Uploaded on 2014-12-09 by AndyLockyer

![enter image description here][1] [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14181595913922267.jpg 1. Shipping represents a major portion of Auckland's international trade via exports and imports. These 'stocks' are stockpiled and warehoused in New Zealand before being shipped to manufacturing countries, increasingly Australia and China, flows of refined goods are represented by the imported products New Zealand seeks. Car travel represents a major daily stock and flow. Because Auckland was developed upon the suburban city model, many of Auckland's citizens live a considerable distance from the central business district. As such the daily commute of people from their houses to their workplaces represents a sizeable stock and flow cycle on a daily basis. Domestic transport of food material from the 'hinterlands' or rural areas of the Auckland region to the urban centres represents a dramatic example of stocks and flows. The flows are primarily facilitated by land transport services such as large milk tankers, small trucks, livestock trucks and semi trailers. The stocks and flows involve not only the produce itself but also the flows of nutrients and finance that support this network. 2. The concept of stocks and flows is essentially the mapping of 'capital' moving from one area to another. Static capital is a stock and dynamic or moving capital is a flow. When the city is viewed as a metabolism the continuous stockpiling and movement of various pieces of capital operate as a simple means to dissect the complexity of the city. In terms of an information stock and flow, people travel from their suburban homes to their city workplaces where they design, develop ideas organise and synthesise information which can then be held by the business and used to inform or develop new products or they can be sold. This crosses the information stock and flow system with that of finance. Auckland's focus on the export and import of goods is primarily based on the exporting of a bulk lot of raw goods such as timber, food product and iron ore to manufacturing centres in exchange for refined or added value goods that New Zealand does not have the technology or manufacture infrastructure to economically provide for itself. This supply chain stock and flow weaves together the natural environment, the rural and urban network, people, information, finance, all the way down to nutrient cycles occurring as nutrients are removed in the export of food, and replenished as food scraps and animals waste are introduced to the soil. 3. Stocks and flows are a tool to simplify the city into a series of exchanges and consumption. This simplification is useful because it allows us to investigate what flows are too long, ineffecient or under utilised. For example if we see that food producing areas have spread too far from the city such that the value of the food flow into the city is being offset by the flow of pollutants into the environment and the cost of the flow of fuel to drive the vehicles then new avenues of food production will be needed. The system of flows would ideally limit the distance of the stock from the consumer (minimise the distance of the flow) such that urban farming techniques would be a viable option at overcoming this burden of transporting goods to market. Stocks and flows are a system that promotes density in human occupation and behaviour. Denser cities not only promote a more efficient series of exchanges, they also create more opportunities for information flows between citizens to occur such that new ideas might result from an incidental flow resulting in new capital.