Infrastructure And Ecology:
‘limited’ Costs May Hide Substantial Impacts
Author(s)
E. J. Bos & J. M. Vleugel
Abstract
In response to a growing demand for transport and changes in the way people
use space, the nature of road infrastructure networks change: (small) roads are
frequently transformed into highways. Before such expansions are realized, in
many cases a legal obligation exists to carry out a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in
order to assess whether the expansion scheme creates a net social benefit for
society. A CBA deals with the effects on the surrounding ecosystem, the
environment and human living. This paper focuses on the valuation of the biotic,
a-biotic and socio-economic damage, thereby contributing to the methodology of
CBA as a tool to evaluate infrastructural plans integrally.
Keywords: infrastructure, ecological effects, environmental effects, economic
valuation and CBA.
1 Introduction
Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) has become an important tool to support policy
making on public investments in infrastructure. Here we will focus on assessing
the external effects of infrastructure in economic terms. More specifically, we
will value the ecological and environmental effects of transforming an existing
motorway into a highway.
The set-up of the paper is as follows. Section 2 starts with an introduction into
CBA. Section 3 continues with an assessment of the ecological, environmental
and socio-economic impacts of the highway plan, followed by the economic
valuation of these impacts. Then an alternative plan to reroute the highway will
be discussed briefly. Section 4 follows with an evaluation of the previous
analysis. In section 5 the main conclusions and recommendations can be found.
Keywords
infrastructure, ecological effects, environmental effects, economic
valuation and CBA
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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