Excerpts from the Preface: A laboratory-type study of the economic effects of the installed upstream watershed program is being conducted by the Economic Research Service at the Department of Agricultural Economics, Oklahoma State University, at Stillwater. This continuing appraisal is part of a larger program of investigations of watershed protection and flood prevention being carried out through an agreement between the Economic Research Service and the Soil Conservation Service. This interim report describes progress achieved to January 1, 1967, toward evaluating the major economic benefits of flood prevention in small watersheds. The report is limited to data collected in 1964-65. No definitive conclusions are drawn because (1) data for only 2 years have been collected and analyzed, and (2) the results reported herein are limited in geographic scope to 11 watersheds in the central portion of the Washita Basin. The major purpose of this report is to acquaint interested persons with the methodology and procedures in use and the kind of analysis to be performed. Similar techniques could be used for estimating flood damages and the major economic effects of resource development projects in other areas. This interim report discusses the use of an areal point sampling technique in estimating the major economic effects of flood prevention in small, upstream watersheds. Data obtained from the areal point sample are also used to develop crop damage factors for use in future watershed planning
