Nationwide industrial complexes, established in the 1970s and 1980s, face complex challenges including old infrastructure, declining productivity, and deteriorating residential conditions. The decline of these old industrial complexes contributes to r...
Nationwide industrial complexes, established in the 1970s and 1980s, face complex challenges including old infrastructure, declining productivity, and deteriorating residential conditions. The decline of these old industrial complexes contributes to regional economic stagnation, youth population outflow, and accelerates the crisis of regional extinction. However, existing prior research and government policies have focused solely on improving the physical facilities of industrial complexes, resulting in insufficient sustainability analysis from an integrated perspective that considers the interaction between industrial complexes and surrounding areas.
Therefore, this study aims to treat old industrial complexes and their surrounding/urban areas as a single integrated space, develop sustainability development indicators considering interconnectedness, and apply them empirically to case studies.
The research analysis proceeded in four main stages. First, principal component analysis and cluster analysis were performed using population, social, economic, and residential environment data from old industrial complexes and their surrounding areas nationwide to classify them into types. Second, an indicator system comprising 3 sectors, 9 fields, and 42 detailed indicators was finalized using the Delphi technique.
Third, the importance (weight) of each indicator was calculated using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Fourth, twelve representative case areas were selected for each type, and the developed indicators were applied to calculate, compare, and analyze the sustainable development indices for old industrial complexes.
The key analysis results are as follows. First, old industrial complexes were classified into four types: large-scale maintenance and development, small-scale growth, and old and declining with regional linkage maintenance. Notably, 83% of the analyzed complexes were classified as old and declining, confirming the concurrent decline of industrial complexes and their surrounding regions.
Second, the importance analysis of the indicators showed that the industrial and economic sector had the highest weight among the three sectors. The detailed indicators identified as the top factors were company operating rates, patent applications, productivity, and R&D investment ratios. This indicates that industrial innovation and economic strengthening are priority tasks over physical improvements for the sustainability of old industrial complexes.
Third, the case analysis revealed that the small-scale growth model achieved the highest overall sustainability rating due to industrial complex vitality and regional economic balance. Conversely, the regional linkage maintenance model scored lowest due to its weak industrial foundation. This demonstrates that balanced sustainability across sectors is more critical than the scale of the industrial complex.
Therefore, this study empirically demonstrates that the regeneration of old industrial complexes must go beyond the mere smartification or modernization of manufacturing facilities; it requires spatial and functional integration with the surrounding region. The evaluation indicators and customized strategies by type proposed in this study can serve as foundational data for local governments to establish concrete and effective policies for countering regional decline and implementing the UN SDGs at the local level.