scholarly journals Redefinition of Cost-Benefit Efficiency of Land-Use Projects: Focusing on Environmental Cost

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Chen ◽  
Qianyi Du ◽  
Xueyan Xiong ◽  
Deliang Zhong ◽  
Na Deng ◽  
...  

The cost-benefit efficiency of projects is often wrongly evaluated due to the neglect of projects’ impact on the environment. In this paper, we aim to establish a model to measure such an impact and hence propose a more reasonable approach to evaluating cost-benefit efficiency of projects. We divide the total cost of a certain project into two parts: Business Cost (BC) and Environmental Cost (EC). BC is the explicit cost that can be approached from financial statements, while EC is the implicit cost which we try to quantify. EC is composed of three parts: (1) the Ecosystem Service Value (ESV), (2) the Restoration Cost (RC) to treat the pollution caused by the projects, and (3) the Disaster Cost (DC), potential losses caused by disasters due to launch of new projects. In order to make a cost-benefit efficiency analysis, we introduce profitability index, which is further developed into an adjusted profitability index by taking time value into consideration. Two case studies are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the model. A regional case of a coal-mining project proves that RC and DC play a significant role in cost-benefit efficiency analysis, while a nationwide case of high-speed rail shows that project scale matters. Additionally, we put our attention on the intensity of the project, which is a created measurement to characterize the project. Based on the study of intensity, the mechanism of cost-benefit break-even is further explained and some suggestions are proposed to policy makers.

Author(s):  
Sri Satya Kanaka Nagendra Jayanty ◽  
William J. Sawaya ◽  
Michael D. Johnson

Engineers, policy makers, and managers have shown increasing interest in increasing the sustainability of products over their complete lifecycles and also from the ‘cradle to grave’ or from production to the disposal of each specific product. However, a significant amount of material is disposed of in landfills rather than being reused in some form. A sizeable proportion of the products being dumped in landfills consist of packaging materials for consumable products. Technological advances in plastics, packaging, cleaning, logistics, and new environmental awareness and understanding may have altered the cost structures surrounding the lifecycle use and disposal costs of many materials and products resulting in different cost-benefit trade-offs. An explicit and well-informed economic analysis of reusing certain containers might change current practices and results in significantly less waste disposal in landfills and in less consumption of resources for manufacturing packaging materials. This work presents a method for calculating the costs associated with a complete process of implementing a system to reuse plastic containers for food products. Specifically, the different relative costs of using a container and then either disposing of it in a landfill, recycling the material, or reconditioning the container for reuse and then reusing it are compared explicitly. Specific numbers and values are calculated for the case of plastic milk bottles to demonstrate the complicated interactions and the feasibility of such a strategy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dewei Li ◽  
Shishun Ding ◽  
Yizhen Wang

Train timetabling is crucial for passenger railway operation. Demand-oriented train timetable optimization by minimizing travel time plays an important role in both theory and practice. Most of the current researches of demand-oriented timetable models assume an idealized situation in which the service order is fixed and in which zero overtaking exists between trains. In order to extend the literature, this paper discusses the combinatorial effect of service order and overtaking by developing four mixed-integer quadratic programming timetabling models with different service order as well as overtaking conditions. With the objective of minimizing passengers’ waiting time and in-vehicle time, the models take five aspects as constraints, namely dwell time, running time, safety interval, overtaking, and capacity. All four models are solved by ILOG CPLEX; and the results, which are based on Shanghai-Hangzhou intercity high-speed rail data, show that either allowing overtaking or changing service order can effectively optimize the quality of timetable with respect to reducing the total passengers’ travel time. Although optimizing train overtaking and service order simultaneously can optimize the timetable more significantly, compared to overtaking, allowing the change of service order can help passengers save total travel time without extending the train travel time. Moreover, considering the computation effort, satisfying both of the conditions in the meantime, when optimizing timetable has not got a good cost benefit.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-215
Author(s):  
Risa Nurwulan Sari ◽  
Achmad Tjahjono

Environmental cost is also known as the cost of environmental quality. The treatment cost of environmental quality is equal to the cost of environmental quality, so that the cost of environmental quality can be grouped into : environmental prevention costs, environmental detection costs, environmental internal failure costs, and environmental external failure costs. The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze how firms identify, recognize, measure, assess and present and disclose the environmental cost in the financial statements. This research was conducted at the Hidayatullah Islamic Hospital of Yogyakarta who has had WWTP by using biological method, that is activated sludge. This study is a qualitative research. This study uses primary data and secondary data. Primary data were collected by interview. The results of this study are in the hospital recognizes the environmental costs and presented into a single account with the other similiar cost in the primary financial statement. Environmental cost is measured by the cost incurred (Historial Cost) with the monetary units rupiah. Environmental costs are not disclosed in the notes of the financial statements (CALK), but disclosed in a descriptive report, a report UKL-UPL. 


Water Policy ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nele Lienhoop ◽  
Emad K. Al-Karablieh ◽  
Amer Z. Salman ◽  
Jaime A. Cardona

Decentralised wastewater treatment systems offer an opportunity to introduce wastewater treatment and generate irrigation water in places that are not connected to centralised treatment plants. The advantages of decentralised technologies include their capability to provide wastewater treatment infrastructure in remote and hilly rural communities and their flexible adaptation to fast-growing semi-urban settlements. In this study we investigate the costs and benefits of introducing decentralised wastewater treatment and re-use to two locations in Jordan. The cost–benefit analysis (CBA) used here differs from traditional CBA in that it includes non-market benefits for which monetary values are not readily available, in addition to market benefits. We elaborate on three valuation methods to monetise benefits associated with the environment, health and irrigation in agriculture. Our findings suggest that it is principally worthwhile to establish decentralised treatment technologies in remote areas.


2021 ◽  
Vol 233 ◽  
pp. 01137
Author(s):  
Chao Ji ◽  
Chenyu Xu

With the rapid development of China's high-speed railway (HSR), there are also many problems. For example, in the classification and calculation of HSR transportation costs, there is a lack of reasonable cost statistical methods. There are many types of high-speed train currently running on HSR (mainly G and D trains). There are differences in the speed, load and energy consumption of different types of trains. The resulting infrastructure usage costs also vary. However, all train costs are classified and calculated uniformly in practice. This paper proposes the expenditure rate method of the transport process allocating the infrastructure use costs among types of trains. Based on data from the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, the cost of infrastructure is calculated, and the calculation results can reasonably reflect the cost allocation among types of trains. It makes the cost calculation of high-speed railway more accurate and lays a foundation for environmental cost calculation.


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