HEATCO - Developing Harmonised European Approaches for Transport Costing and Project Assessment - is financed by the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Program, and specifically contributing to the development of tools, indicators and operational parameters for the assessment of sustainable transport and energy systems performance (economic, environmental and social)(Contract No: 2002-SSP-1/502481). The project spans a duration of 2 years (2004-2006).
HEATCO's primary objective is the development of harmonised guidelines for project assessment on EU level. This includes the provision of a consistent framework for monetary valuation based on the principles of welfare economics, contributing in the long run to consistency with transport costing. As a first step, the current project assessment practice in the EU member states has been reviewed and analysed. Existing practice in the assessment of the value of time and congestion, accident risk reduction, health impacts and nuisances from pollutant and noise emissions, and infrastructure costs is now compared to the theoretical and empirical evidence from the literature. As a key feature of HEATCO, harmonisation of guidelines will be organised in a cycle process, involving representatives from member countries from the beginning of guideline development, with discussions and revision of different guideline versions.
Leading principles in the design of harmonised guidelines within HEATCO will be:
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The principles behind these guidelines are to be derived from the EU's transport policy objectives.
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More precisely, the guidelines should allow a more effective decision making process to ensure that investments result in more efficient and sustainable transport systems.
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The guidelines should be based on objective and transparent criteria for the prioritisation of investments.
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The guidelines should be reasonable and acceptable to all the policy makers involved, whether at state, regional or local level.
Project Participants
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IER University of Stuttgart, Institute of Energy Economics and the Rational Use of Energy, Germany (Project Coordinator)
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BUTE Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Department of Transport Economics, Hungary
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COWI A/S, Denmark
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E-CO Tech as, Norway
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Ecoplan Ecoplan, Economic Research and Policy Consultancy, Switzerland
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EIT Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Departamento de análisis económico aplicado, Spain
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Herry Herry Consult GmbH, Austria
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ISIS Istituto di Studi per l'Integrazione dei Sistemi, Italy
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ITS University of Leeds, Institute for Transport Studies, United Kingdom
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Sudop Sudop Praha a.s., Czech Republic
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TNO Inro, The Netherlands
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National Technical University of Athens, Greece
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UBath University of Bath, Department of Economics and International Development, United Kingdom
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VTI Statens Väg- och Transportforskningsinstitut , Sweden