Implementation of a multi - scenario cost - benefit analysis module for the Risk - CHANGES SDSS platform : extended abstract

The Risk-CHANGES Platform is an initiative of the ongoing EU 7th Research Programme “CHANGES” to perform fast, easy and web-based risk analysis for different natural hazards. The goal of the Risk-CHANGES platform is not only to determine the risk in the current situation but also to be able to calculate changes in risk level under future changes that have been defined in scenarios and furthermore to analyse the effect of different alternatives for risk reduction. In the context of risk mitigation and the evaluation of investments for risk reduction for natural hazards it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of such efforts in economic terms. For such purpose a well know method called Cost & Benefit Analysis (CBA) is used for the economic assessment of these measures. The aim of this work is to introduce the Cost & Benefit Analysis implementation of the Risk-CHANGES platform. We provide a flexible method to interpolate the risk values for the different reference years defined in a given scenario of change within a project allowing the user to add custom items such as additional direct/indirect costs and benefits associated with the current risk reduction alternative being analysed. Finally we also provide a comparison & visualization tool allowing user to visualize and compare the economic performance of each risk reduction alternative for which the CBA has been carried out. The tool allows to select a previously created CBA and visually compare the economic metrics of each alternative by selecting the desired metric such as Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) and Net Present value (NPV).