FIRST STEPS IN ESTIMATING THE TOTAL ECONOMIC VALUE FOR LANDSLIDE HAZARD MITIGATION ON NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LANDS Thomas E. Koler 1 , John B. Loomis 2 & John C. Bergstrom 3 1 El Dorado National Forest (e-mail: tkoler@fs.fed.us) 2 Colorado State University (e-mail: John.Loomis@colostate.edu) 3 University of Georgia (e-mail: jberg@uga.edu) Abstract: Recent research using an economic valuation method indicates that landslide mitigation programs have positive benefits to American society as measured by citizens’ willingness to contribute money to support such programs. This research also indicates that U.S. National Forest Service district rangers assign positive benefits to landslide mitigation programs as measured by their willingness to allocate a portion of management budgets to such programs. The general public is not risk-averse in having business decisions completed by federal managers and these line officers are willing to take measured risk in managing the large landslide natural resources. An individual or group that is risk-averse will pay to reduce a risk. In some cases of landslide management the public or manager is unwilling to assume any risk associated in mitigating the landslide hazard due to the perceived costs. A result is the avoidance of any landslide management and the public lands are set aside, for example, as wilderness or habitat protection areas. Therefore the economic values of both the public and agency managers are important in understanding the landslide economics. In order to evaluate the landslide economics, an accurate landslide inventory must be completed to perform a benefit cost analysis of the different types of landslide identification and mitigation methods. With the advent of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology the accuracy of a landslide inventory increases due to the ability of LiDAR to “remove” vegetation from digital elevation models used in the inventory process. This new technology is popular amongst landslide scientists and decision-makers, but no work has been completed to assess its economic viability through a benefit-cost analysis. Research is being completed in a small watershed to test the reliability of LiDAR for identifying landslides associated with previous timber harvesting, mining and other ground disturbance activities. An evaluation can then be completed for the net public benefits (public benefits minus the cost of LiDAR) and net agency returns. In this benefit-cost analysis, a computation of the net public returns or value of LiDAR technology will be compared to the general public benefits. The general public benefits are estimated from the economic valuation survey results. These benefits are then compared to the agency costs of implementing this technology. Likewise a computation is made of the net agency returns or value of LiDAR technology. This is done by comparing the ranger-perceived benefits of this technology to the actual costs of implementation. These comparisons will be made on a per landslide acre basis or other units of measure. INTRODUCTION The objectives of this study were 1) to evaluate the effectiveness of Light Detection and Ranging technology for identifying the location of geological hazards within a watershed; and 2) to evaluate the total economic value (TEV) of applying this technology. 1215