Methodology for the rapid study of water resources development alternatives

Abstract

This study was undertaken in an effort to develop procedural methodology for the consideration of alternative solutions for water resources development in a short period of time with a view toward reduction of total costs involved in prefeasibility studies. A review of related literature was made to reveal the status of the need for the development of a comprehensive method to evaluate possible alternatives. Three techniques were developed in this research effort to estimate the investment costs of a reservoir project, a levee project and a basin conservation reservoir project in an economic region. The application of the methodologies were illustrated by a case study. The costs of a reservoir project in the case study area determined by the method developed in this investigation was in excellent agreement with the Corps of Engineers' estimate using conventional methods. In general, the dependability of all three methodologies were considered good for the use in order-of-magnitude estimates.