Best practice environmental and ecological economic methods in the assessment of sustainable urban water systems
This project will investigate best practice methods for including externalities, or sustainability criteria in 'whole-system' assessments of sustainable urban water system. It will compare and evaluate environmental and ecological economic approaches for assessing environmental cost and benefits of urban water systems before developing an integrated assessment methodology which incorporates cost analysis and draws from both environmental and ecological economic approaches. The project will draw on existing methodologies, exploring opportunities to synthesise material flow analyses, social impact assessment and risk assessment concepts with life cycle costing of alternatives. An important component of the work will be the investigation of the limits of environmental economics and benefits transfer models and what to do beyond a feasible monetisation frontier. Possibilities include participatory backcasting, constraints based approaches, and various forms of multi criteria assessment.
For further information about this topic contact Dr Simon Fane
