The context of water has shifted - from a utility supply, and input to production, to a valuable natural resource with economic, social, environmental and cultural importance.
But across urban and rural settings, concerns around water resources are multi-faceted. Covering climate variability and change, growing populations, a growing appreciation of the health of our rivers and wetlands, and the affordability of water services.
Our water resources must be managed in the context of a drying climate, and where alternative or manufactured – albeit more costly - sources can be drawn upon.
At Frontier Economics, we have a track record in shaping water policies and regulatory frameworks globally, that honour the essential environmental and societal values connected to our water resource. We're at the forefront of market design and operations; on urban and rural water reform, and the interplay between climate and water policies, both nationally and internationally, for both the public and private sectors.
One of our key priorities is to apply economics to understand the value of water, beyond the financial costs. Whether this is for price setting, business cases and cost-benefit-analysis, funding and distribution analysis, or to understand future investments and planning.
Partnering with hydrologists, engineers, environmental scientists and many others, we ensure our clients get comprehensive solutions including:
Given the increasingly interrelated nature of our water cycle, it’s no longer enough to separately assess our investments to manage long-term water security, short-term drought and wastewater and stormwater volumes.
Combining hydrological and economic analysis, our latest water model assesses the costs and benefits of alternative drought sequences to identify which supply or demand measure, or portfolio of measures, delivers the greatest value to the community, given uncertainty.
Our model helps decision makers answer questions like these, and more:
With 20+ years of experience in evaluating the economic, cultural, social and environmental costs and benefits of water security measures, under uncertainty, our Hydroeconomic CBA model provides advanced risk and uncertainty analysis using real options analysis.
The model combines the flexibility to model multiple drought sequences at once – to answer what should we do given we don’t know whether we will go into extreme drought and in-depth analysis of a single drought sequence to answer – if we were in this drought sequence, what should we do?
Using economic analysis and data to inform policy and regulation for more than 20 years, policymakers and industry leaders have trusted us to find data-backed solutions, with projects such as:
| Public Sector | Private Sector |
|---|---|
| Determining the social and economic impacts of the the Basin Plan water recovery in Victoria. | Advising on water price determinations - submissions to economic regulators. |
| Reviewing the economic and regulatory barriers to cost-effective water recycling. | Analysing the role of water in facilitating the liveability of cities for the Water Services Association of Australia. |
| Assessment of the benefits from collective action to reduce salinity levels in the Murray River |
