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v 11-9 considered to be immeasurable and were not included as a part of a project evaluation. intangibles include those components of environmental appreciation which are not directly quantifiable in terms of dollar value or dollars spent for their usage. Normally, intangibles accrue from the aesthetic, sci- entific, educational, historical, and recreational aspects of natural and man-made environments. One additional intangible benefit, peculiar to residents of flood hazard areas, is the peace of mind which can be enjoyed by those safeguarded from future flood damages. Much of the basin of Lena Gulch, as well as the channel adjacent area, has been gradually urbanized since 1935. All indications are that this urbanization wi 11 continue to intensify in the future. The types of urbanization range from typical Denver area suburban residential devel- opments to rura I sp rawl and commerci al ins ta t I at ions. The 11 miles of channel provide many opportunities to identify intangible benef its, revi ve add it i ona I ones wh i ch have been dest royed by the u rban- ization, and create new ones. Certainly, open space and ,.ecreational opportunities abound. This Is fortunate because recently the people of Jeffe rson County voted to tax themse I ves for open space and recrea t i ona I development. This has the effect of proclaiming this type of land use a high priority item for the people of Jefferson County. If the Lena Gulch drainageway improvements are properly implemented, much interest in the area will be found at the city. county, state, and federal govern- ment levels. This attention in itself wi 11 tend to foster better land use decisions based upon the public good within the basin. The Inclusion of intangible benefits in the land use decision-making pro- cess presents obvious advantages. The methods by which they can be in- cluded, however, are not so obvious. Benefit/cost analyses have been used to weigh the merits of various alternative courses of action in tenns of economic efficiency. This requires that all benefits and costs be relegated a dollar value or they are not included in the benefitlcost decision-making process. Reducing to economic terms items such as aesthetic experiences and peace of mind can be quite arbitrary and subjective. There is a real danger that such determinations are not more than a numbers game which can be adjusted to achieve whatever result is desired by the analyst. it would appear that intangible benefits and costs would be more appro- priately included in the decision-making process as effects to be consid- ered in addition to the benefit cost analysis and not as a part of it. Although the appropriateness of reducing intangibles to dollar values is certainly open to question, several techniques have been developed by researchers to estimate the value of intangibles in terms of dollars. N. H. Coomber and A.K. Biswas ("Evaluation of Environm"ntal Intangllbles," 1973) have written an excellent summary of the various techniques avai la)le.