Impact assessment of road transportation projects

The idea of an impact assessment, often also referred to as cost-benefit analysis, is to assess all impacts of a certain project, positive or negative, monetized and non-monetized. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) has the responsibility for building and maintaining all regional public roads in Norway, and has developed a method for impact assessment that is outlined in this brochure  (in English, pdf, 1,27MB). The strength of the Norwegian method is how non-monetizable impacts are handled and integrated with the framework of the impact assessment. The significance of the various impacts is then assessed by combining the value and the magnitude of impact on five criteria: landscape/cityscape, community life and outdoor recreation, cultural heritage, natural environment and natural resources. A valuable resource for transportation planners, the actual handbook is unfortunately only available in Norwegian.