NSW Government agency trials INFFEWS tools for all benefit-cost analysis

We’re regularly seeing examples of the water industry taking up the tools and products developed by the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities.

A great example is the Centre for Advanced Analytics and Economics (CAAE) at the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) which is trialling our INFFEWS tools to conduct benefit-cost analysis (BCA).

The INFFEWS suite is part of the comprehensive economic evaluation framework our IRP2 program has developed over the past three years with input from hundreds of CRCWSC participants and other stakeholders. The INFFEWS tools include the    Benefit Cost Analysis (BCA) Tool,    a Value Tool, and    detailed resources to guide their application and decision making processes.

We recently announced updates to the BCA Tool, following extensive industry consultation and a national training tour.

CAAE will trial the BCA Tool in current in-house BCA projects as a precursor to further roll out of the tool and a recommendation that economic practitioners also use it for DPIE contract work. The first project will be to assess the impact of interventions on species numbers under the $100 million Save our Species program. They will also use the tool for ex-post evaluations of climate change initiatives.

According to CAAE, the INFFEWS tools provide transparent calculations, assumptions and analysis. This transparency will help with post-implementation evaluations which are sometimes conducted after the authors of the original BCA projects have moved on.