Cost-Benefit Analysis for Supporting Intermunicipal Decisions on Drinking Water Supply
Journal article, 2019

Several countries promote a regionalization of the drinking water sector; however, few decision support tools are adapted to the intermunicipal level to aid in regional decisions. The aim of this paper is to describe and demonstrate a probabilistic cost-benefit analysis approach to assess the societal effects of regional water supply interventions to constitute support for decision makers. A special focus is given to the quantification of effects on consumers’ health, water supply reliability, and operation and maintenance costs. The uncertainties of the quantified values are represented by probability distribution functions and analyzed by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The proposed approach was demonstrated in the Göteborg region in Sweden, for which five alternative interventions were evaluated. In conclusion, the proposed approach facilitates the identification and prioritization of societal effects so that costs and benefits normally overlooked in evaluation processes can be explicitly considered and addressed. The paper provides a transparent handling of uncertainties and enables a structured approach to improve decision makers’ ability in making informed choices on regional water supply alternatives.

drinking water

economic valuation

regionalization

decision support

uncertainty

Cost-benefit analysis

Author

Karin Sjöstrand

DRICKS - Framework programme for drinking water research at Chalmers

RISE Research Institutes of Sweden

Andreas Lindhe

DRICKS - Framework programme for drinking water research at Chalmers

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics

Tore Söderqvist

Anthesis Enveco AB

Lars Rosen

DRICKS - Framework programme for drinking water research at Chalmers

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Geology and Geotechnics

Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management - ASCE

0733-9496 (ISSN)

Vol. 145 12 04019060

Decision-support system for sustainable regional water supply

Formas (2015-130), 2015-09-01 -- 2018-12-31.

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Subject Categories

Economics and Business

DOI

10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001121

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Latest update

4/5/2022 6