A Measure of Snow: Case Studies of the Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting Program

Report Summary: Snow depth and snow water content data have been collected and disseminated throughout the Western United States for over 100 years. Early Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting data were gathered through the efforts of university scientists. In 1935, the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) was given $36,000 to establish a formal cooperative Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting (SSWSF) Program. The agency was charged with the responsibility for “conducting Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasts and forecasting of irrigation water supplies.” The new program would also develop consistent methods for measuring snow and reliable models for water supply forecasting. Using a case study approach, this report assesses the various uses of data gathered and published by the SSWSF Program and estimates the value of those data in terms of both the market and non-market values of the information. Additionally, it evaluates the relative merits of maintaining the program as a publicly funded program as opposed to privatizing the program. This study finds that the SSWSF Program is generating both market and non-market benefits to the U.S. economy and to U.S. society as a whole that are worth significantly more than the cost of the program. Should climate variability increase—as is expected by many of those interviewed in the course of completing this study, and as current climate research strongly suggests—the value of the information provided by the SSWSF Program will increase accordingly. With adequate time and budget, it would be possible to define the benefits to other users and beneficiaries of the information not included as case studies in this analysis. Also, additional, more thorough modeling could be undertaken in an effort to understand the more complex impacts of changes in agricultural operations and other industry activities that occur in response to SSWSF Program data. Absent those additional analyses, it will suffice to say that, at a minimum, the program more than pays for itself in terms of dollar-valued economic benefits, and the program also generates significant non-market benefits in public safety, recreation, and other non-monetized benefits. Further study would shed more light on these topics as well.