What is the cost of land degradation to shire councils?
To resolve the latter question, the monetary values would need to be estimated for the benefits of environmental preservation and flood protection and the costs of land degradation, such as the cost of damaged roads. Yapp (1989) examined the costs of replacement and repair of public assets such as roads, rivers, and water storages affected by land degradation damages. For example, the annual costs of restoring roads after silting in Jerramungup, Western Australia, were $40 000 in 1982. The annual cost of repairing erosion-related damage to public utilities in New South Wales in 1983 was $10.7 million. The annual cost of restoring damage due to surface water salinity in New South Wales towns was $2.8 million in 1987. These values were taken as a measure of the minimum willingness to pay for the use of those assets. Box 3.2: Application of the replacement-cost technique The costs of replacing access to houses lost by re-routing a highway were taken as a measure of the benefits of maintai
