In WP 6 an environmental economic analysis methodology will be developed to facilitate and support prioritization between remediation projects within a groundwater catchment area or a region. The methodology shall comply with EU Water Framework Directive requirements. Analysis will be based on welfare economic theory as well as state-of-the-art methods in order to identify the best remediation alternative for society. As part hereof an empirical valuation study (using stated preference methods) will be conducted, hereby valuing benefits from the remediation alternatives to society.
The valuation will be closely linked to the other parts of the project both with respect to the description and quantification of the effects of remediation and especially with regard to the risk and uncertainty related to these effects concerning both environmental and human risk exposure in order to identify the best remediation alternative for society.
The output will be a ranking of the best remediation alternative for society based the direct costs together with the potential value of the most important side effects from remediation. Uncertainties of remediation efficiency and the time lag from the time of source reduction to when groundwater is protected will be emphasised in the economic evaluation. The use of the output results will be discussed together with ethical aspects, especially for cases when effects of remediation include risk reduction and/or effects that occur after long periods of time (decades).