An introduction to Flood Risk Management and Cost-Benefit Analysis
What is a flood?
What is cost-benefit analysis and how is it used?
- Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is used by authorities (such as local authorities and the Environment Agency) to justify spending money on flood schemes.
- The ‘cost’ is the full price of a scheme, whether a flood storage pond, defence or flood gate on a house, and includes the construction costs.
- The ‘benefit’ is how much a scheme reduces flood risk and prevents a flood causing damage (damage avoided).
- So, CBA means you weigh up the costs and benefits of different types of schemes to reduce flood risk.
- CBA is a “thinking and learning” process, not a set of calculations leading to a ‘solution’.