A study of assessment indicators for environmental sustainable development of science parks in Taiwan

Abstract

This study adopted the ecological footprint calculation structure to calculate the ecological footprints of the three major science parks in Taiwan from 2008 to 2010. The result shows that the ecological footprints of the Hsinchu Science Park, the Central Taiwan Science Park, and the Southern Taiwan Science Park were about 3.964, 2.970, and 4.165 ha per capita. The ecological footprint (EF) of the Central Taiwan Science Park was the lowest, meaning that the influence of the daily operations in the Central Taiwan Science Park on the environment was rather low. Secondly, the population density was relatively high, and the EF was not the highest of the Hsinchu Science Park, meaning that, while consuming ecological resources, the environmental management done was effective. In addition, the population density in Southern Taiwan Science Park is 82.8 units, lower than that of Hsinchu Science Park, but its ecological footprint per capita is 0.201 units, higher than Hsinchu, implying its indicator management has space for improvement. According to the analysis result above, in the science parks, the percentages of high-energy-consuming industries were rather high. It was necessary to encourage development of green industries with low energy consumption and low pollution through industry transformation.

Using Water Footprints for Examining the Sustainable Development of Science Parks

“…This uneven distribution of rainfall increases the difficulty of preserving and using water resources. The annual rainfall per capita in Taiwan is 4074 m 3 , which is lower than one-fifth of the world average (21,796 m 3 ). Based on the criteria for the amount of water available worldwide, the United Nations ranked Taiwan 18th among countries with the least water resources per capita.…”

“…Because of these achievements, advanced countries in Europe and North America dubbed the HSP as the Silicon Valley of Taiwan. However, as various high-technology enterprises in the science parks continue to expand their scales of production, the amount of water resources consumed increases considerably (e.g., water used during the manufacturing process, boiler water, and cooling water), thereby depleting water resources and deteriorating environmental quality, resulting in a substantial social cost [3].…”

Scientific and Methodological Foundations of Establishing of Composite Indicator System for Comparative Assessment of Activities of Technoparks

“…In technoparks, the following directions are considered as main directions of environmental policy: the application of advanced methods of sustainable development principles in order to minimize the environmental pollution and regulate its protection, efficient utilization of natural resources in order to meet the demand of current and future generations, benefit from inexhaustible energy sources and achieve energy efficiency via non-traditional methods, to assess the current situation on global environmental problems at national level, expansion of relations with international organizations, extensive use of national potential opportunities and etc [31][32].…”

Factors for Science Park Planning

“…Eco-settings in a science park refer to eco-friendly relationship between a science park and environment (Chen, Chien and Hsieh 2013;Yan and Chien 2013). This relationship commonly develops and evolves under the genre of Green Park or Green Tenant.…”