Life-cycle Cost Approach for Management of Environmental Resources

Rising standards of living and expectations are putting ever greater demands to policy makers and service providers. Citizens expect decent quality services, at low costs, and to live in a decent environment. The natural reaction is to focus on capital investment in new infrastructure and services. Yet decisions taken at the point of construction have major consequences for decades after construction is finished: in terms of quality of service, costs of maintenance and impact on the environment . Its therefore imperative that planners and decision makers are able to factor in all the costs - financial and environmental - attached to different choices. This book provides a timely and useful compendium of concepts, tools and practical experiences in using the life-cycle cost approach to make informed decisions about service delivery. As such it is an invaluable tool to anyone who is involved in planning or decision making for sustainable service delivery. (Dr. Patrick Moriarty, CEO, International Rescue Committee, The Hague, The Netherlands)

This book demonstrates the application of Life-cycle Cost Approach (LCCA) in the management of infrastructure and other investment projects in the context of developing countries. The main goal is to identify potential opportunities for the adoption LCCA in developing countries, with the help of case studies and best practices. The editors observe that developing countries are plagued with poor and fluctuating service delivery which affords low or no priority for environmental protection. They seek to instill at the policy-making level an understanding of why life-cycle cost assessment is central to achieving the goals of sustainable development as well as sustainable service delivery and to influence the behavior of sector stakeholders.

The editors examine the evolution of LCCA from a project appraisal tool to a more comprehensive method of incorporating sustainable development aspects in a variety of sectors. By providing a compendium of concepts, tools and practical experiences, it seeks to broaden the application of LCCA, which is often limited to specific phases of the life-cycle with little or no weight given to environmental aspects.

The aim of the book is to mainstream LCCA into governance processes at institutional levels from local to national, in order to increase the ability and willingness of decision makers - both users and those involved in service planning, budgeting and delivery - to reach better informed and more relevant choices among different types and levels of products and services.