Using an Odour-Noise Relationship to Help Place a Monetary Value on Odour Abatement

One route to establishing the economic level of odour abatement around a problem site requires that a monetary value per property be ascribed to the benefit of odour reduction. The literature on the monetary value of odour abatement was relatively sparse but a number of hedonic pricing studies into reductions in house prices produced an area weighted price reduction for the alleviation of impact in the region of 6,000 pound per property. No information could be obtained as to the level of odour or the degree of reduction involved. Studies into noise suggested a value of 350 pound per property per dB reduction, though with a high relative standard deviation. An odour-noise equivalence was established based on equal levels of community annoyance. A 1dB reduction in noise levels was equivalent to a reduction in odour concentration by a factor of 1.11. Applying the value per dB directly to odour results in a value for a 90% reduction in odour of 7,600 pound per property. A dispersion model was used to establish the relative reductions in odour levels associated with the hedonic pricing studies into odour. This produced the larger value of 790 pound per dB equivalent or 17,400 pound per property for a 90% reduction in odour levels.