Prior to commencement, projects may be evaluated and compared according to their Net Present Value (NPV). The NPV is the discounted expected revenues minus the costs over the lifetime of the project. Traditional NPV calculations do not take into account the uncertainty in the different prices that influence the revenue- and cost elements. There are several different methods to account for risk and uncertainty in such calculations, for instance to increase the discount rate, compare pessimistic and optimistic cash flows, or sensitivity analyses.

Lake and river ice play a key role in the physical, biological, and chemical processes of cold region freshwater. The frequency and size of lakes greatly influence the magnitude and timing of landscape-scale evaporative and sensible heat inputs to the atmosphere and are important to regional climatic and meteorological processes. Because lakes are such a major component of most northern atmospheric and hydrologic systems, the ability to determine their annual energy and water budgets is critical to our ability to forecast high latitude weather, climate, and river flow patterns.

The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet is sold daily at thousands of salespoints. It is difficult in advance to determine the exact number of newspapers that will be sold at each salespoint. Each salespoint is therefore supplied with a few more copies that it is expected to sell. This can lead to surplus copies at the end of the day, yielding large costs for handling the returns.