Material flow analysis adapted to an industrial area

Material flow analysis (MFA) has become a useful tool for industrial ecology (IE) to analyze the metabolism of social systems, such as countries and regions. This paper proposes to use the indicators derived from MFA, complemented with water and energy indicators, to analyze the efficiency and the materialization ranks of industrial areas. The methodology is applied to a case study of an industrial area located in Catalonia (Spain). Despite the heterogeneity of the area, by using simple data the indicators detect companies with high consumption or inefficiency. These companies have many opportunities to improve on these aspects and the indicators can measure and reflect their evolution. In addition, the results show the importance that some flows such as water inputs (1.5 times higher than material inputs) and indirect flows associated with imports, which often are omitted, can have in some study cases. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.