Preauthorization planning for water resources development projects involves an assessment of the anticipated impacts of project alternatives and an information account display of beneficial and adverse effects on National Economic Development, Regional Development, Environmental Quality, and other Social Effects. National Economic Development (NED) is significant not only as an account but also as a planning objective. Under Principles and Guidelines (P & G), one of the alternative plans to address the needs and opportunities in water and land related planning must be the NED plan. The NED plan reasonably maximizes the net difference between NED benefits and NED costs. NED benefits arise when a Federal investment in water resources increases the nation's output of goods and services or reduces the cost of producing these goods and services. These benefits are measured as the dollar value of the increased output or the dollar value of the reduction in costs. The adverse economic effects are the NED costs which arise because resources are diverted for the project that would have value in alternative uses. These cost are measured as the dollar value of the resources in their next best alternative use.