Eco-industrial Complex Adaptive System

Ecological industry is a novel industrial development mode, which is designed toimprove resource utilization and prevent environmental pollution and aimed at thesustainable development of industry. For the complexity of eco-industrial system, thetheory of complex adaptive system (CAS) and the method of agent-based modelingare introduced into the research to explore the evolving process of eco-industrialsystems and to guide the practice.Eco-industrial system is a CAS, because the evolution and development of thesystem is the result of self-decision making, interaction, symbiosis and coupling of alarge amount of enterprises. This thesis puts forward a simulation framework ofagent-based modeling which can be properly applied to eco-industrial system. This isa bottom-up simulation process including"element-flow-module-agent-aggregation-system" six steps in modeling and will bethe research method of the study.The key point to the construction of eco-industrial system is aggregation.Aggregation is the result of learning, adjustment and cooperation by the enterpriseagents while they adapt to the surroundings. Two cases of"resource-enterprise-market system" and "phosphorus-based industrial system" arestudied. According to above-mentioned framework, the agent-based models are built.The mechanisms of decision-making for output, investment and supply-agentselection are established to describe the autonomous and adaptive behaviors ofvarious agents. The simulation results illustrate that different modes of aggregationwill generate different benefits of economy, resource and environment. Simulationexperiment also shows that it was possible to guide the eco-industrial systemevolution through heterogeneous aggregation by means of changing the targetfunction and knowledge structure.Furthermore, a practical example "Kaiyang eco-industrial system ofphosphorus-coal-based chemical industry" is studied. An agent-based model and agraphic, dynamic and interactive experiment platform are developed. This modelinvolves many factors which affect systems development, such as technology,policies, environment, society and market. The agents are described in detailed fromseveral aspects: goals, attributes behaviors and communication mechanism,designedin a multi-module structure, and organized by aggregation in the hiberarchy of thesystem. The results of the simulation demonstrate the dynamic evolution processwhich has good economic and environmental benefits. The model is also used toanalyze the problems during the construction of the system, to estimate the futurescenario, as well as to explore the influence of certain key project to the overallsystem. This case study well shows the significancy of using the theory of CAS andthe method of agent-based modeling in directing the eco-industrial practice.