Economics of Streamflow Data Collection

Abstract

ABSTRACT Users of streamflow data state that availability of data is essential for the achievement of efficient use of resources in design and management of flood protection and water supply projects. Collection and archiving of data is expensive and is not perceived by some as producing either immediate or obvious benifits. In a climate of declining government spending data acquisition is being cut. However; it has been shown that the benefits of data collection are very large, tens of times larger than the cost involved, The largest single use of data in Australia is for design of waterway crossings. For this application it is estimated that the benefits from data collection can be about ten times the cost of collection. For design of water supply dams data can be worth about jive times the cost of collection. The contribution of data from a single monitoring site to the design of a flood mitigation scheme could be anything from twice to one hundred times the cost of collection, However since only one or two new flood mitigation schemes are considered each year and for most other uses there is less data application, these other uses contribute a positive but small amount to the value of the data collection program. Taken as a whole, the network of seven hundred streamgauging stations in New South Wales, Australia is estimated to save the general community many times the cost of collection and archiving of the data.