Identification of Project Benefits and Impacts

1. MRC-MDBC STRATEGIC LIAISON PROGRAMBASIN DEVELOPMENT PLANNINGTRAINING MODULE 2APPLICATION OF BASIN PLANNING PRINCIPLESPhnom Penh19-22 January 2003 Identification of Project Benefits and Impacts

2. IDENTIFICATION OF PROJECT BENEFITS AND IMPACTSIdentifying Project Benefits • It would be expected that when a project is proposed, it is because the proposer believes that some positive benefits will result. • These expected benefits may be economic, social or environmental or a mix of these. • Because the BDP is about water-related projects it is possible that these estimates can be verified by use of the DSF. • This will require trying to link the benefits to water-related data.

3. IDENTIFICATION OF PROJECT BENEFITS AND IMPACTSIdentifying Project Benefits • An example is irrigation. • Without going into technical details, the DSF can be set up to simulate water availability, and more importantly, water shortages. • It therefore becomes possible through crop factors (eg m3/ha) and crop mean gross margins ($/ha) to compute the expected economic value of particular irrigated crops. • Importantly, all the above requires a broad range of skills, knowledge and time.

4. IDENTIFICATION OF PROJECT BENEFITS AND IMPACTSIdentifying Project Impacts • Before identifying project impacts, it is necessary to identify what might be impacted. • In Module 1, participants identified a range of basin assets for which knowledge of project impacts would be required. • It is important to note that although most water-related impacts of projects can be identified through the basin asset approach, some cannot. • These are impacts such as resettlement that might result from construction of a reservoir etc.

5. IDENTIFICATION OF PROJECT BENEFITS AND IMPACTSIndicators of Impacts • As with benefits there is a huge advantage to be gained if impacts can be linked to water-related data so that the DSF can help with analysis. • Some impact indicators will be relatively simple. For example, water depth for assessing impacts on navigation. • Other impact indicators, especially those relating to environmental assets, recreation and tourism etc will be difficult because the model will not directly compute them. • A good example is the basin asset of fisheries:

6. IDENTIFICATION OF PROJECT BENEFITS AND IMPACTS Indirect Indicators for Impacts • Typical impact indicators for the health and sustainability of the fisheries would include: • changes in fish population; • changes in the mix of fish species, and so on. • Clearly the DSF does not generate such data. • It is necessary to find some useful, substitute water-related indicators that could be generated - eg for impacts on fish breeding, the simulation models could produce: • changes in flow patterns; • changes in frequency of floodplain inundation; etc

7. IDENTIFICATION OF PROJECT BENEFITS AND IMPACTSDevelopment Scenario Benefits and Impacts

8. IDENTIFICATION OF PROJECT BENEFITS AND IMPACTS Key Principles for Benefit and Impact Indicators • It makes good sense to make maximum use of DSF for generating values of selected indicators. • This requires water-related indicators. • Also, a BDP aim is to be able to easily compare the merits of various development scenarios. • This requires indicators in common units - $ Conclusion: • Only a strong partnership of planners/ experts/ modellers can develop such indicators.

9. IDENTIFICATION OF PROJECT BENEFITS AND IMPACTSThe Partnership Triangle