Final answer:
Cost allocation involves distributing a project's cost estimate to individual material resources or work items over time, often using mathematical models for estimation and comparison purposes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The activity described in the question involves cost allocation. This is a process where a project's cost estimate is distributed across individual material resources or work items over a set time period. In this context, mathematical models are utilized to generate rough estimates for the costs associated with different approaches in a project's design process. These models play a pivotal role in predicting costs for various alternatives that may emerge during the idea generation phase.
They also serve to analyze the relationship between the scientific principles of a technique and the operational costs of implementing it, which includes materials, fabrication or manufacturing, and maintenance expenses. To ensure these costs are comparable against other options, they are normalized, often reflected as cost per thousand gallons of water, which is a common measurement used to evaluate cost efficiency in certain projects.