Uploaded on 2014-12-02 by Wakhio

In my area, there are three important examples of stocks and flows entering, staying and eventually leaving this area, mainly; water (supplied by the Nairobi County Council), the people in Nairobi City/populace and finally the food in the city. This city Nairobi, was named by the indigenous people of the area; the Maasai, who named the city ‘a place of cool waters’. It was during the construction of the first railway when the Indians and Europeans who were involved in the construction, came across this ‘place of cool waters’ with a steady flow of clean, cool water. The discovery led to the building of a railway station that then saw an influx of people to this new area, and later on to its shaping up to become the city it now is. At present, the water needs have tremendously grown and as such not all areas of the city have a constant supply of this valuable commodity. Areas of constant supply incidentally have higher populations than those of minimal supply, contributing to a stock of people into such areas, who rarely move out. The water leaves the city through the sewer and river into the Indian Ocean. Thus the other example of the populace is closely linked to the first example in that Nairobi having developed into a city saw an influx of people to the city, in search of a means to make a living and the promise of a better life. This led to rural urban migration and very little urban to rural migration, this influx has seen the population as a stock which has led to overstretching of amenities like housing and energy. Nairobi, is the capital city of the country Kenya, as expected it’s also the most highly populated city in the country and East African region of the African continent. This in essence means that there’s greater demand for food to feed this ever expanding population of city dwellers. Food comes from almost every county of the country flowing into the city to meet this ever increasing demand. Eventually the product is the flow of food waste which find its way to garbage collection points and even sewers. Only few areas of the city of have food production and it is this ‘problem’ that has seen several organizations and the government taken initiatives to try grow food in the city. All this examples of stocks and flows in the city are major, since the city; Nairobi, was never planned to accommodate this ever expanding numbers in its population, as such there’s greater need to review the general planning of the city if its ever going to be liveable and sustainable. 2. Based on the concept of stocks and flows, representation of fine examples is shown below that are particular to my area, Nairobi. NB: The map is a representation of the present infrastructure, i must note however I wasn’t able to obtain those of yesteryears. *The map is uploaded separately![Nairobi Map][1] This is Nairobi’s city map exclusively showing its infrastructure; roads, water supply line and the buildings. The green areas show a road network. The blue areas represent buildings. The black lines/areas represent water supply areas. Over the years a stock of water, food and energy has brought a flow of people into the city and caused the high density of infrastructure as depicted with areas having a complex road network system also having many buildings. Water has also served to contribute to shape this urban system with challenge of meeting the great demand for its supply. 3. The stock and flows of the city namely water, food, the people, density and information will in future change for the benefit of this area. For instance there are plans to decongest the city by decentralizing these factors which attract people to the city, for example with the creation of water reservoirs outside the city to supply the outskirts of the city will see people going to live and work outside the city. Already this phenomenon is taking shape with the growth of new mini-urban areas such as Konza city which is outside the existing capital base. [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14175241622785943.jpg