Creating and Evaluating Co-Benefits and Co-Costs of Environmental Policies and Investments in Urban Areas

This chapter investigates the use and suitability of benefits transfer as component of benefit-cost analysis for green infrastructure planning and decision making. Benefit transfer is a popular discussed topic among researchers and practitioners are also interested in its employment. Nowadays, economic arguments outweigh all other arguments and therefore are seriously needed to support decision making in green infrastructure planning to highlight the benefits of urban green. Unfortunately, the divergence between academic literature and current practice as well as the lack of guidance and protocols creates uncertainty and mistrust of benefit transfer and complicates is practical application in green infrastructure planning. The amount of affected population by each investment was measured through the introduction of different buffer zones around the sites. By this means, the projects economic, social and ecologic benefits were estimated and allocated to contrast them with the investment and maintenance costs in a benefit-cost analysis.