Uploaded on 2017-02-12 by Rukmini Mukherjee

The city of Kolkata has several examples of stocks of flows, wherein three are identified and described below: 1) Water: The river city of Kolkata was built along the river Hooghly, and here water is a very important example of stocks and flows. It enters the city in both treated/ untreated form (as flow),stored in large reservoirs and channelized to canals as stock, used for domestic/ industrial purposes, and leaves as effluent back to the river or replenishment of ground water. 2) Land: Land as a resource is considered stable as stock in older parts of the city, but the newer developments are seeing increasing land through landfilling in low lying areas to increase verticality, and filling up of water bodies and canals to cater to real estate demand. 3) Density: It is considered stable in the older inner parts of the city, which have reached spatial saturation.The density can be identified as stock there. The newer developing parts are very unstable in terms of density (flow), where the movement of people into these areas for work, residential as well as business opportunities determine rising density. An outward migration of people in areas of lacking infrastructure, as well as creation of geriatric societies due to younger population leaving in some areas have seen a decrease in density. The increase of water as a stock and flow is required for ecological balance, as well as to cater to the rising demand for water consumption and mobility uses. The increase of land use through infilling of water should be stopped and alternate measures like using of non-arable hinterland can be looked into for meeting the demand of increasing population. Increasing the density in newer areas can help turn them into multinuclear spatial patterns, thus increasing accessibility as well as liveability, influencing and welcoming other stocks and flows like finances, infrastructure and information.