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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6215 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6215

   To authorize the Secretary of Commerce to establish a program to 
develop a coordinated and comprehensive Federal coastal mapping effort 
    for the Nation's coastal zone to include all coastal State and 
    territorial waters of the United States, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 23, 2010

Mr. Ruppersberger introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
                   the Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
   To authorize the Secretary of Commerce to establish a program to 
develop a coordinated and comprehensive Federal coastal mapping effort 
    for the Nation's coastal zone to include all coastal State and 
    territorial waters of the United States, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Digital Coast Act of 2010''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) more than half of all people of the United States, 153 
        million people, currently live on or near a coast and an 
        additional 12 million are expected in the next decade;
            (2) coastal counties in the United States average 300 
        persons per square mile, compared with the national average of 
        98;
            (3) 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;
            (4) much of the 95,000 miles of United States shoreline 
        does not have current, accurate maps and geospatial 
        information;
            (5) the lack of current and accurate remote sensing and 
        geospatial data on United States coasts, harbors, and ports 
        results in an environmental, infrastructure, economic, and 
        homeland security vulnerability for the Nation;
            (6) the Federal Government can and should play an important 
        role in the development and demonstration of innovative remote 
        sensing and other geospatial techniques to improve the 
        management of the coast of the United States, comprehensive 
        emergency preparedness and response in the event of a tsunami, 
        storm surges, and oil spills as well as for homeland security;
            (7) highly accurate, high resolution remote sensing and 
        other geospatial data, including elevation data, play an 
        important role in management of the coastal zone, including 
        flood prediction capabilities; risk, vulnerability, and hazard 
        assessments; emergency response plans; permitting and zoning 
        decisionmaking; and landscape change detection; as well as port 
        security and other homeland security applications;
            (8) the full range of applications of remote sensing and 
        other forms of geospatial information to meet national 
        requirements has not been adequately explored or exploited; and
            (9) the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in 
        coordination with other agencies, can play a unique role in 
        demonstrating how commercial remote sensing and other private 
        sector geospatial capabilities can be applied to assist State, 
        local, regional, and tribal agencies in emergency preparedness, 
        emergency response, homeland security, infrastructure 
        management, environmental decisionmaking, and other 
        applications in such areas as agriculture, weather forecasting, 
        and forest management.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act--
            (1) the term ``digital coast'' means a constituent-driven 
        effort led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
        Administration to provide an enabling platform that integrates 
        geospatial data, decision support tools, training, and case 
        studies to address coastal and emergency management issues;
            (2) the term ``remote sensing and other geospatial'' mean 
        collecting, storing, retrieving, or disseminating graphical or 
        digital data depicting natural or man-made physical features, 
        phenomena, or boundaries of the Earth and any information 
        related thereto, including surveys, maps, charts, satellite and 
        airborne remote sensing data, images, and services performed by 
        professionals such as surveyors, photogrammetrists, 
        hydrographers, geodesists, cartographers, and other such 
        services;
            (3) the term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of Commerce, 
        acting through the Director of the Coastal Services Center of 
        the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and
            (4) the term ``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 100 kilometers of the Atlantic or 
                Pacific Ocean, the Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, 
                or the Great Lakes.

SEC. 4. COASTAL SERVICES CENTERS.

    (a) Establishment.--The Secretary may establish coastal services 
centers as may be needed to facilitate products and services to address 
the needs of local, State, and regional entities involved with coastal 
and ocean decisionmaking including those State coastal management and 
research reserves benefitting from this Act.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of the coastal services centers shall be 
to--
            (1) support the environmental, social, and economic well 
        being of the coast by linking people, information, and 
        technology;
            (2) collaborate with various branches of the National 
        Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, other Federal agencies, 
        and nongovernmental entities to bring data, information, 
        services, and tools to the Nation's coastal and ocean 
        decisionmakers; and
            (3) identify and address region-specific needs and increase 
        capabilities to address them at the local, State, and regional 
        levels.
    (c) Financial Agreements.--To carry out the responsibilities of 
this Act, including to provide program support to non-Federal entities 
that participate in implementing this Act, the Secretary may enter into 
financial agreements including, but not limited to, grants, cooperative 
agreements, interagency agreements, and contracts with other Federal, 
tribal, State and local governmental and nongovernmental entities.

SEC. 5. REMOTE SENSING AND OTHER GEOSPATIAL DATA LAYERS.

    (a) In General.--The projects carried out by the Secretary pursuant 
to section 4 shall collect and integrate other available coastal data 
with--
            (1) shallow bathymetric data;
            (2) airborne elevation data;
            (3) large-scale land use and land cover maps;
            (4) benthic habitat and aquatic vegetation mapping;
            (5) parcel data;
            (6) planimetric data; and
            (7) socioeconomic and human use data.
    (b) Coordination.--The Secretary shall coordinate the activities 
carried out pursuant to this Act to maximize data sharing and 
integration and minimize duplication by--
            (1) coordinating activities when appropriate, with--
                    (A) other Federal efforts, including 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.), and the Integrated Coastal and 
                Ocean Observation System Act of 2009 (33 U.S.C. 3601 et 
                seq.);
                    (B) coastal States and United States territories;
                    (C) local governments; and
                    (D) representatives of nongovernmental entities;
            (2) participating, pursuant to section 216 of Public Law 
        107-347 (44 U.S.C. 3501 note), in the establishment of such 
        standards and common protocols as are 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;
            (3) 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 No. 12906; and
            (4) providing for the utilization of contracts with the 
        private sector, to the maximum extent practicable, to provide 
        such products and services as are necessary to collect remote 
        sensing and other geospatial data; which contracts shall be 
        considered ``surveying and mapping'' services as such term is 
        used and as such contracts are awarded in accordance with the 
        selection procedures in chapter 11 of title 40, United States 
        Code.

SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary 
$100,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2011 through 2016 to carry 
out this Act.
                                 <all>
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