Abbreviated MFA can be seen as a method that aims to streamline the process of performing a city-wide MFA. Methods like the EW-MFA are known to be time-consuming and data-heavy, while at the same time lacking a number of key flows (e.g. water and electricity). Various researchers have discussed and advocated for an abbreviated approach to mainstream the field of urban metabolism (Kennedy and Hoornweg 2012), and several case studies have taken place that make use of an “abbreviated” or “streamlined” MFA method that allow for a relatively quick assessment of a city’s metabolism. The advantage of these methods is that it can be performed much more quickly than more rigorous studies, at the expense of accuracy and completeness. This method allows researchers to make comparisons across different cities by tackling a number of cities in a single study, which is much more difficult to do with other methods. This approach has led to the funding of comparative studies by international agencies like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (D Hoornweg et al. 2012; Serrat, Park, and Yoshino 2014).