Nexus-Oriented Approach for Sharing Water Resources: Development of Eco-Industrial Parks in the Catchment of Zayandeh Rud River, Iran

In order to ensure sustainable development in Iran, the government supports the development of industrial settlements with water reuse. One approach towards this goal is the Eco-Industrial Parks (EIP) concept, based on resource sharing to reduce waste and to optimize water efficiency, enabled through cooperation between industries. In the German-Iranian research activity “IWRM Zayandeh Rud” located in Central Iran, application of the EIP concept was tested and evaluated in a practical case study. The scope of the research included the development of a methodology for the quantification of industrial water volumes and qualities, and a nexus-oriented water sharing approach between water users quantified through a flux analysis with STAN (subSTance flow ANalysis). The investigation examines different approaches to substituting freshwater with reused wastewater from another industry, thus reducing the overall consumption of freshwater. To find the optimum approach, three types of linking scenarios have been considered: bilateral principle, nucleus principle, and cascade principle. The investigation results show that in addition to geographic proximity between wastewater generation and water demand, the main requirements for the connection of water fluxes are the capacity and willingness for collaboration amongst industries with different water qualities, resulting in symbiotic benefits for the connected industries.