This report, prepared by State and Federal agencies under the aegis of the Pacific Northwest River Basins Commission, presents the results of comprehensive investigations of water and related land resources of the Columbia-North Pacific Region. The study appraises natural resources, projects future requirements and associated problems, and provides broad framework plans and programs for management and development of resources to the year 2020 and the intermediate years of 1980 and 2000. Also included is a general estimate of costs and a program of implementation. These framework plans and programs were based on available data and formulated using general relations, reasoned approximations, and the judgment of experienced planners. The framwork plans and programs outlined in this report are presented not as the final word of some governing body, but as a compendium of measures which, after examination and critical discussion, have been thought by the study participants to contribute to a balanced use of water and related land resources.

The Economic Base and Projections Appendix is one of the five major components of the Columbia-North Pacific Framework Study. The purpose of this appendix is to provide basic inputs for the evaluation of present and future needs for water and related land resources and the formulation of framework plans for the management, use, and development of these resources. In addition, the report provides a basis for evaluation of the impacts of alternative resource developments on economic activity. The major elements of the study are as follows: (1) Inventory and analysis of economic activity and population in the study area, its linkage with related economic activity exogenous to the region, and analysis of significant relationships between economic activity and the quality and quantity of available natural resources, and (2) Projections of economic activity and population in the region based upon specific assumptions of national economic growth and the availability and quality of resources within and outside the geographic area of concern.

The framework plans and programs outlined in this appendix are presented as a compendium of measures which, after examination and critical discussion, have been thought by the study participants to contribute to a balanced use of water and related land resources. These measures were arrived at on the basis of the best information available. Although some details of the plan will become partly obsolete in a short time, its overall pattern will remain for many years an excellent guide to regional possibilities and opportunities.