Issues of scale and scope in bio-physical modelling for natural resource management decision making in New South Wales

Natural resource management decision making by Catchment Management Authorities in NSW is being aided by a project involving bio-physical modelling and the development of an alternative decision-making framework. The objective of the bio-physical modelling process is to generate predictions of environmental or natural resource outcomes rather than project outputs. These outcomes can then be used in an investment framework to help priority setting and project decision making. Questions that arise in bio-physical modelling include those relating to scale and scope. Scale issues include how to address the landscape impacts of particular (or a series of local) on-ground works proposals. Scope issues include assessment of multiple-attribute responses to particular changes. In a multi-disciplinary context the challenge is then to translate this information into units that can be adapted to a decision-support framework. Existing Catchment Management Authorities decisions are often based on scoring and weighting of environmental improvements using an environmental benefits index, however other economic frameworks are possible. We discuss the important context for these questions in the decision making framework.environmental benefits, bio-physical models, scale, scope, investment decisions, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Environmental economics and valuation: towards a practical investment framework for Catchment Management Authorities in New South Wales

The Catchment Management Authorities in New South Wales have programs that are collectively investing $436 million over four years to achieve catchment-wide natural resource/environmental improvements. In this paper, we consider the question of how to best allocate these resources so as to increase the well-being of the public within catchments and the state. We consider the current approaches used by CMAs and make a case for Benefit-Cost Analysis as an alternative means of assessing ex ante questions of priority setting at the catchment level and for project appraisal. A major issue for BCA is the estimation of potential benefits from project investments, particularly the estimation of values that catchment communities and those living outside the catchments place on the non-use benefits associated with environmental improvements. We discuss alternative means of eliciting such values and propose the stated-preference method of Choice Modelling as a means of overcoming this Benefit-Cost Analysis shortcoming, because it incorporates advances in non-market valuation.environmental, economics, choice modelling, non-use values, investment framework, Environmental Economics and Policy,

The health effects of Sure Start

From lagging well behind most European countries in the early 1990s, the UK is now one of the highest spenders on the under-5s in Europe (OECD, 2014). One of the biggest programmes for this age group is Sure Start. It offers families with children under the age of 5 a ‘one-stop shop’ for childcare and early education, health services, parenting support, and employment advice, with the aim of improving children’s school readiness, health, and social and emotional development