Estimating life cycle costs of stormwater treatment measures

This paper describes a life cycle costing module that has been developed as part of the Model for Urban Stormwater Improvement Conceptualisation (MUSIC). MUSIC is a pollutant export computer model that is used by stormwater managers during the conceptual design stage of projects to determine appropriate treatment options. The life cycle costing module allows users to enter size-related details of a proposed treatment measure (eg. the area of a stormwater treatment pond) to estimate the measure’s approximate life cycle cost, as well as “cost elements” that make up this cost (eg. total acquisition cost, typical annual maintenance cost, etc.).