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Topic · Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Sustainable Industrial Ecology

Sustainable Industrial Ecology is a research topic within Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Science Explorer counts 15k research works in it since 1955. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the concept of industrial symbiosis and the development of eco-industrial parks, focusing on topics such as circular economy, industrial ecology, sustainability, network analysis, waste management, urban industrial symbiosis, environmental assessment, and regional development. The papers cover case studies from various countries and provide insights into the potential benefits and challenges of implementing industrial symbiosis initiatives.

  • Industrial Symbiosis
  • Eco-Industrial Parks
  • Circular Economy
  • Industrial Ecology
  • Sustainability
  • Network Analysis
  • Waste Management
  • Urban Industrial Symbiosis
  • Environmental Assessment
  • Regional Development
Research works
15k
fractional, since 1955
In the world top 10%
1.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+74%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
37% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Sustainable Industrial Ecology

Which countries lead Sustainable Industrial Ecology research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (872 and 245 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 872 works
  2. 2 United States 245 works
  3. 3 India 232 works
  4. 4 France 201 works
  5. 5 Italy 190 works
  6. 6 Germany 188 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 155 works
  8. 8 Indonesia 123 works
  9. 9 Brazil 90 works
  10. 10 Spain 89 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 36.6%United States: 10.3%India: 9.7%France: 8.4%6 others listed: 35.0%37%largest
China872 · 36.6%United States245 · 10.3%India232 · 9.7%France201 · 8.4%6 others listed835 · 35.0%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Sustainable Industrial Ecology research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Sustainable Industrial Ecology research, followed by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and Delft University of Technology.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 55 works
  2. 2 Fraunhofer-GesellschaftGermany 21 works
  3. 3 Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 18 works
  4. 4 Politecnico di MilanoItaly 17 works
  5. 5 Tsinghua UniversityChina 17 works
  6. 6 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 15 works
  7. 7 RWTH Aachen UniversityGermany 14 works
  8. 8 Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'EnvironnementFrance 11 works
  9. 9 The University of TokyoJapan 11 works
  10. 10 State Grid Corporation of China (China)China 11 works

Who are the leading researchers in Sustainable Industrial Ecology?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Sustainable Industrial Ecology include Seeram Ramakrishna, Daron Acemoğlu and Yong Sik Ok.

  1. 1 Seeram Ramakrishna Singapore 186k citations
  2. 2 Daron Acemoğlu United States 164k citations
  3. 3 Yong Sik Ok South Korea 126k citations
  4. 4 Detlef Peter van Vuuren Netherlands 126k citations
  5. 5 İbrahim Dinçer Canada 111k citations
  6. 6 Robert Costanza Australia 107k citations
  7. 7 Yong‐Guan Zhu China 107k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Sustainable Industrial Ecology?

The most cited paper in Sustainable Industrial Ecology is "The Circular Economy – A new sustainability paradigm?" (Martin Geissdoerfer, Paulo Savaget, Nancy Bocken et al., 2016), with 9,096 citations. Next come "Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions" (8,310) and "A review on circular economy: the expected transition to a balanced interplay of environmental and economic systems" (6,451).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Circular Economy – A new sustainability paradigm? Martin Geissdoerfer, Paulo Savaget, Nancy Bocken et al. · Journal of Cleaner Production Open access 21 Dec 2016 9,096
2 Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions Julian Kirchherr, Denise Reike, Marko P. Hekkert · Resources Conservation and Recycling Open access 15 Sep 2017 8,310
3 A review on circular economy: the expected transition to a balanced interplay of environmental and economic systems Patrizia Ghisellini, Catia Cialani, Sérgio Ulgiati · Journal of Cleaner Production 16 Sep 2015 6,451
4 A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes Nancy Bocken, Samuel W. Short, P. Rana et al. · Journal of Cleaner Production Open access 5 Dec 2013 4,315
5 From sectoral systems of innovation to socio-technical systems Frank W. Geels · Research Policy Open access 15 May 2004 3,925
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Sustainable Industrial Ecology research done?

The largest centres of Sustainable Industrial Ecology research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Nanjing (China) and Paris (France). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Delft.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 176 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 58 works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 51 works
  4. 4 ParisFrance 44 works
  5. 5 Xi'anChina 39 works
  6. 6 TokyoJapan 39 works
  7. 7 LondonUnited Kingdom 36 works
  8. 8 WuhanChina 33 works
  9. 9 GuangzhouChina 31 works
  10. 10 MoscowRussia 31 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. DelftNL · 20.0 works6.7×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Sustainable Industrial Ecology than the world average.

See Sustainable Industrial Ecology on the map

Where is the best place to study Sustainable Industrial Ecology?

Among universities, judged by research, Politecnico di Milano, Linköping University and Delft University of Technology score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 19.08%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Linköping UniversityTsinghua UniversityPolitecnico di MilanoDelft University of …
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Politecnico di MilanoItaly 79.217.8%7.2×18 +18.7%
2Linköping UniversitySweden 78.731.1%11.4×11 +139.0%
3Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 74.511.5%7.7×18 +13.5%
4Tsinghua UniversityChina 61.220.1%2.2×17 +15.0%
5University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 58.718.3%2.7×11 +26.5%
6Chalmers University of TechnologySweden 56.321.2%9.4×8 +2.6%
7KTH Royal Institute of TechnologySweden 56.118.2%7.2×9 -15.1%
8Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyNorway 46.412.2%4.4×9 +156.3%
9Technical University of DenmarkDenmark 44.718.3%5.8×10 -26.8%
10Sapienza University of RomeItaly 43.122.1%2.2×9 +12.9%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Sustainable Industrial Ecology, country by country

Is Sustainable Industrial Ecology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 74% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Sustainable Industrial Ecology.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Sustainable Industrial Ecology as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.017% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Sustainable Industrial Ecology0.020% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Sustainable Industrial Ecology over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Sustainable Industrial Ecology10.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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