Assessing the value of intangible benefits of property level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures

© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Studies in the UK and elsewhere have identified that flooding can result in diverse impacts, ranging from significant financial costs (tangible) to social (intangible) impacts on households. At the same time, it is now clear that large-scale flood defence schemes are not the panacea to flood risk, and there is an increasing responsibility on property owners to protect their own properties. Hence, there is an emerging expectation for homeowners to take action in the form of investing in property level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures to protect their properties. However, hitherto the level of uptake of such measures remains very low. The tangible financial benefits of investing in PLFRA measures are generally well understood and have been demonstrated to be cost beneficial for many properties at risk from frequent flooding. Importantly, these estimates tend to take little account of the value of the intangible benefits of PLFRA measures and therefore may be under estimating their full benefits. There remains a need to develop an improved understanding of these intangible benefits, and this research sets out to bridge this knowledge gap. Based on a synthesis of the literature, the contingent valuation method was selected as a means to value intangible impacts of flooding on households. A questionnaire survey of homeowners affected in the 2007 flooding was employed to elicit willingness to pay (WTP) values to avoid the intangible impacts of flooding on their households. The analysis of the questionnaire survey data revealed that the average WTP per household per year to avoid intangible flood impacts was £653. This therefore represents the value of the intangible benefits of investing in PLFRA measures and is significantly higher than previously estimated. This research builds on previous research in suggesting a higher value to the intangible impacts of flooding on households by assessing wider range of intangible impacts and focussing on more experienced individuals. Furthermore, the research indicates that factors which influence the WTP values were principally stress of flood, worrying about loss of house values, worrying about future flooding and age of respondents, with income showing a weak correlation. The establishment of a new value for the intangible impacts of flooding on households in the UK is helpful in the domain of flood risk management when evaluating the total benefits (tangible and intangible) of investing in flood protection measures, thus providing a robust assessment for decision-making on flood adaptation measures at an individual property level

Integrated Coherent Radio-over-Fiber Units for Millimeter-Wave Wireless Access

For providing wireless access as a complementary access technology to direct optical access, supporting 1–10 Gb/s per client, we propose a novel scheme based upon the transparent integration of coherent Radio-over-Fiber (CRoF) units with next generation optical access (NGOA) networks using dense WDM and a centralized electronic signal processing in the optical line termination to mitigate distortions and to achieve low costs. This paper will concentrate on recent key technological developments that were achieved within the European IPHOBAC-NG project for constructing such CRoF units capable to provide wireless services within the E-band (60-90 GHz). In detail, GaAs-based single-sideband millimeter-wave Mach-Zehnder modulators, InP-based millimeter-wave photodiodes featuring rectangular waveguide outputs and monolithically integrated low-linewidth tunable laser diodes as well as SiGe-based millimeter-wave RF amplifier technology will be reported. In addition, a new coherent optical heterodyne radio-over–fiber scheme is proposed for seamless integration of next generation millimeter-wave wireless access systems into a next generation passive optical network employing dense or even ultra-dense WDM. We propose and demonstrate novel radio access units (RAU) using coherent optical heterodyne detection for the generation of the millimeter-wave radio signals in the RAUs. The proposed CRoF concept supports the provision of multiple services over a single optical distribution network including next generation optical and wireless access services and high-capacity fixed wireless links for mobile backhaul. Proof-of-concept system experiments are reported including the wireless transmission of a 2.5 Gb/s data signal over 40 m (limited by lab space) at 76 GHz carrier frequency after 20 km fiber-optic transmission. For providing wireless access as a complementary access technology to direct optical access, supporting 1–10 Gb/s per client, we propose a novel scheme based upon the transparent integration of coherent Radio-over-Fiber (CRoF) units with next generation optical access (NGOA) networks using dense WDM and a centralized electronic signal processing in the optical line termination to mitigate distortions and to achieve low costs. This paper will concentrate on recent key technological developments that were achieved within the European IPHOBAC-NG project for constructing such CRoF units capable to provide wireless services within the E-band (60-90 GHz). In detail, GaAs-based single-sideband millimeter-wave Mach-Zehnder modulators, InP-based millimeter-wave photodiodes featuring rectangular waveguide outputs and monolithically integrated low-linewidth tunable laser diodes as well as SiGe-based millimeter-wave RF amplifier technology will be reported. In addition, a new coherent optical heterodyne radio-over–fiber scheme is proposed for seamless integration of next generation millimeter-wave wireless access systems into a next generation passive optical network employing dense or even ultra-dense WDM. We propose and demonstrate novel radio access units (RAU) using coherent optical heterodyne detection for the generation of the millimeter-wave radio signals in the RAUs. The proposed CRoF concept supports the provision of multiple services over a single optical distribution network including next generation optical and wireless access services and high-capacity fixed wireless links for mobile backhaul. Proof-of-concept system experiments are reported including the wireless transmission of a 2.5 Gb/s data signal over 40 m (limited by lab space) at 76 GHz carrier frequency after 20 km fiber-optic transmission