Cost-benefit analysis as a part of sustainability assessment of remediation alternatives for contaminated land.
There is an increasing demand amongst decision-makers and stakeholders for identifying sustainable remediation alternatives at contaminated sites, taking into account that remediation typically results in both positive and negative consequences. Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) is increasingly used for sustainability appraisal, and the Excel-based MCA tool Sustainable Choice Of REmediation (SCORE) has been developed to provide a relevant and transparent assessment of the sustainability of remediation alternatives relative to a reference alternative, considering key criteria in the economic, environmental and social sustainability domains, and taking uncertainty into explicit account through simulation. The focus of this paper is the use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) as a part of SCORE for assessing the economic sustainability of remediation alternatives. An economic model is used for deriving a cost-benefit rule, which in turn motivates cost and benefit items in a CBA of remediation alternatives. The empirical part of the paper is a CBA application on remediation alternatives for the Hexion site, a former chemical industry area close to the city of Göteborg in SW Sweden. The impact of uncertainties in and correlations across benefit and cost items on CBA results is illustrated. For the Hexion site, the traditional excavation-and-disposal remediation alternative had the lowest expected net present value, which illustrates the importance of also considering other alternatives before deciding upon how a remediation should be carried out.
Enveco Environmental Economics Consultancy, Måsholmstorget 3, SE-12748 Skärholmen, Sweden. Electronic address: tore@enveco.se.
Tore
T
Söderqvist
NCC Construction, SE-40514 Göteborg, Sweden; Chalmers University of Technology, SE-41296 Göteborg, Sweden. Electronic address: petra.brinkhoff@ncc.se.
Petra
P
Brinkhoff
Chalmers University of Technology, SE-41296 Göteborg, Sweden. Electronic address: tommy.norberg@chalmers.se.
Tommy
T
Norberg
Chalmers University of Technology, SE-41296 Göteborg, Sweden. Electronic address: lars.rosen@chalmers.se.
Lars
L
Rosén
Swedish Geotechnical Institute, Kornhamnstorg 61, 1tr, SE-11127 Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: par-erik.back@swedgeo.se.
Pär-Erik
PE
Back
Chalmers University of Technology, SE-41296 Göteborg, Sweden. Electronic address: jenny.norrman@chalmers.se.
Jenny
J
Norrman
D002617:Chemical Industry; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry*; D013548:Sweden
D012989:Soil Pollutants
Contaminated sites; Cost-benefit analysis; Multi-criteria analysis; Sustainable remediation