Tag: software

Tracing Substances in Material Flow Systems

One important issue in material flow models is tracing of certain substances, such as heavy metals or toxins. While the overall material flow quantity is less relevant, the focus is on comparatively smaller quantities.

The Sankey diagram below shows the Cadmium (Cd) flows in an composting plant (mechanic-biological treatment plant, MBT). It was created by ifeu Institute in Heidelberg with the material flow management software Umberto.

In the modeling software Umberto, the Sankey diagrams are an optional way of displaying calculated material flows.

Java applet to explore Sankey energy diagram interactively

Researchers of the “energy flow” project at Weimar’s Bauhaus University have developed a Java applet to explore a Sankey energy diagram interactively.


The accompanying explanation says:

We present a system that allows users to interactively explore complex flow scenarios represented as Sankey diagrams. Our system provides an overview of the flow graph and allows users to zoom in and explore details on demand. The support for quantitative flow tracing across the flow graph as well as representations at different levels of detail facilitate the understanding of complex flow situations.

The energy flow in a city serves as a sample scenario for our system. Different forms of energy are distributed within the city and they are transformed into heat, electricity, or other forms of energy. These processes are visualized and interactively explored. In addition our system can be used as a planning tool for the exploration of future scenarios by interactively manipulating different parameters in the energy flow network.

The Java-based online version (in German) allows the visitor to interactively explore the Sankey diagram. They can zoom in, move the nodes, or call additional data for individual layers.