Life-Cycle Cost/Benefit Analyses
To integrate technical, economic, environmental and social factors into sustainable CIS investment decision-making processes that are based on life-cycle cost/benefit analyses.
In the next decade, municipalities and other CIS owners will have methods of integrating technical and financial information, as well as life-cycle cost/benefit analyses, into their decision-making processes and sustainable asset-management programs. The environmental and socioeconomic costs, and benefits of infrastructure projects, should be quantified over the life cycle of the assets.
Life-Cycle Cost/Benefit Analyses | |
Major Challenges | Technology Needs |
• Costs vary over the life of the infrastructure, depending on the level of service and utilization. • Most procurement systems are not conducive to life-cycle costing. • Benefits of life-cycle costing are not well understood by administrators and decision-makers. • Environmental and social costs are intangible and difficult to estimate. • Decision-makers' concerns are often short-term, while infrastructure investments require long-term commitments and planning. | • Identify and characterize life-cycle costs (economic, environmental and social) and evaluate the factors that influence these and associated costs, including the effects of demand, service and load levels • Develop models for the life-cycle costs of infrastructure that are adaptable to wide-ranging conditions and can be incorporated into asset-management and decision-making systems • Create tools to determine the factors that influence the service life of assets • Develop methodologies to incorporate life-cycle costs into procurement systems and procedures |
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