WSP01521

• File Number: 8443.400
• Description: Narrows Unit Reports
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 6/15/1974
• Author: US DOL BOR
• Title: Draft Social Assessment of the Proposed Narrows Unit and Alternatives Thereto
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

Ij 3 '2. 'j

A second common tendency is to measure the creation

of social goods in terms of assigned monetary values, so that

the worth of a given phenomenon (accessibility to service

providers, the value of an hour's hunting and fishing, etc.)

.,

can be expressed in dollar terms.

Increases in monetized

value are equated with social benefits.
A third common tendency is the concept of value hierar-
chies. For example, by taking into account protection from
flood control, drought, access to community services, etc.,

one can generate a proxy measure of "security," which has a

high social value. This, in a sense, is a social metaphor for

the economists' aggregation approach.

A problem with all of these approaches is that they

fail to take into account three fundamental concerns with

',,,

respect to human beings and their communities. First, they

overlook the point that individualS are total persons and

that whatever social good occurs from a public investment

must in part be expressed in terms of how individual people

are affected. Second, they forget that people live in commu-

nities and that the institutions and cultures of these commu-

nities have a great deal to do with how events are "valued."

Third, they forget that a critical aspect of any social

assessment is an understanding of who benefits and who loses,

i.e., the distribution of impact. Finally, most approaches

to social assessment fail to provide a sense of the multiple

"trade-offs" associated with a public investment.

.'

.

12