Environmental Assessment Methods Applied to the Regeneration and Reuse of Wastewater in Agriculture

The economic and financial analysis of wastewater reuse systems projects has laid emphasis on the issues of private costs and benefits, both because of methodological difficulties related to estimating existing externalities and the lack of available data needed for its measurement. Taking full account of the environmental costs and benefits allows for a substantial improvement in the design and management of public and private wastewater reuse systems. Consequently, an improvement is also obtained in the management of investments in the treatment systems. The main objective of this paper is to present the essential theoretical foundations for the main environmental valuation methods, and most particularly when they are applied to wastewater use in agriculture.