Our objective is to express in monetary terms the welfare costs associated
with the health impacts of different planning and design features.
The purpose of this is to measure the costs borne by society of these health impacts in a common metric that is understandable to the full range of stakeholders involved in planning and design features.
The costs we consider include both the financial costs associated with ill health such as treatment costs and time off work, as well as the more intangible costs associated with the pain and suffering that results from health impacts. These latter costs are estimated by asking people what they would be willing to pay to avoid the illness.