Board on Earth Sciences and Resources & Committee on Seismology and Geodynamics 
Improved Seismic Monitoring – Improved Decision-Making [PDF ebook] 
Assessing the Value of Reduced Uncertainty

Improved Seismic Monitoring Improved Decision-Making, describes and assesses thevaried economic benefits potentially derived from modernizing and expanding seismicmonitoring activities in the United States. These benefits include more effectiveloss avoidance regulations and strategies, improved understanding of earthquakeprocesses, better engineering design, more effective hazard mitigation strategies, and improved emergency response and recovery. The economic principles that mustbe applied to determine potential benefits are reviewed and the report concludesthat although there is insufficient information available at present to fully quantifyall the potential benefits, the annual dollar costs for improved seismic monitoringare in the tens of millions and the potential annual dollar benefits are in the hundredsof millions.