The edge-Wiener index is conceived in analogous to the traditional Wiener index and it is defined as the sum of distances between all pairs of edges of a graph G. In the recent years, it has received considerable attention for determining the variations of its computation. Motivated by the method of computation of the traditional Wiener index based on canonical metric representation, we present the techniques to compute the edge-Wiener and vertex-edge-Wiener indices of G by dissecting the original graph G into smaller strength-weighted quotient graphs with respect to Djoković-Winkler relation. These techniques have been applied to compute the exact analytic expressions for the edge-Wiener and vertex-edge-Wiener indices of coronoid systems, carbon nanocones and SiO2 nanostructures. In addition, we have reduced these techniques to the subdivision of partial cubes and applied to the circumcoronene series of benzenoid systems. © 2019 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim