Aqueduct Floods: Cost Benefit Analyzer Tool

The Aqueduct Floods Cost-Benefit Analyzer (CBA) is a tool for evaluating the costs and benefits of flood protection infrastructure. It calculates construction and operation and maintenance (O&M) costs against the benefits of avoided damage to urban assets. Users can select locations, future climate scenarios, and infrastructure specifications to generate cost-benefit ratios and cumulative net benefit graphs to support flood risk management decisions.

• The tool calculates economic costs based on two primary components: construction costs, which are determined by a country-specific factor multiplied by infrastructure dimensions, and operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, which are calculated as a percentage of the total construction cost over the infrastructure's lifespan.
• Economic benefits are measured as 'Avoided Damage', which is the difference between the expected annual damage to urban areas without adaptation and the expected annual damage after implementing the proposed flood protection infrastructure.
• The tool's analysis is limited to direct economic costs and benefits regarding urban assets and explicitly excludes indirect impacts such as social disruption, environmental damage, or human health.
• The tool provides a cost-benefit ratio to assess investment feasibility; a ratio less than one indicates that benefits outweigh costs, though the ratio can be inverted to show return on investment.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Aqueduct Floods: Cost Benefit Analyzer Tool. https://www.wri.org/aqueduct/help-center/aqueduct-floods-cost-benefit-analyzer-tool

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Aqueduct Floods: Cost Benefit Analyzer Tool. n.d. https://www.wri.org/aqueduct/help-center/aqueduct-floods-cost-benefit-analyzer-tool.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Aqueduct Floods: Cost Benefit Analyzer Tool |url=https://www.wri.org/aqueduct/help-center/aqueduct-floods-cost-benefit-analyzer-tool |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendaqueduct, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Aqueduct Floods: Cost Benefit Analyzer Tool}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/aqueduct/help-center/aqueduct-floods-cost-benefit-analyzer-tool}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }