Tag: blog

sankey-diagrams.com – New Look

I had some downtime due to an unexpected issue with the blog, but everything is fine again now. Big shout-out to Chris who helped me with backup and recover.

The old theme didn’t work any more with the latest WordPress release, so I ended up with a new theme too. Still tweaking some of the font sizes and colors, but here we go.

After 12 years (since the first post in 2007) with the same look a refresh was probably justified.

A Necessary Disclaimer

I feel it is necessary to tell you about some recent developments…

Earlier this year I was approached by a friendly person from ifu Hamburg. They are the maker of the e!Sankey software. I have been using e!Sankey for many years now for doing most of my own Sankey diagrams. Actually they had been in contact with me before, occasionally commenting on my posts and also asking me to be a beta tester for their version e!Sankey 3 pro back in 2011.

So I was happy that they asked me to become a beta tester for the new version 4 again. That was in summer and I was lucky to be one of the first to use this new software.

At the same time they were offering me a deal to support my blog. They will be paying for a banner ad here on sankey-diagrams.com and have also comissioned a series of Sankey diagrams done with e!Sankey 4. These diagrams will be made available to e!Sankey users for download. I will use the payment I get to cover my ISP and domain fees. I think it is fair to inform my readers about this endorsement, and hope to be able to stay independent and unbiased.

New blog on MFA diagrams

A new blog dedicated to Material Flow Analysis (MFA) diagrams is available over at blogspot.

Material Flow Analysis (also refered to as Material Flow Accounting) is a research topic that focuses on specific substances or material flows on a macro level. Typically the system boundaries are a region or a country. Urban metabolism studies also use MFA diagrams. A key feature is the representation of stocks (storage or accumulation of material) within the system.

I have previously presented MFA diagram samples here on the blog that have Sankey diagram characteristics (i.e. arrow magnitudes proportional to flow quantities, directional arrows).

Here are two examples of MFA diagrams from the new blog for you to enjoy:


Platinum Flows in Europe. Source: Saurat, M., Bringezu, S., 2008. Platinum Group Metal Flows of Europe, Part 1 (via MFA diagram blog)


Phosphorus Flows. Source: Paul H. Brunner, 2007. MFA of regional lead flows and stocks [t/y] (via MFA diagram blog)

Make sure you visit the MFA diagram blog from time to time (I have put the link in the blogroll on the right), to see new interesting diagrams. I will also try to present some of them here…

sankey-diagrams.com now on WP 2.5

I have updated from WordPress 2.3.3 to the long-awaited version 2.5. While the visitors of the blog might not even notice any difference, the management of the blog via the admin dashboard looks much more comfortable and cleaner to me. I have already played with the improved tags (tags are also visible in the footer of each post again), but still have to experiment with the new built-in galleries. Kudos to the guys at WP, you’ve done a good job. And thanks King Louie for helping me with the update!

Just for fun – here’s my Sankey-diagram-like schematic display of the upgrade to WP 2.5. The magnitude of the arrows this time do NOT represent anything (neither lines of code nor the amount of satisfaction with each feature….)

Sankey Diagrams – a new kid on the blog

Welcome to Sankey Diagrams, a blog about a special type of flow diagram, that allows to represent material, energy or cost flows.

We will be presenting samples of Sankey diagrams and tidbits of information on these flow charts, widely used in engineering, especially in the energy field.

Of course we welcome your suggestions and comments. Do you have a Sankey diagram to share with the readers of this blog? Feel free to contact us.