Industrial parks are usually located on the edges of, or outside, the main residential area of a city, and are normally provided with good transportation access, including road and rail. One such example is the large number of industrial estates located along the River Thames in the Thames Gateway area of London. Industrial parks are usually located close to transport facilities, especially where more than one transport modes coincide, including highways, railroads, airports and ports. Another common feature of a North American industrial park is a water tower, which helps to hold enough water to meet the park's demands and for firefighting purposes, and also advertises the industrial park and locality, as usually the community's name and logo are painted onto its surface. This idea of setting land aside through this type of zoning has several purposes:
By concentrating dedicated infrastructure in a delimited area, to reduce the per-business cost of that infrastructure. Such infrastructure includes roadways, railroad sidings, ports, high-power electric supplies, high-end communications cables, large-volume water supplies, and high-volume gas lines.
To attract new business by providing an integrated infrastructure in one location.
To provide for localized environmental controls that are specific to the needs of an industrial area.
Criticism
Different industrial parks fulfill these criteria to differingdegrees. 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 Pakistanface a myriad of additional difficulties. This includes the availability of a skilled workforce and the clustering together of radically different industrial sectors, which often leads to unfavorable outcomes for quality centered industries.
Variations
An industrial park specializing in biotechnology 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 like Singapore and Hong Kong, where land is scarce. These are typically similar to flats, but house individual industries instead. Flatted factories have cargo lifts and roads that serve each level, providing access to each factory lot.
