农村社区的基础设施项目通常比城市或大型社区的类似项目成本更高，受益人数更少。由于它们的收益与成本比率相对较低，水和卫生基础设施的小规模投资很难用标准的收益成本比率标准来证明。战略风险管理（SRM）通过包括经济、社会和环境效益，并从成本中减去志愿劳动的价值，增强了标准成本效益分析。当考虑到小项目的生命周期效益时，它们的效益成本比会增加，它们作为公共投资的吸引力也会增加。SRM应用于弗吉尼亚州的一个项目（自助弗吉尼亚[SHV]），该项目帮助小型农村社区的居民获得资金，并实施当地发展问题的解决方案。自1998年成立以来，SHV仅花费3美元，就帮助中小收入社区建设了供水和卫生基础设施。 100万美元用于传统上估计耗资880万美元的项目。项目资金用于支付所需的硬件，社区提供完成项目所需的劳动力和其他资源，在此过程中获得技能、经验和其他好处。SRM是SHV项目的完美匹配，因为基于风险的方法既包括这些被忽视的好处，也包括在基础设施问题得不到解决时避免风险的隐藏成本。对于州一级的决策者来说，SRM提供的强化成本效益分析使小规模项目更具竞争力，更容易证明其合理性。公用事业经理可以使用SRM分析来更好地评估竞争项目，并有效地利用他们的投资。包括17个参考文献、表格、图表。

Infrastructure projects in rural communities usually cost more and benefit fewer people than similar projects in urban or large communities. Because they have relatively low ratios of benefits to costs, small-scale investments in water and sanitation infrastructure are difficult to justify by standard benefit-cost ratio criteria. Strategic risk management (SRM) enhances standard cost-benefit analysis by including economic, social, and environmental benefits and subtracting the value of volunteer labor from costs. When the life-cycle benefits of small projects are factored in, their benefit-cost ratio increases, as does their appeal as public investments. SRM was applied to a program in Virginia (Self-Help Virginia [SHV]) that helps residents of small rural communities secure funding and implement solutions for local development problems. Since its establishment in 1998, SHV has helped small and low- to moderate-income communities build water and sanitation infrastructure, spending just $3.1 million on projects conventionally estimated to cost $8.8 million. Program funds pay for the hardware required, and the community provides labor and other resources needed to complete the project, gaining skills, experience, and other benefits in the process. SRM is a perfect match for SHV programs because the risk-based approach includes both these overlooked benefits as well as the hidden costs of risk avoidance when an infrastructure problem goes unresolved. For state-level decision-makers, the enhanced cost-benefit analysis provided by SRM makes small-scale projects more competitive and easier to justify. Utility managers can use SRM analysis to better evaluate competing projects and effectively leverage their investments. Includes 17 references, tables, figures.