CRC for WSC Economic tools and resources

17/04/2019

The CRC for Water Sensitive Cities 'Integrated Research Project 2: Comprehensive Economic Evaluation Framework (IRP2)' has developed an economic evaluation framework to identify and quantify economic, environmental and community values of investments in water sensitive practices and systems

As part of this evaluation framework, the IRP2 team have built two tools that will help to inform a business case or aid in better decision making to achieve water sensitive, liveable and resilient cities.

Tools

Following the release of the beta versions of the Benefit Cost Analysis (BCA) Tool and the Value Tool last year and extensive feedback, the tools are currently being updated and the newer version will be released later this year. 

The Benefit: Cost Analysis (BCA) Tool has been designed to assess investments related to water-sensitive cities. It supports balanced and systematic decision making and provides evidence for use in business cases. The stand-out features are that the specification of benefits is highly flexible, and can deal with any type of benefit likely to emerge in a project related to water or green infrastructure. A government agency can focus on benefits and costs for society as a whole, whereas a business, such as a water utility, may choose to focus on benefits and costs to the organisation responsible for the project.  It can be used by any organisation interested in the distribution of benefits of a project or investment among multiple stakeholder groups.

The Value Tool is a comprehensive database of dollar values for non-market benefits generated by water sensitive systems and practices, and a set of user guidelines that explain how the information in the database can be used to support business case development using benefit transfer. The tool contains 336 non-market benefit values from 76 Australian studies that are specifically related to investment in water sensitive cities.  20 different benefit types are represented, with a spread of values available for each.

If you are a CRCWSC member, the beta version of these tools are available to download once logged in to the CRCWSC website, and you are encouraged to explore these and apply them in your work. If you are not a member but would like to trial the tools, please contact Euan Hind or Tammie Harold.

Industry Notes

Industry Notes that summarise the purpose and key features of these economic tools are now available.  The Industry Notes are intended for all practitioners to use when engaging with various organisations and departments on the economic benefits of water sensitive urban design projects.

They are available now for all to download from the CRCWSC website:

If you have any questions about IRP2, please contact Tammie Harold at tamara.harold@uwa.edu.au or (08) 6488 5507 or visit the CRC for WSC IRP2 website.