Alexandra Humphrey Cifuentes

Alexandra is an economist at Frontier Economics specialising in advice for regulatory and policy matters across the private and public sectors.

With a focus on urban economics, water, natural resources and biodiversity, she is experienced in providing advice on issues such as the evaluation of measures to manage water security or flooding, improving waterway health, managing urban heat, and the funding of critical community infrastructure.

Her expertise includes:

Integrated land use & services planning

As a regular advisor to State, local governments, and utility service providers, Alexandra advises on policies and services that support the delivery and efficient use of our scare blue, green and grey resources and the transition to a more circular economy, that address market failures and improve economic, social and environmental outcomes for the community.

Examples of integrating land use planning and serving planning include:

• Assessing the value of improved resilience to risks such as flooding and drought, to our key services and infrastructure.
• Undertaking strategic reviews to support land-use and water management decision making for new growth urban areas, such as Infrastructure NSW’s landmark review for Sydney’s Western Parkland City (South Creek catchment). The review found that changes to the urban design and integration of service delivery, including the use of water recycling for irrigation of parks and tree canopies, could generate large net economic benefits.
• Evaluating integrated strategies to manage stormwater and protect our waterways (e.g. for NSW Government).

Water security for the community

Alexandra has also advised State, local governments, and utility service providers on measures to increase the efficient and effective use of available water sources, to improve water security and urban resilience. She has led projects to assess the economics of investments in large scale water desalination and wastewater recycling, through to small scale water conservation measures, including how to price our scare resources.

Examples include:

• Assessing the economics of portfolios of supply and demand-side measures to manage water security and wastewater constraints (e.g. as part of Hunter Water’s Lower Hunter Water Security Plan).
• Developing economic frameworks for valuing small scale water conservation and water efficiency measures and stormwater harvesting.
• Evaluating the resilience of investments in water-security using tools such as real options or adaptive pathways analysis.

Biodiversity and ecosystem services

Alexandra also regularly advises State and Federal Governments and NGOs on the value of measures to bothenhance biodiversity and protect Australia’s unique ecosystem and biodiversity. This includes adopting an ecosystem services approach to identifying and valuing the services provided by our green and blue infrastructure.

Examples include:

• Investigating the economic, social and environmental costs of failing to manage feral animals (such as feral deer in Victoria and feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park).
• Evaluating the benefits of managing a marine pest – the first application of the CEBRA Project 1608E methodology to guide responses to marine pest incursions.
• Developing a framework for valuing the social and ecosystem services of Metropolitan Rural Areas.

We work as one team across the world

In Asia-Pacific, we do this from offices in Australia and Singapore. We work as a single team with expertise and people brought together as required by the problem we are solving for our clients.  Reach out to any of our economists and consultants to find out how we can help you.