Flowing Through Dynamics: The Visual Elegance of Sankey’s Symphony

Sankey diagrams, elegant and informative, are a form of flow diagram originally conceptualized by English mechanical and hydraulic engineer William Playfair in the mid-19th century. Sankeys, named after a later developer, Martin Sankey, are the symphonies of visualization that map the flow of energy, water, or materials through a process. They have evolved over the years, becoming an indispensable tool in engineering, environmental management, and corporate sustainability reporting.

The Flow of Sankey: A Basic Introduction

A Sankey diagram is a graphical representation of the quantified flow of materials, costs, energy, or substances through a process system. Characteristically, it features arrows that show the quantity or volume of flow from one process to another. Sankey charts are designed with arrows that have a width proportional to the quantity flow in a process, creating a hierarchical bar graph in which the thickness of the arrowed line indicates the volume of flow.

Structure and Layout

• Nodes: These represent the input and output points in the system or process. It’s where matter or energy enters or exits the system.
• Arcs: Represent the flow from one process to another.
• Flux: The amount of matter or energy flowing through any point in the system.

The Dynamics: A Visual Symphony

The visual elegance of Sankey diagrams lies in their dynamic capacity to illustrate efficiency and inefficiency with precision. The diagram’s thickness, a direct correlate of the flow rate, offers a powerful tool for visual assessment, highlighting large flows and pinpointing where resources might be wasted.

The flow of the chart is akin to music’s rhythm and melody. The wider an arrow is, the stronger the ‘stream’ of flow—be it energy, money, or materials—it represents. Sankeys are not about exact numerical precision; they are about conveying a sense of dynamics and patterns.

Creation of a Sankey Symphony

Creating a Sankey diagram may appear complex, but with the right tools and method, it becomes a process of creation like composing a symphony.

The Process:

1. Identify the System: Clearly define the processes, inputs, and outputs of the system you want to analyze.
2. Quantify the Flow: Measure or estimate the flow of materials, energy, or substances through the identified processes.
3. Determine the Direction: Determine the direction of flow in the system, which could be from input to output, or within process steps.
4. Select a Tool: Choose a software or tool like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Visio, or specialized Sankey visualization packages to create your diagram.
5. Plot and Adjust: Plot the flows with thick or thin lines according to the calculated quantities, adjusting to maintain readability and aesthetic quality.
6. Review: Look for bottlenecks, areas where efficiency could be improved, or where larger flows might lead to inefficiencies.

The Rich Symphony of Applications

Sankey diagrams are much more than a static picture on a page. They have found widespread application in a variety of fields due to their effectiveness in depicting complex systems and their flows:

• Energy Flow: Visualize the efficiency of energy systems.
• Economic Management: Map the flow of capital, illustrating investment and returns.
• Environmental Reporting: Depict the materials flow for waste minimization and waste recycling.
• Chemical Engineering: Represent the flows of raw materials through a chemical process.
• Transportation Planning: Illustrate passenger or cargo flows in urban transportation systems.

Elegance in Flow, Dynamics in Action

In conclusion, Sankey diagrams perform the visual equivalent of music, where form follows function with elegant precision. They are an indispensable tool in understanding the dynamics of complex systems by providing a clear, graphical narrative of material, energy, and information flow. The creation and subsequent interpretation of a Sankey diagram are a journey through a visual symphony—a journey that, once traversed, offers insights and opportunities for improvement in a variety of applications, bringing the elegance of visual storytelling to the complex worlds of energy, engineering, and environmental management.

SankeyMaster

SankeyMaster is your go-to tool for creating complex Sankey charts . Easily enter data and create Sankey charts that accurately reveal intricate data relationships.