Sankeydiagrammeja

Sankeydiagrammeja, or Sankey diagrams in English, are a type of flow diagram in which the width of the arrows is proportional to the flow quantity. They are particularly useful for visualizing energy, material, monetary, or other flows. The key feature of a Sankey diagram is that the conservation of flow is visually apparent: the total width of the arrows entering a node must equal the total width of the arrows leaving it.

These diagrams were developed by Captain Matthew Sankey in 1898 to depict the efficiency of a steam engine in a paper he presented to the Institution of Naval Architects. Since then, their application has expanded significantly. They are commonly used in fields such as energy analysis, environmental studies, economics, and project management to show how resources are distributed, consumed, or transferred between different stages or categories.

The interpretation of a Sankey diagram involves following the flow paths. Wider arrows indicate larger quantities, making it easy to identify the dominant flows and areas of significant loss or transfer. They provide an intuitive way to understand complex systems and identify patterns or inefficiencies that might be difficult to discern from tabular data alone. Many software tools are available to create Sankey diagrams, making them accessible for various analytical purposes.