Climate Resilience Benefit-Cost Analysis Tool for Water Utilities

Climate change is creating new challenges for stormwater, wastewater, and drinking water utilities, hereon collectively referred to as water utilities. Changing precipitation patterns are exacerbating natural shocks and stressors such as heavy precipitation, flooding, wildfire, and drought. These changes, coupled with increased urban development and pollution, are causing growing issues with water quantity and quality, the impacts of which are often inequitably distributed. Many water utilities are recognizing the need to invest in climate resilience, but it can be challenging to garner support with limited time and resources and so many competing priorities and “everyday” disasters (e.g., lead pipes, water affordability issues). Utility managers need a way to balance these priorities and decide what types of climate-resilient infrastructure, policies, and programs best meet their service area’s needs.

CIS and our partner, Radbridge Incorporated, will develop a comprehensive framework and tool to support water utilities with these decisions, helping utility managers to build a case for climate-resilient infrastructure and supporting strategies and to prioritize and optimize these investments. The tool will help utility managers to quantify benefits and costs of different solutions through a collaborative process. It will also help utilities to communicate the importance of climate resilience investments to stakeholders and build consensus for action. The project team is convening a cohort of four water utilities and their partners to guide the tool’s development. The tool will be piloted with these four utilities to help them prioritize, optimize, and justify climate-resilient water infrastructure, policies, and programs, including guidance on how to ensure equitable outcomes and avoid maladaptation during implementation