TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding the economic impacts of disruptions in water service
AU - Heflin, Colleen
AU - Jensen, Jennifer
AU - Miller, Kathleen
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding for this research was provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Science & Technology Directorate , through a technology development and deployment program managed by The National Institute for Hometown Security, under Other Transactions Agreement (OTA) #HSHQDC-07-3-00005.
PY - 2014/10
Y1 - 2014/10
N2 - Over the past decade, there has been much attention focused on community readiness for catastrophic emergency events, such as major natural disasters or terrorist attacks. However, though the economic costs associated with experiencing such an event are high, the probability of such events occurring is quite low. At the same time, less catastrophic events that temporarily disrupt essential services to local areas, such as water and electricity, are quite common. However, there is little research that documents residents' actual economic costs when their water service is disrupted. In this paper, we contribute to the growing literature assigning economic value to residential water service by documenting the economic costs residents report from routine, small-scale water disruptions through focus groups and in-person interviews. We find that residential impacts ranged from over $1400 in savings (from working more hours than usual and eating out less than usual) to a cost of over $1000, with an overall average of $93.96. These costs, particularly when multiplied over a substantial population, become quite significant and demonstrate the importance of studying the economic costs of such events.
AB - Over the past decade, there has been much attention focused on community readiness for catastrophic emergency events, such as major natural disasters or terrorist attacks. However, though the economic costs associated with experiencing such an event are high, the probability of such events occurring is quite low. At the same time, less catastrophic events that temporarily disrupt essential services to local areas, such as water and electricity, are quite common. However, there is little research that documents residents' actual economic costs when their water service is disrupted. In this paper, we contribute to the growing literature assigning economic value to residential water service by documenting the economic costs residents report from routine, small-scale water disruptions through focus groups and in-person interviews. We find that residential impacts ranged from over $1400 in savings (from working more hours than usual and eating out less than usual) to a cost of over $1000, with an overall average of $93.96. These costs, particularly when multiplied over a substantial population, become quite significant and demonstrate the importance of studying the economic costs of such events.
KW - Resilience
KW - Utility
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84902528533&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84902528533&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2014.05.003
DO - 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2014.05.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 24950018
AN - SCOPUS:84902528533
SN - 0149-7189
VL - 46
SP - 80
EP - 86
JO - Evaluation and Program Planning
JF - Evaluation and Program Planning
ER -