprovincerdquo Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology vol 27 no 5pp 1594ndash1602 2016

[39] C Tang C Lu Q Yang et al ldquoDynamic evolution and drivingforces of ecological security in the traditional industrial area ofNortheastern Chinardquo Acta Ecologica Sinica vol 37 no 22pp 7474ndash7482 2017

[40] C L Hwang and K Yoon Multiple Attribute DecisionMakingmdashMethods and Applications a State-of-the-Art SurveySpringer Berlin Germany 1981

Complexity 15

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity

[41] B Li and X Jin ldquoSpatio-temporal evolution of marine Fisheryindustry ecosystem vulnerability in the Bohai Rim regionrdquoChinese Geographical Science vol 29 no 6 pp 1052ndash10642019

[42] A Guo J Yang X Xiao J Xia C Jin and X Li ldquoInfluences ofurban spatial form on urban heat island effects at the com-munity level in Chinardquo Sustainable Cities and Society vol 53Article ID 101972 2020

[43] J Yang S Jin X Xiao et al ldquoLocal climate zone ventilationand urban land surface temperatures towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacitiesrdquoSustainable Cities and Society vol 47 pp 1ndash11 2019

[44] S Jin J Yang E Wang and J Liu ldquoe influence of high-speed rail on ice-snow tourism in northeastern ChinardquoTourism Management vol 78 Article ID 104070 2020

[45] L Li P Zhang K Lo W Liu and J Li ldquoe evolution ofregional economic resilience in the old industrial bases inChina a case study of Liaoning province Chinardquo ChineseGeographical Science vol 30 no 2 pp 340ndash351 2020

[46] ZMorris MWeissburg and B Bras ldquoTowards a biologically-inspired urban-industrial ecosystemrdquo Procedia CIRP vol 69pp 861ndash866 2018

[47] B Tonn P D Frymier D Stiefel L S Skinner N Suraweeraand R Tuck ldquoToward an infinitely reusable recyclable andrenewable industrial ecosystemrdquo Journal of Cleaner Produc-tion vol 66 pp 392ndash406 2014

[48] J Yang Y Bao Y Zhang X Li and Q Ge ldquoImpact of ac-cessibility on housing prices in Dalian city of China based on ageographically weighted regression modelrdquo Chinese Geo-graphical Science vol 28 no 3 pp 505ndash515 2018

[49] E Susur A Hidalgo and D Chiaroni ldquoe emergence ofregional industrial ecosystem niches a conceptual frameworkand a case studyrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 208pp 1642ndash1657 2019

[50] P Zhang Y Li W Jing et al ldquoComprehensive assessment ofthe effect of urban built-up land expansion and climatechange on net primary productivityrdquo Complexity vol 2020Article ID 8489025 12 pages 2020

[51] C Lu W Ren L Jiang and B Xue ldquoModelling impact ofclimate change and air pollution in citiesrdquo Proceedings of theInstitution of Civil EngineersmdashEngineering Sustainabilityvol 170 no 3 pp 133ndash140 2016

[52] B Xue ldquoHoning the climate change messagerdquo Sciencevol 348 no 6237 p 872 2015

16 Complexity