Uploaded on 2016-08-10 by Alex Andersson

*****PICTURE NOT TAKEN BY ME**** 1. Identify three important stocks and flows. Gothenburg is a coastal city located on the western coast of Sweden, with it’s 540k inhabitants (greater area 980k) it is the second largest city of the country. Throughout the city runs the river “Göta Älv”, it is the largest continuous river in Sweden and connects the city with the largest lake (Vänern) and a number of smaller townships and municipalities and their corresponding cities. The river facilitates transportation of goods aswell as leisure sailing and a waterpath covering large distances. In the end it connects with the Atlantic Ocean. The river together with the location of Gotheburg itself makes the city a natural location for harbours, shipbuilders and various docks. As an old industrial city (tho fadeing) the city is also a transportation hub for much of the inland and the ports serve as key point in the Swedish infrastructure on a whole. As a populous and heavily urbanized region with a strong economy and a relatively small agricultural sector the greater area and indeed Gothenburg, is heavily dependent on the import of food. It is by and large dependent on it. Lastly I identify electricity as a key flow into the city. Sweden, while using many different sources for heating such as centraliced heating from factories, local windpower, biogas and so on, is still dependent on external sources. Primarily from nuculear and water sources – none which are located in Gothenburg. 2. Describe the findings. And 3. How could these be improved in the future? Food (Flow) 80% of Swedens food is produced domestically, and the most fertile land is located in the southern and south-central areas. However, 70% of all vegetables are imported from abroad (FAO.org). I could not locate any specific figures for the City of Gothenburg but as in most urbanized regions I suspect it is very very high. The flow of food into the city comes primarily from two(three) sources. Either from trucks/rails from inland production facilities or from the ports as imports from abroad and lastly from local fishing. Food is then distributed mainly from retailers and restaurants. Waste from food is handled in two ways, either as feces which is handled relatively locally in water sanitation facilities. The second way is from excess/unused food/wastefood as biogas in the region. The city and Sweden have a well built out facilities for this purpose. The process of food as a flow does of course not end there, there are various local effects from this aswell that are harder to pinpoint, the imports are necessary for the retailers and restaurants which create economic opportunities, costs both direct and indirect for the city finances and nature that can be attributed to this. The flow is of course a decisive factor for the cities survival and a cornerstone in all other activates that occur. I believe that the current levels of waste are unsustainable, while the use and handleing of foodwaste in Sweden is relatively good compared to many other industrialized countries it needs to improve even further. More concentrated efforts should be made to reduce, salvage and redistribute food waste. Primarily from retailers, furthermore efforts should be made to reduce household waste – by doing this I believe Gothenburg would become a more sustainable city. Electricity (Flow) 87% of Swedens electricity comes from nuculear (37) and water (50). The powersources are connected to Gothenburg with major powercables, I have been unable to locate the exakt numbers and I feel like displaying the grid in its full would be fairly fruitless. But needless to say, electricity flows into Gothenburg and not the other way around. The flow of electricity powers everything from industrial production, recreation, public transports (rail), business etc. and serves as the fuel and raw material for the production of the above services and products. Without electricity the city would come to a literal halt. It is difficult for a novice to find reliable statistics as most of the various literature, government sources and so on focus on the broader concept of energy. As I mentioned earlier energy is a different beast altogether as there is both internal and external production that fuels it. The sources also vary more and fossile fuel is more prevalent. I believe that the current use of electricity is on the right path, efficiency of use is increasing. I think that on a more general note, we need to maintain nuculear production until green sources are fully ready to shift over. Göta Älv aka. The local river that runs throughout the city (Stock) Göta Älv serves many purposes and I don’t think the impact of it can be exaggerated easily. It serves as the main source of fresh water for the greater area. It serves as a key piece of infrastructure for transportation for goods but also to some degree for tourism and the transportation of people. Furthermore it creates in part the ideal conditions for Gothenburg as a major port city. As such it is a key enabler for many of the different flows and stocks of the city on a whole. It also creates a certain better socioecological conditions for the city by its very presence. It does also of course, create problems. As the city is situated on both sides of the river it becomes an obstacle that makes the municipalities attempts at createing good infrastructure much more difficult. In this sense it becomes a social and physical barrier that disables interaction. It is also source of friction for the municipalities situated further inland who are dependent on easy passage of goods. One such recent conflict revolved around the height of newly planned bridges, inland municipalities opposed lower birdges as it would hinder transport. In short, the exploitation of the river and its function remains a hot topic both within the city and without. I believe that the river in the future that needs to be observed and viewed more as source of socioecological value then a source of infrastructure. I believe that the river in the decades to come will have diminished value as a piece of dead infrastrcutre. I believe its potential as a source of production for socioecological values to be much higher. Building easy access across the river, planning so that more of the land can be used for recreation, entertainment, small docks, seaside parks and green areas, swimming (if an effort is made to clean the water well enough, if not artificial pools) and so on will serve the city much. I believe this is the case not just in soft terms but also in financial terms, it would increase production of the population and make the city much more attractive for private companies.