Flood defences, cost benefit and opportunity cost

Money spent on flood defences both here in the UK and overseas raises plenty of interesting questions relating to the use of cost benefit analysis and the opportunity cost of public money. What are the external costs and benefits of flood defence schemes? Are flood fences a pure public good? Who should pay for them? There have been several excellent news articles and video clips on this issue on the BBC web site in recent days - here is a selection

Coast cannot be completely saved
The Environment Agency has said it has not been given enough money to defend the whole East Anglian coast from flooding over the next 100 years

Flood risk fear over key UK sites
Hundreds of UK power substations and water treatment plants are potentially at risk from flooding, a confidential government study suggests

UK ill-prepared against floods
The UK’s weather forecasting needs to be improved, according to the man leading a government review into last summer’s downpours