Assessing socio-economic impacts of wave overtopping: An institutional perspective

One way to address the assessment of strategies to control wave overtopping at seawalls and related coastal defence structures is to make use of Cost-Benefit Analysis. The institutional context in which Cost-Benefit Analysis takes place influences decisions on the types of values that are taken into consideration and the subsequent selection of valuation methods. We suggest to consider Cost-Benefit Analysis in a broad institutional framework when decisions are to be made on coastal defence strategies. It is argued that the institutional context provides the rules of the game on how a balance can be found between social, economic and ecologic functions of projects that protect societies against overtopping.