Discussion on Papers 5–8

DR M. J. CLARK, Department of Geography, University of Southampton

The Authors of Paper 6 have provided a timely indication of the scope and complexity of cost-benefit analysis as an approach to economic evaluation of coast-protection or seadefence strategies. Although the need to assess the economic justification for proposed works is implicit in both the Coast Protection and Land Drainage Acts, the rigour to be applied to this task has been open to widely differing interpretation. By providing a standard analytical framework through which to approach the very difficult task of combining positive and negative economic attributes of a proposed design, cost-benefit analysis should warrant serious attention whether or not it forms a statutory part of the grant application procedure. Nevertheless, like any other modelling technique, cost-benefit analysis is constrained by a series of input assumptions which subsequently control both the procedure and the conclusion. No matter how detailed (and expensive) the data, the analysis is ultimately a product of its initial assumptions.