A streamlined approach to putting dollar
values on benefits of water-sensitive
cities investments
David Pannell, UWA
Various benefits
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Market
– Cost savings; e.g. delayed or reduced investment in
traditional infrastructure
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Non-market
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Health
Comfort (temperatures)
Aesthetics
Recreation
Environment
Lack of restrictions on water use
Information sources for non-market values
Tranche 1 CRC studies
 Other published studies
 Grey literature
 Potentially new studies to fill key gaps

Using the existing information
Need for values to be used in different contexts
than the original studies
 Too expensive and slow to do original studies
every time
 Aim is to transfer or extrapolate existing results
to new contexts
 This is not a new idea

“Benefit Transfer”
They have developed
systematic approaches
to transferring values
 Do it in a way that
maximises validity
 Recognise the
reasonable limits to
transferring values
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Elements of our strategy - information
Comprehensive database of studies, their
results and their specific contexts
 A system that allows easy searching and
interrogation
 Information in the database that is designed to
help with Benefit Transfer
 Link to the BCA tool
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Elements of our strategy - guidance
Best-practice guidelines on Benefit Transfer, with
a focus on water-related benefits
 Worked examples
 A training package
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Elements of our strategy - consultation
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Work closely with end users
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Identify the priority value types
Understand the contexts where they are needed
Design the tool to suit their needs and capabilities
Test the tool’s usability and usefulness with them
Use the international experts to review our
approach