Price Index with Web Sources
Quick spreadsheet of the most common indexes and discount rates (xlsx, 64 KB) Updated Monthly
Historic Normalized Prices for use by Federal agencies in water and related land resource planning
CPI: 1913 to current InflationData.com
ENR: 1908 to current Engineering News-Record.com
Historic Water Resource Project Discount Rates
The FY2017 Water Resource Project Discount Rate is 2.875%.
OMB Circular No. A-94, Discount Rates For Cost-Effectiveness, Lease Purchase, and Related Analyses.
OMB Circular No. A-94, APPENDIX C (Revised December, 2015), Discount Rates For Cost-Effectiveness, Lease Purchase, and Related Analyses. Use 2.9% for all non-PL566 watershed analysis for FY2016 payment schedules and other analysis in 2014.
OMB Circular No. A-4 Regulatory Analysis should use 7%, with 3% and 10% for sensitivity analysis.
Land Values for all US counties 1850 to 1992. Use NASS and the Ag. Census for later land values.
Recreational and Water Quality Benefits
NRCS Financial Functions, Investments & Retirement Tools and Training
Economagic Public Economic Data Site
Agricultural Prices and Indexes are available through the National Agricultural Statistics Service Home Page. The direct link is to Agricultural Prices. Historical data is easily assessable from http://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/.
The BEA Regional Projections, 1969 to 2045 spreadsheet (xls, 3.88 MB) (formerly OBERS) projections are available. This spreadsheet includes employment, earnings, and gross sector production by industrial sector, by state and MSA annually 1969 to 1993, plus forecasts through 2045. Some items, like content (not buildings) flood damages, can include future increases based on these GDP type projections. BEA has since discontinued their Regional Projections Program: Discontinuation of the Regional Projections Program (PDF,660 KB). But many older NRCS projects used them.
Instructions on the use of these regional projections for estimating future flood damages are included in Principles and Guidelines for Water Resource Projects,(PDF, 1.22MB) section 2.4.11(c), Pages 36-37 and page 47.
Construction Costs Indexes include:
NRCS Economics Official Directives
- September, 2016 Revision of General Manual Title 200 - Economics Part 400 - Policy
. Comparison of September, 2016 and June 2010 versions, GM - 200
- Part 610 NRCS National Resource Economics Handbook(PDF), H_200_NREH_610 Discount Factors spreadsheets
- 611 NRCS National Water Resources Handbook for Economics (PDF; 855 KB)
- Part 612 NRCS National Resource Economics Handbook, Water Quality (PDF, 4MB)
- Part 613 NRCS National Resource Economics Handbook, Developing Cost Data for Conservation Planning (PDF, 261 KB)
- Principles and Guidelines for Water Resource Projects, 1983 (PDF, 852 KB)
- Principles and Requirements for Federal Investments in Water Resources, Chapters I - Principles and Chapter II - Requirements, March 2013
- Principles and Requirements for Federal Investments in Water Resources, Chapter III - Interagency Guidelines for December, 2014
- Economics Technical Note 200-ECN-1, Basic Economic Analysis Using T-Charts
- Economics Technical Note 200-ECN-2, Guidelines for Economic Impact Analysis with IMPLAN
- Economics Technical Note 200-ECN-3 Guiding Principles in Calculating Foregone Income for Conservation Planning
- Economics Technical Note 200-ECN-4 Developing Conservation Case Studies for Decision-making