Anindustrial park, also known asindustrial estate ortrading estate, is an areazoned and planned for the purpose ofindustrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more heavyweight version of abusiness park or office park, which has offices andlight industry, rather thanheavy industry. Industrial parks are notable for being relatively simple to build; they often feature speedily erected single-space steel sheds, occasionally in bright colours.
Industrial parks are usually located on the edges of, or outside, the mainresidential area of acity, and are normally provided with good transportation access, including road andrail.[1] One such example is the large number of industrial estates located along theRiver Thames in theThames Gateway area ofLondon. Industrial parks are usually located close to transport facilities, especially where more than onetransport modes coincide, includinghighways,railroads,airports andports. Another common feature of aNorth American industrial park is awater tower, which helps to hold enough water to meet the park's demands and forfirefighting purposes, and also advertises the industrial park and locality, as usually the community's name and logo are painted onto its surface.[2]
This idea of setting land aside through this type ofzoning has several purposes:
By concentrating dedicatedinfrastructure in a delimited area, to reduce the per-business cost of that infrastructure. Such infrastructure includes roadways, railroad sidings, ports, high-power electric supplies (often includingthree-phase electric power), high-end communications cables, large-volume water supplies, and high-volumegas lines.[3]
To attract new business by providing an integrated infrastructure in one location.
Eligibility of Industrial Parks for benefits.[4][5]
To set apart industrial uses fromurban areas[6] to try to reduce the environmental and social impact of the industrial uses.
To provide for localized environmental controls that are specific to the needs of an industrial area.
Benchmarking helps to rank industrial parks based on various criteria, including performance, investment, environmental protection, social responsibility, and governance (ESG).[7]For the manufacturing companies located in industrial parks, the performance of industrial park operators is important, as the costs for infrastructure and services charged by the industrial park operator is a serious factor for the competitiveness of the manufacturing companies.[8][9]
Different industrial parks fulfill these criteria to differing degrees. Many small communities have established industrial parks with only access to a nearby highway, and with only the basic utilities and roadways.Public transportation options may be limited or non-existent.
Industrial parks in developing countries such as Pakistan face a myriad of additional difficulties. This includes the availability of a skilled workforce and the clustering together of radically different industrial sectors (pharmaceuticals and heavy engineering, for example), which often leads to unfavorable outcomes for quality centered industries.[10]
An industrial park specializing inbiotechnology is called a biotechnology industrial park. It may also be known as a bio-industrial park or eco-industrial cluster.
Flatted factories exist in cities likeSingapore andHong Kong, where land is scarce. These are typically similar toflats, but house individual industries instead. Flatted factories have cargo lifts and roads that serve each level, providing access to each factory lot.