Digital Coast Act of 2014

Summary: Digital Coast Act of 2014 - Requires the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to establish a constituent-driven Digital Coast program. (This program currently exists under NOAA to provide data, tools, and training that communities use to manage their coastal resources.) Directs the program to: (1) provide an online resource that integrates geospatial data, decision-support tools, training, and best practices to address coastal management issues and needs and to enhance resilient communities, ecosystem values, and coastal economic growth and development; and (2) provide for the documentation, dissemination, and archiving of the data. Requires NOAA to focus on filling data needs and gaps for critical coastal management issues, support continued improvement in existing efforts to coordinate the acquisition and integration of key data sets needed for coastal management and other purposes, and enter into financial agreements to carry out the program. 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Digital Coast Act of 2014''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The Digital Coast is a model approach for effective 
        Federal partnerships with State and local government, 
        nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector.
            (2) Access to current, accurate, uniform, and standards-
        based geospatial information, tools, and training to 
        characterize the United States coastal region is critical for 
        public safety and for the environment, infrastructure, and 
        economy of the United States.
            (3) More than half of all people of the United States 
        (153,000,000) currently live on or near a coast and an 
        additional 12,000,000 are expected in the next decade.
            (4) Coastal counties in the United States average 300 
        persons per square mile, compared with the national average of 
        98.
            (5) On a typical day, more than 1,540 permits for 
        construction of single-family homes are issued in coastal 
        counties, combined with other commercial, retail, and 
        institutional construction to support this population.
            (6) Over half of the economic productivity of the United 
        States is located within coastal regions.
            (7) Highly accurate, high-resolution remote sensing and 
        other geospatial data play an important role in management of 
        the coastal zone and economy, including for--
                    (A) flood and coastal storm surge prediction;
                    (B) hazard risk and vulnerability assessment;
                    (C) emergency response and recovery planning;
                    (D) community resilience to longer range climate 
                change impacts;
                    (E) permitting and zoning decisionmaking;
                    (F) habitat and ecosystem health assessments; and
                    (G) landscape change detection.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Coastal region.--The term ``coastal region'' means the 
        area of United States waters extending inland from the 
        shoreline to include coastal watersheds and seaward to the 
        territorial sea.
            (2) Coastal state.--The term ``coastal State''--
                    (A) means a State of the United States in, or 
                bordering on, the Atlantic, Pacific, or Arctic Ocean, 
                the Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, Long Island 
                Sound, or one or more of the Great Lakes; and
                    (B) includes Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin 
                Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
                Islands, the Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands, 
                American Samoa, and any portion of a State that is 
                located within the designated coastal zone of the 
                Atlantic or Pacific Ocean, the Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf 
                of Mexico, or the Great Lakes.
            (3) Digital coast.--The term ``Digital Coast'' means a 
        constituent-driven effort led by the Secretary to provide an 
        enabling platform that integrates geospatial data, decision-
        support tools, training, and best practices to address coastal 
        management issues and needs. The Digital Coast strives to 
        enhance resilient communities, ecosystem values, and coastal 
        economic growth and development by helping communities address 
        their issues, needs, and challenges through cost-effective and 
        participatory solutions.
            (4) Federal geographic data committee.--The term ``Federal 
        Geographic Data Committee'' means the interagency committee 
        that promotes the coordinated development, use, sharing, and 
        dissemination of geospatial data on a national basis.
            (5) Remote sensing and other geospatial.--The term ``remote 
        sensing and other geospatial'' means collecting, storing, 
        retrieving, or disseminating graphical or digital data 
        depicting natural or manmade physical features, phenomena, or 
        boundaries of the Earth and any information related thereto, 
        including surveys, maps, charts, satellite and airborne remote 
        sensing data, images, LiDAR, and services performed by 
        professionals such as surveyors, photogrammetrists, 
        hydrographers, geodesists, cartographers, and other such 
        services.
            (6) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of Commerce, acting through the Administrator of the National 
        Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

SEC. 4. BUILDING THE DIGITAL COAST.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary shall establish Digital Coast as a 
program that provides data integration, tool development, training, 
documentation, dissemination, and archive by--
            (1) making data and resulting integrated products developed 
        under this section readily accessible via the Digital Coast 
        Internet website of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
        Administration, the GeoPlatform.gov and data.gov Internet 
        websites, and such other Internet technologies as the Secretary 
        considers appropriate;
            (2) developing decision-support tools that use and display 
        resulting integrated data and provide training on use of such 
        tools;
            (3) documenting such data to Federal Geographic Data 
        Committee standards; and
            (4) archiving all raw data acquired under this Act at the 
        appropriate National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
        data center or such other Federal data center as the Secretary 
        considers appropriate.
    (b) Coordination.--The Secretary shall coordinate the activities 
carried out pursuant to this Act to maximize data collection, sharing 
and integration, and to minimize duplication by--
            (1) consulting with coastal managers and decisionmakers 
        concerning coastal issues, and sharing information and best 
        practices, as the Secretary considers appropriate, with--
                    (A) coastal States;
                    (B) local governments; and
                    (C) representatives of nongovernmental entities;
            (2) consulting with other Federal agencies on relevant 
        Federal activities, including activities carried out under the 
        Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration Act (33 U.S.C. 3501 et 
        seq.), the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1451 
        et seq.), the Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System 
        Act of 2009 (33 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.), and the Hydrographic 
        Services Improvement Act of 1998 (33 U.S.C. 892 et seq.);
            (3) participating, pursuant to section 216 of the E-
        Government Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-347; 44 U.S.C. 3501 
        note), in the establishment of such standards and common 
        protocols as the Secretary considers necessary to assure the 
        interoperability of remote sensing and other geospatial data 
        with all users of such information within--
                    (A) the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
                Administration;
                    (B) other Federal agencies;
                    (C) State and local government; and
                    (D) the private sector; and
            (4) coordinating with, seeking assistance and cooperation 
        of, and providing liaison to the Federal Geographic Data 
        Committee pursuant to Office of Management and Budget Circular 
        A-16 and Executive Order 12906 of April 14, 1994 (59 Fed. Reg. 
        17671), as amended by Executive Order 13286 of March 5, 2003 
        (68 Fed. Reg. 10619).
    (c) Filling Needs and Gaps.--In carrying out this section, the 
Secretary shall--
            (1) recognize that remote sensing and other geospatial data 
        acquisition for navigational and positioning purposes is 
        carried out through other authorities and programs;
            (2) focus on filling data needs and gaps for critical 
        coastal management issues;
            (3) pursuant to the Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration 
        Act (33 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), support continue improvement in 
        existing efforts to coordinate the acquisition and integration 
        of key data sets needed for coastal management and other 
        purposes, including--
                    (A) coastal elevation data;
                    (B) land use and land cover data;
                    (C) socioeconomic and human use data;
                    (D) critical infrastructure data;
                    (E) structures data;
                    (F) living resources and habitat data;
                    (G) cadastral data; and
                    (H) aerial imagery;
            (4) integrate the priority supporting data set forth under 
        paragraph (3) with other available data for the benefit of the 
        broadest measure of coastal resource management constituents 
        and applications;
            (5) enter into financial agreements to carry out this Act, 
        including--
                    (A) program support to non-Federal entities that 
                participate in implementing this Act;
                    (B) financial agreements, including grants, 
                cooperative agreements, interagency agreements, and 
                contracts, or any other agreement on a reimbursable or 
                non-reimbursable basis, with other Federal, tribal, 
                State, and local governmental and nongovernmental 
                entities; and
                    (C) registration fees in support of training, 
                workshops, and conferences that advance the purposes of 
                this Act; and
            (6) enter into such contracts with private sector entities 
        for such products and services as the Secretary determines may 
        be necessary to collect remote sensing and other geospatial 
        data, which contracts shall be considered ``surveying and 
        mapping'' services as such term is used in and as such 
        contracts are awarded by the Secretary in accordance with the 
        selection procedures in chapter 11 of title 40, United States 
        Code.

SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary such sums 
as may be necessary to carry out this section in each of fiscal years 
2015 through 2020.