Article // Applications of Life-Cycle Cost Analysis in Water and Wastewater Projects: Lessons from European Experience

By Georg Schiller (Leibniz-Institut of Ecological Urban and Regional Development), Stefan Dirlich. — Experiences of applying the life cycle costing concept for designing and implementing water and wastewater projects in Europe indicates, that LCC is suitable to support strategic planning decisions. The entire life cycle approach helps to implement more integrated thinking in settlement and infrastructure planning. The contribution describes current challenges of the water sector in Europe such as demographic change or climate change, gives a short introduction in LCC as part of the concept of life cycle management and presents various cases of planning tasks in the water sector for Germany and Europe. Based on this political economy, considerations are done in applications of LCC for strategic planning.