Socio-Economic Assessment of Green Infrastructure for Climate Change Adaptation in the Context of Urban Drainage Planning

Luca Locatelli, Maria Guerrero, Beniamino Russo, Eduardo Martínez-Gomariz, David Sunyer and Montse Martínez
Additional contact information
Luca Locatelli: AQUATEC—Suez Advanced Solutions, Ps. Zona Franca 46-48, 08038 Barcelona, Spain
Maria Guerrero: Cetaqua, Water Technology Centre, Carretera d’Esplugues, 75, 08940 Cornellà de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
Beniamino Russo: AQUATEC—Suez Advanced Solutions, Ps. Zona Franca 46-48, 08038 Barcelona, Spain
Eduardo Martínez-Gomariz: Cetaqua, Water Technology Centre, Carretera d’Esplugues, 75, 08940 Cornellà de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
David Sunyer: AQUATEC—Suez Advanced Solutions, Ps. Zona Franca 46-48, 08038 Barcelona, Spain
Montse Martínez: AQUATEC—Suez Advanced Solutions, Ps. Zona Franca 46-48, 08038 Barcelona, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: Green infrastructure (GI) contributes to improve urban drainage and also has other societal and environmental benefits that grey infrastructure usually does not have. Economic assessment for urban drainage planning and decision making often focuses on flood criteria. This study presents an economic assessment of GI based on a conventional cost-benefit analysis (CBA) that includes several benefits related to urban drainage (floods, combined sewer overflows and waste water treatment), environmental impacts (receiving water bodies) and additional societal and environmental benefits associated with GI (air quality improvements, aesthetic values, etc.). Benefits from flood damage reduction are monetized based on the widely used concept of Expected Annual Damage (EAD) that was calculated using a 1D/2D urban drainage model together with design storms and a damage model based on tailored flood depth–damage curves. Benefits from Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) damage reduction were monetized using a 1D urban drainage model with continuous rainfall simulations and prices per cubic meter of spilled combined sewage water estimated from literature; other societal benefits were estimated using unit prices also estimated from literature. This economic assessment was applied to two different case studies: the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Badalona. The results are useful for decision making and also underline the relevancy of including not only flood damages in CBA of GI.

Keywords: urban flood; water quality; cost-benefit analysis; modelling; combined sewer overflows (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:9:p:3792-:d:354781

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