Uploaded on 2016-11-13 by Ana Sofia Almeida

Montes Claros is a medium size city for Brazilian patterns, and functions as a regional pole, providing goods and service for people from neighbouring cities. Therefore, it is a growing city. The three most influential stocks and flows are people, finance/capital and density. Montes Claros concentrates the most developed infrastructure of the region and specifically an advanced third sector, responsible for the biggest part of the city’s GDP. This scenario alone means an expressive stock and flow of people and money. People from surrounding cities come and go on a daily basis, generating an enormous input and output of capital. They come to shop, trade, work, study, for recreational purposes and so on, creating a constant movement. There is also a big capital transit between Montes Claros and the state capital, Belo Horizonte, placing the city as a mediator between BH and the smaller cities of the region. Another factor has a great influence on these stocks and flows. The city have been attracting big investments on the educational sector for the last decades. In 1962 the first University was installed, and since then a numerous of others higher education institutions were established. We have now a consolidated stock and flow of people that move to the city during those graduation years, and then move out when the studies are finished, being replaced by other students and generating a cycle. The growing infrastructure of the city and its educational potential have contributed for its density flow. The population is rising and the centre areas are saturated, pushing people to the suburbs. The city centre cannot support the demands anymore, so other concentrations of services are emerging in different parts of the city. The students are also creating other centralities, due to the concentration of the institutions in parts of the city that were not occupied. The image illustrate the general configuration of the city and shows it's most important spots. It created by me in 2015. The big yellow shadow indicates the city centre and the blue circles indicate the higher education institutions. By analysing the stocks and flows of people, capital and density it would be possible to stablish specific cause and consequence principle, to determine which aspect affects which changes in the city. Therefore, it could provide a basis for decision making and urban planning and designing that would not only prevent future problems but also enable the city’s development in a sustainable way.