Transport Investment Appraisal and the Environment

This review considers the role of environmental effects in transport investment appraisal, mainly from the perspective of cost-benefit analysis, the most widely adopted appraisal technique. Although the basic principles of CBA are straightforward, several complications are identified that may play an important role in practical CBA's. These include second-best aspects, difficulties with discounting and with the spatial scope of CBA's, and the relation between CBA and the popular but multi-faceted and often ill-defined policy concept of sustainable development.