Uploaded on 2017-05-09 by Cristina Martín-Sonseca Ponz

Between the multiple stocks and flows that exist and circulate in my city (water, people, land, density, different materials...) I would say the most important ones are energy, food, capital, and information. https://flowcharts.llnl.gov/commodities/energy http://www.sankey-diagrams.com/tag/austria/ The food stocks and flows are extremely necessary, in my opinion, one of the most vital together with water. At some point, cities grew so much that the food produced in its surroundings was not enough to sustain its population. Therefore, food must be imported into the cities. First it is harvested, collected, fished or taken in any way and anywhere in the world. To the city it arrives daily, through any means of transportation, and then it is distributed throughout the city's network. Subsequently it arrives to shops, restaurants, supermarkets and so on, where the citizens get access to them. Afterwards it turns into nutrients and waste or feces. Depending on the type of food, the process varies slightly into different directions. Some food goes into factories first and gets processed there, some other arrives faster to the markets, and there are even others that are produced in the citizens’ accommodations, whose flows are even shorter. Along this process, the food becomes stocks when it is stored in factories, supermarkets, restaurants, citizens’ houses or even farms. The most logical way for the stocks and flows of food to benefit my area is to grow them as locally as possible. For example, nowadays there are skyscrapers that implemented multiple plants both inside and as facades or roofs. If that vegetation could be harvested, it could be possible to reduce the imports of food, together with the CO2 footprint of the building. The flows (and also stocks) of information are increasingly important, mostly in developed countries. The information is transmitted from any location in the world. This is why nowadays we can be informed of what is happening on the other side of the world almost instantly. The ways the information moves are multiple: from any type of media, to books or data transfer. The storage of it also varies from libraries and servers in the big scale, to smaller storage devices that most citizens own, but all of them create stocks of information. In the future, the quantities of information transferred and stored are just going to grow, not only in my area but everywhere in the world. I believe this is beneficial if it is properly used for a more specific design of cities and its services, as one example. Capital and information flow similarly in the way that money can arrive through bank transfers immediately from any other part of the world. Banks hold the main stocks of capital, even though most of it is virtual, in smaller amounts businesses and even citizens could be considered carriers or holders of stocks of capital. Money also moves by the sales and purchases of goods, energy, information, etc. Money is one of the most important flows due to the capitalist society in which we live in. I do not really know if there is a way for the money stocks and flows to benefit the country. Of course, the more money the country has it tends to be the better; however, it is quite complex to determine how it would influence the society and how to change such flows. As it was introduced in the video, energy is a very important element in a city. It is created mostly through biomass, natural gas, coal, and petroleum; however, there are smaller amounts created by hydro, solar, geothermal and wind means. The electricity arrives through cables that connect every area of my city. The fuel for example, arrives in tank trucks. It is stored sometimes (mostly the fuel) but I would say that it is one of the most itinerant elements of a city. When we observe the energy flow chart or Sankey diagram of Austria, it becomes clear that, if the energy needs cannot be reduced, the most appropriate change would be reducing the imports of fossil fuels and create more energy through wind, solar, biomass, water, and geothermal means. Together with this, a reduction of the rejected energy should be sought through more efficient energy usage and transport.