Cost benefit analysis of peri-urban land use policy - Plurel

operation costs, travel time, accident costs, area property values 16 ), transportation
network effects (operating costs and revenues of metro), and energy and environmental
impacts (CO 2 emissions and local area pollution), as suggested by the international
literature. Data limitations for the impact evaluation of rapid rail investments in the GDA
are also influential in the process of the selection of indicators. Metro North project is
selected for the scenario-based impact assessment in this study, considering its wide
impacts in the GDA and in particular, data availability for this project published in
various sources.
From the literature review, there are few studies with a capacity of incorporating all of the
possible externalities into their analysis. This stems from the fact that it is difficult to
quantify most of the impacts of transportation provisions. Some of the impacts and
indicators can be represented in monetary values while others can be only expressed in a
qualitative way. There may be also correlations among various indicators such as the
positive correlation between land-use accessibility and land values, or the negative
correlation between air pollution exposure and area property values. Considering the
correlation effects, data limitations and the marginal role of some specific impacts in
CBA, only a limited number of indicators are selected in the present analysis.
Implementation of CBA for Impact Evaluation of Metro North
Investment in the GDA
Scenario analysis- comprising a baseline scenario (reference scenario) which is compared
with several alternative scenarios- can construct a base for the impact evaluation of rapid
rail investments. The research is mainly based on the consideration of two scenarios: A
baseline-business-as-usual and alternative with rail scenarios. According to the baseline
scenario, it is assumed that the urban area would continue to grow with the present
trends and there would be only sufficient maintenance and renewal investments to
maintain the existing infrastructure (see Figure 4). Therefore rail services in future years
would be broadly comparable to the current level leading to a dispersed form.
16 In relation to area property values, there are two key points to highlight: First, the land valuegains
accrue to private property owners to a large extent. Second, it is important to mention the
existence of relocation effects stemming from local development i.e. the gain achieved by one
area may be lost in another area in the region implying a net zero effect overall. Therefore, it is
suggested that effects on local development reflected in adjusted property values are not to be
taken into account in CBA but can be evaluated separately subject to a qualitative assessment.
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