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Financial and Economic Measurement of Environmental Factors
Author(s) -
B. BODDINGTON M. A.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
water and environment journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1747-6593
pISSN - 1747-6585
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-6593.1993.tb00823.x
Subject(s) - agriculture , business , finance , environmental impact assessment , environmental planning , environmental economics , natural resource economics , environmental resource management , economics , environmental science , ecology , biology
The paper describes how financial and economic aspects can be analysed and quantified in environmental assessment, and how this can be related to the losses or gains in any given project. Projects which require environmental assessment often have the image of being harmful to the environment ‐ as is the case of new roads, railways or developments which either take land out of agriculture or attract an environmentally damaging image. Many projects involve resources which are not traded and which are not always valued in financial or economic terms. Nonetheless, they are capable of being valued in this way, and their evaluation leads to greater understanding in decision‐making. The study, undertaken to assess the costs and benefits of drainage for the middle and south level barrier banks on the Ouse Washes, demonstrates how (a) financial and economic analysis of the cost, and (b) the gains of a project, can guide the allocation of public resources to the benefit of the environment.