to the third anniversary of the lease that are directly attributable to operations for the development of the lease. The Survey's mining supervisor is responsible for determining that such expenditures credited by the lessee are properly attributable to development operations.

During 1975, four companies submitted their initial exploration plans for evaluation and approval by the Survey. Initial work also began on projects involving collecting baseline environmental data, monitoring air and water quality, and developing guidelines for future operations.

• Fertilizer minerals-A large increase in the demand for fertilizer minerals has accelerated the production and leasing activities for potash and phosphate during the past few years. Seventy-five percent of the Nation's potash is produced from Federal lands and 13 percent of phosphate comes from Federal and Indian lands. In Idaho, the principal western phosphate-producing State, there are 189 prospecting-permit applications pending.

REFERENCES

Adams, M. V., John, C. B., Kelly, R. F., LaPointe, A. E., and Meurer, R. W., 1975, Mineral resource management of the Outer Continental Shelf: U.S. Geol. Survey Circ. 720, 32 p. Bass, N. W., Smith, H. L., and Horn, G. H., 1970, Standards for the classification of public coal lands: U.S. Geological Survey Circ. 633, 10 p. Bureau of Land Management, 1975, Final environmental impact statement-proposed increase in oil and gas leasing on the outer continental shelf (FES-75-61): Washington, D.C., Bureau of Land Management, July 1975.

Council on Environmental Quality, 1974, OCS oil and gas-an environmental assessment, A report to the President: Council on Environmental Quality, Washington, D.C. (U.S. Government Printing Office), 5 vols., April 1974. General Accounting Office, 1975, Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Development-improvements possible in determining where to lease and at what dollar value: U.S. General Accounting Office, Rept. no. RED-75-359, June 30, 1975, 51 p.

Godwin, L. H., and others, 1971, Classification of public lands valuable for geothermal steam and associated geothermal resources: U.S. Geological Survey Circ. 647, 18 p. Kash, D. E., and others, 1973, Energy under the Oceans: Norman, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma Press, 378 p. National Academy of Engineering, 1972, Outer Continental Shelf resource development safety—a review of technology and regulations for the systematic minimization of environmental intrusion from petroleum products: National Academy of Engineering, Marine Board, Panel on Operational Safety in Offshore Resource Development, Washington, D.C., December, 1972, 197 p.

1974a, First report of the Review Committee on Safety of Outer Continental Shelf Petroleum Operations to the

United States Geological Survey: National Academy of Engineering, Marine Board, Review Committee on Safety of Outer Continental Shelf Petroleum Operations, Washington, D.C., January 1974, 6 p.

1974b, Second report of the Review Committee on Safety of Outer Continental Shelf Petroleum Operations to the U.S. Geological Survey: National Academy of Engineering, Marine Board, Review Committee on Safety of Outer Continental Shelf Petroleum Operations, Washington, D.C., June 1974, 20 p.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1971, Feasibility study report-applications of NASA contract quality management techniques and failure mode effect analysis procedures to the USGS Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas lease management program: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, October 1971, 65 p. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Martin Marietta Corporation, 1974, Onshore lease management program study for the U.S. Geological Survey: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C., December 1974, 91 p.

National Research Council, 1975a, Third report of the Review Committee on Safety of Outer Continental Shelf Petroleum Operations to the U.S. Geological Survey: National Research Council, Assembly of Engineering, Marine Board, Washington, D.C., March 1975, 12 p.

1975b, Fourth report of the Review Committee on Safety of Outer Continental Shelf Petroleum Operations to the U.S. Geological Survey: National Research Council, Assembly of Engineering, Marine Board, Washington, D.C., August 1975, 25 p.

Office of Audit and Investigation, 1975a, Review of royalty accounting system for onshore oil and gas leases: U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Audit and Investigation, Washington, D.C., June 1975, 106 p.

1975b, Royalty accounting system study of solid mineral leasing activities: U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Audit and Investigation, Washington, D.C., August 11, 1975, 24 p. (Includes U.S. Geological Survey comments on report as exhibit I).

U.S. Geological Survey, 1972, Outer Continental Shelf lease management study-safety and pollution control: U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C., May 1972.

1973, Report of the work group on OCS safety and pollution control: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va., May 1973, 33 p.

1974a, Supplement No. 1 to the report of the work group on OCS safety and pollution control, May 1973: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va., May 1974, 17 p.

1974b, Supplement No. 2 to the report of the work group on OCS safety and pollution control, May 1973: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va., November 1974, 12 p.

1975a, Conservation Division Task Force Report on the Onshore lease management study for the U.S. Geological Survey by National Aeronautics and Space Administration and a support team from Martin Marietta Corporation: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va., May 1975, 120 p.

1975b, Comments on the findings and recommendations of the OA & I audit report of June 9, 1975, entitled "Review of royalty accounting system for onshore oil and gas leases, Geological System": U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va., June 12, 1975, 34 p.

OVERVIEW

In the past decade, conflicting uses of land resources have become one of the Nation's most critical problems. Too often, urbanization has encroached on land ill-suited for such development-houses, offices, and factories are built on or near active fault zones, on floodplains, or in areas prone to subsidence. Valuable mineral deposits, including building materials such as sand and gravel, have been paved or built over when prior planning could have achieved both the development of these resources and the use of the land for other purposes.

Serious concern over the environment is manifest in the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, recent State and local land use legislation, and intensive analyses of the implications of shortages of food, energy, and mineral resources. Consequently, there is an unprecedented need for information about our land for use in planning and decisionmaking. For example, recent moves to accelerate the development of energy resources, particularly the strip mining of Western coal deposits, demand greater knowledge of water supplies and of reclamation techniques to restore mined lands for future use.

Although the Geological Survey is the Nation's principal source of information about the character of the land surface and underlying resources, few Survey products have synthesized the results of the geologic, hydrologic, and topographic studies. Planners have had to seek the help of specialists to further analyze and interpret the information. The information base needed to resolve many of today's land use conflicts often reaches beyond the Survey's domain and includes the full range of concerns of the Department of the Interior.

In April 1975, the Department established the Land Information and Analysis Office within the Survey to consolidate several multidisciplinary land resource and environmental programs. This new office will interpret and display land resource information collected within the Department in ways that are readily accessible and understandable to a wide range of users, particularly land use planners and decision

makers.

Programs

The Land Information and Analysis Office manages five multidisciplinary programs:

The Earth Sciences Applications program (formerly the Urban Area Studies and the Land Resources and Analysis programs) is responsible for integrating the earth-science information collected by the Survey for use in analyzing land resource problems. The products, mainly thematic maps and reports, provide insight into the environmental consequences of land use decisions. For example, the San Francisco Bay region study has produced more than 70 geologic, hydrologic, and topographic maps and technical reports, plus 15 interpretive reports relating the data to land use planning and management alternatives and possible environmental impacts. The Resource and Land Investigations program encompasses the multidisciplinary, multibureau efforts of the Department of the Interior. The national problems addressed include, for example, the delineation of environmentally endangered areas, the development and application of land use inventory systems, and the siting of onshore facilities associated with Outer Continental Shelf energy resource development.

The Geography program (formerly the Land Use Data and Analysis program) calls for the application of geographic analysis techniques to land and resource problems. Land use data are systematically collected, revised, and analyzed on a nationwide basis, and basic geographic research is conducted.

• The Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) program is the largest Departmental program to be managed by this new office. Since 1966, numerous experiments have been conducted applying remotely sensed data, primarily photographs and telecommunicated images obtained from satellites and high-altitude aircraft, to a wide variety of resource and environmental problems. The key facility of this program is the EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls, S. Dak., where the data are stored, reproduced, and distributed. The program includes research as well as user training in the interpretation and application of remotely sensed data and also includes the development of improved sensor and data processing systems.

• The Environmental Impact Analysis program (formerly the Energy Impact Evaluation program) directs the preparation and review of the environmental impact statements required of the Survey by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. In addition, the Land Information and Analysis Office enters into cooperative projects with State, local, and other Federal agencies.

$231,000 (1.4 percent) on research grants. This research centered on developing new methods of obtaining, interpreting, and displaying remotely sensed information. Contract services are also used to support the EROS Data Center.

The programs of the Land Information and Analysis Office were carried out by 191 full-time career employees in 1975; at the end of the year, 89 were assigned to the Office's programs (table 44), 10 were in the process of transferring to the Office, and 92 were assigned to other Survey offices to work on specific projects supported by the Land Information and Analysis Office. In addition, contract support services at the EROS Data Center amounted to 238 man-years. Personnel of the Topographic, Computer Center, and Administrative Divisions are also assigned to the Data Center.

Highlights

The principal issues faced by the Land Information and Analysis Office in fiscal year 1975 concerned:

Land use implications of energy and mineral resource development.

• Accelerated requests from State and local governments for information to support land use and resource planning and management (mainly for areas affected by the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 and by State and local land use legislation). • Major Federal actions, especially related to energy resource development, that required environmental impact statements.

Consequently, new studies were undertaken to determine the onshore effects of oil and gas development along the Outer Continental Shelf off New England and the State of Washington, land use mapping of coastal States was accelerated, and environmental impact analysis task forces were formed. The analytical capability and user services associated with the remote sensing activities of the Office were also expanded.

The major events and accomplishments in fiscal year 1975 were:

Organization of the Land Information and Analysis Office to address critical earth-science problems from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Successful launch of Landsat-2 and Congressional approval of a third Landsat to continue the global collection of valuable resource and environmental data.

• Production of land use maps for all of Louisiana and Arkansas and parts of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arizona to assist State and local planning and development activities.

EARTH SCIENCES APPLICATIONS

PROGRAM

The Earth Sciences Applications program was established to provide a unit within the Geological Survey specifically concerned with making earth-science information available to land use planners and decisionmakers in directly usable form. Although the program's emphasis is chiefly upon geology, hydrology, and topography, many of its products eventually serve as Survey input to the Departmentwide Resource and Land Investigations program, which integrates earth

science information with natural-science information from other agencies.

The objectives of the Earth Sciences Applications program are threefold: (1) To interpret, demonstrate, and enccurage the use of earth-science information. for land use decisionmaking through demonstration projects, user interaction, technical assistance, publication of specially designed map and book reports, and project evaluations; (2) to stimulate development of multidisciplinary studies in the Survey through coordination and integration of activities; and (3) to serve as the focal point within the Survey for multidisciplinary studies to support the work of other Federal agencies. In accomplishing these objectives, the program has focused mainly on the interpretation and presentation of earth-science data bearing on land use conflicts in selected urban and adjoining areas throughout the United States. The location of these studies is shown in figure 52. These urban area studies Puget Sound

graphic, Geologic, and Water Resources Divisions. An additional $505,000 was available to these Divisions from the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Department of Housing and Urban Development for work related to urban area studies.

The urban and adjoining areas under study in 1975 included Baltimore-Washington; Connecticut Valley; Denver, Colo.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Puget Sound, Wash.; San Francisco, Calif.; Fairfax County, Va.; and TucsonPhoenix, Ariz. (fig. 52). The Kentucky River Area Development District was also studied.

All of the urban areas under study in fiscal year 1975 have rapidly growing populations that impose severe demands on land and water resources. The types of earth-science information collected for land use and resource planners during these studies include character, thickness, and erodibility of soils; quantity and quality of surface water and ground water; definition of hazards associated with floods, earthquakes, landslides, subsidence, and poor foundation materials; and distribution of mineral resources, landforms, slopes, and watercourses. Without earth-science information to define the locations of natural resources and hazardous areas, land use managers run the risk of making decisions that may lead to substantial social and economic costs in future years.

Current urban area study projects were reviewed during fiscal year 1975, in terms of original objectives relative to past and likely future funding. Because of the lower-than-anticipated funding, the original objectives could not be achieved despite strong support from the other Divisions. It was decided to complete short-term goals of five urban area studies in fiscal year 1976, or early fiscal year 1977, and to concentrate funding in the other areas. The Puget Sound urban area study is being reoriented to consider the regional impacts of extensive oil and gas development in Alaska.

The Tucson-Phoenix urban area study, which began in July 1971 and carried through 1975, is an example of an ongoing study. This study area includes about 11,700 square kilometres (4,500 square miles) in three counties of Arizona. Reports published through fiscal year 1975 include 25 regional maps (scale 1:250,000) showing land status, distribution and thickness of alluvial deposits, recoverable ground water, vegetation, nonmetallic mineral deposits, chemical quality of ground water, and land subsidence and Earth fissures. An index to maps of flood-prone areas and a largescale slope map were also published, and 90 1:24,000scale slope maps were released to the open file.

The Arizona State Health and Land Departments use the regional scale maps to make decisions on water supply, sewage disposal, and use of State lands.