NOS Priorities Roadmap, p. 3 

INTRODUCTION

In the United States, almost 40 percent of the population lives in coastal shoreline counties. These 

counties contribute $6.6 trillion, or just under half of the country’s gross domestic product, to the U.S. 

economy. The Ocean Enterprise is valued at $7 billion annually. The health of our coasts is inextricably 

linked to the health of our nation’s economy.  Global commerce through our seaports continues to grow 

dramatically.   Today, our coasts and coastal communitiesare also faced with environmental shifts such 

as climate change, sea level rise, harmful algal blooms, and the increasingly significant impacts of 

catastrophic events. This makes the already challenging task of safeguarding people and infrastructure, 

facilitating commerce and managing coastal resources even more complex.  

What does the future hold?

Increased offshore and coastal development. If current population trends continue, the U.S. 

coastal population will grow by another 10 million to nearly 134 million people by 2020, an 

eight percent increase over the 2010 Census.

Increasing demand on natural areas and ocean resources.  Population along the coasts 

continues to grow at the same time that there is higher demand for healthy places for 

tourism and recreation, and food from fishing and aquaculture.

Increased demands on our marine transportation system. U.S. commercial ports directly 

support more than 13 million jobs. The demand for safe, effective, and resilient marine 

infrastructure and transportation continues to grow. 

Higher intensity coastal storms. From 2006 to 2015, seven tropical cyclones each caused 

more than $1 billion in damage including Sandy, Irene, and Gustav.

Changing sea levels and coastal flooding.  Changing sea levels and coastal flooding are likely 

to increase the challenges that many coastal communities already face. Nuisance flooding 

has increased between 300 and 925 percent since the 1960s.

Threats to human health and safety from ecological hazards.  Harmful algal blooms, 

hypoxia, and pathogens affect people, communities, and economies. Local authorities and 

members of the public need early warnings to make decisions to protect the health and well‐

being of a particular area.

What does this mean for the National Ocean Service?

No single entity can provide the services and tools to help America address these challenges; however, 

NOS and our partners are uniquely positioned to provide national leadership and expertise. NOS helps 

people and places prepare for, respond to, and recover from coastal disasters.  NOS provides 

communities with data, observations, modeling, tools, and training to understand, forecast and respond 

to the local impacts of climate change, sea level change and coastal flooding, harmful algal blooms, 

extreme natural events, and changing ecosystem conditions.  As our coastal population continues to 

grow, NOS must help ensure our nation’s estuarine and marine habitats and maritime history are 

conserved today and for generations to come. Maritime commerce, both along existing navigation lanes 

and new ones opening in the Arctic, will require continuously evolving decision support tools, such as 
NOS Priorities Roadmap, p. 4 

accurate charts, precise positioning, environmental observations and forecasts, and science to support 

safe and efficient operations, and response to oil spills and other hazards.

To address these challenges, the National Ocean Service is dedicated to advancing the following 

priorities:

1. Coastal resilience 

2. Coastal intelligence  

3. Place‐based conservation 

The NOS Roadmap Supports NOAA’s Priorities and the Department of Commerce Strategic Plan 

In March 2014, the Department of Commerce released its Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2014 to 2018. 

NOS contributes to all five goals identified in the plan, with its primary activities falling into the 

Environment Goal to ensure communities and businesses have the necessary information, products, and 

services to prepare for and prosper in a changing environment. NOS’s priority of coastal resilience is also 

aligned with NOAA’s priority of Community Resilience. 

About the NOS Roadmap

The NOS Roadmap guides NOS’s priorities over the next three to five years.  The Roadmap includes 

integrated outcomes and strategies.  NOS Offices are developing cross office annual actions that support 

the Roadmap outcomes and strategies therefore they are no longer part of the Roadmap document. 

 These actions are closely tied to the program’s yearly execution, and aligned with the NOS Annual 

Operating Plan.  

NOS has a rich diversity of programs, tools and expertise. Each of our Offices is highly successful carrying 

out their respective missions. The Roadmap describes an approach that NOS is taking to better leverage 

resources and promote coordinated activities that take advantage of the diversity and total assets of the 

organization. Successfully advancing these priorities requires close collaboration across NOAA, federal 

and state agencies, non‐profit organizations, industry, and academia.   
NOS Priorities Roadmap, p. 5 

Roadmap Example:  

"Little Splash" Emergency 

Response Drill Enhances 

Response Capabilities

With the primary goal of improving 

emergency response capabilities 

across the National Ocean Service, the 

Office of Response and Restoration 

and Office for Coastal Management 

teamed up to plan and execute a one‐

day drill that simulated a small‐scale 

tsunami wave inundating the east 

coast. Exercise play took place in Silver 

Spring, MD; Chesapeake, VA; and 

Charleston, SC. Players from all NOS 

program offices, NOAA's Homeland 

Security Program Office, and other line 

offices within NOAA came together to 

address critical logistics, planning and 

operational issues.

COASTAL RESILIENCE: PREPAREDNESS, RESPONSE, AND RECOVERY

NOS recognizes that immediate and potentially life‐

threatening events such as hurricanes, large scale 

environmental disasters as well as long‐term 

environmental impacts from climate change are real 

challenges to sustaining healthy coastal communities and 

ecosystems. NOS also recognizes that these risks are likely 

increasing with the potential for a higher frequency and 

intensity of major storm events combined with increased 

vulnerability of people and places due to sea‐level rise and 

coastal erosion.  Large increases in recurrent, or nuisance, 

flooding are already being documented in many areas of 

the country and are harbingers of more severe future 

events.  Achieving resilience requires a well thought out 

process of threat and vulnerability identification, planning, 

response actions, recovery plans and actions, and 

continuous adaptation. Resilience also relies on accurate 

foundational data.  NOS has learned from events such as 

the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Hurricanes Katrina and 

Sandy and the effects of the Japanese earthquake/ 

tsunami, that our capacity to respond is often tested with 

respect to staffing and coordination. We will continue to 

improve our coordination ahead of the events to ensure an 

effective response. Establishing all‐hazards response 

capabilities for NOS will require additional investment in 

personnel, staff time, and training, but the outcome will be 

a more effective capacity to respond.  

We have also learned from major events and subtler and chronic changes that we must conduct 

advanced planning for long‐term resilience. NOS’s broad authorities and capabilities in coastal and 

ocean science, navigation, observation, positioning, resource management, habitat conservation, 

decision support, technical assistance, and training provide a powerful combination that enables 

communities to become more resilient. NOS is skilled at identifying risks and vulnerabilities and working 

with decision makers to apply sustainable solutions that increase resilience to the impacts of a changing 

climate, extreme weather, coastal inundation, oil and chemical spills, and other hazards and 

environmental stressors.  

COASTAL RESILIENCE OUTCOME 1

NOS has the capability to respond to and manage two simultaneous significant incidents or one major 

event.

STRATEGY [Lead: ORR]

CR1.1 Develop and implement comprehensive training for all roles required within the preparedness‐

to‐resilience all‐hazards continuum, both internally and with external partners to improve 
NOS Priorities Roadmap, p. 6 

understanding of, and ability to interact with, federal structures and processes in place to support 

response and recovery.

STRATEGY [Lead: ORR]

CR1.2 Develop and implement cross‐NOS preparedness drills and exercises coupled with a formal 

post‐incident review process to enhance NOS’ response and recovery posture for future all‐hazards 

events.

COASTAL RESILIENCE OUTCOME 2

Coastal communities apply relevant criteria and standards to enhance preparedness and recovery.

STRATEGY [Lead: OCM]

CR2.1 Work with key partners to improve community understanding, consideration and adaptation 

to coastal hazard and climate risks, vulnerabilities and potential impacts, including efforts to develop 

standards for and indicators of community resilience.

STRATEGY [Lead: OCM]

CR2.2 Enhance capacity at the community level to understand and effectively communicate and 

address risks associated with coastal hazards.

COASTAL RESILIENCE OUTCOME 3

Coastal communities utilize natural and nature‐based infrastructure to enhance resilience to coastal 

hazards.

STRATEGY [Lead: OCM, NCCOS]

CR3.1 Improve community understanding of the benefits of natural and nature‐based infrastructure, 

and support implementation as a complement to or in place of built infrastructure, to enhance 

resilience to coastal hazards. 
NOS Priorities Roadmap, p. 7 

Roadmap Example:  

Inundation Benchmarks 

Support Decision‐making in 

Coastal Communities 

To improve the use of total water level 

as a decision‐making tool in coastal 

communities, the Center for 

Operational Oceanographic Products 

and Services worked with National 

Geodetic Survey, U.S. Integrated 

Ocean Observing System Program, 

Office of Coast Survey, and Office for 

Coastal Management to expand an 

inundation benchmark project that 

now includes New York City/Long 

Island Sound; Lower Chesapeake Bay; 

and coastal North Carolina. This 

project allows weather forecasters and 

emergency management officials to 

use well‐known landmarks, such as 

statues, as a way to better visualize 

and communicate water levels and 

impacts during floods.

COASTAL INTELLIGENCE

Decision makers in coastal communities need actionable 

information to make informed choices for the safety of 

coastal residents, environmental protection, and economic 

decisions.  Coastal intelligence is the source for this 

information.  

Coastal intelligence includes observations (physical, chemical 

and biological), measurements, models, monitoring, 

assessment, analysis, and the forecasts, tools, products, and 

services that derive from these valuable foundational 

geospatial data.  Coastal intelligence provides timely, 

actionable information, developed from reliable and 

authoritative science to provide insight into present and 

future conditions in the coastal zone.  

People in the maritime community rely on coastal intelligence 

for a range of decisions, from how much cargo to load to 

choosing the most efficient and safest route between two 

points.  They use coastal intelligence to plan seasonally for 

ship schedules, mitigate the long‐term impacts of sea level 

rise on port infrastructure, and service global trade more 

efficiently as significantly larger vessels transit through U.S. 

ports as a result of the Panama Canal expansion. As our 

economic dependence on the U.S. Maritime Transportation 

System (MTS) grows, robust coastal intelligence is vital to 

maintaining MTS resilience, reducing maritime risk and 

responding to incidents when they occur.  

At the same time, coastal intelligence is important for coastal

populations and community resilience.  As the population density along our coasts increases, pressures 

on these ecologically sensitive and economically important areas also increase.  For example, ecological 

forecasts provide the public with key information to make important decisions to protect the health and 

well‐being of a particular coastal area. NOS’s coastal intelligence capabilities help communities make 

informed decisions about sustainable use of the environment and how future choices, climate change, 

and coastal development will impact them.  

COASTAL INTELLIGENCE OUTCOME 1

Integrated decision support tools safely enable expanded waterborne commerce in busy ports

STRATEGY [Lead: OCS, IOOS]

CI1.1 Provide ship managers with up to the minute data and information to maintain reliable safety 

margins to maximize access to highly trafficked and increasingly space constrained ports.
NOS Priorities Roadmap, p. 8 

COASTAL INTELLIGENCE OUTCOME 2

Coastal communities make informed decisions and take actions to mitigate risks from changing water 

levels.

STRATEGY [Lead: CO‐OPS, NGS]

CI2.1 Improve the ease with which coastal communities use information about water level and its 

impacts to make decisions.

STRATEGY [Lead: CO‐OPS, NGS]

CI2.2 Improve the integration of observing networks, predictions, and products.

COASTAL INTELLIGENCE OUTCOME 3

Public health, natural resource management, and commercial and recreational opportunities are 

enhanced because of NOS’s ecological forecasts.  

STRATEGY [Lead: CO‐OPS, NCCOS]

CI3.1 Transition selected ecological forecasts into operations to demonstrate how NOS‐led 

forecasting partnerships can assist decision‐makers.

STRATEGY [Lead: CO‐OPS, NCCOS]

CI3.2 Develop a sustainable model for the research, development, and operation of ecological 

forecasts within NOS 
NOS Priorities Roadmap, p. 9 

Roadmap Example:  

Social Science Data and Tools 

Support Management of Special 

and Protected Places 

The National Centers for Coastal and 

Ocean Science (NCCOS) worked with 

the Office of National Marine 

Sanctuaries to study how people use 

and depend on the Olympic Coast 

National Marine Sanctuary. NCCOS 

assessed non‐market values held by 

residents of the state of Washington 

for natural resources found in the 

Sanctuary and how those values might 

change if Sanctuary resources were 

degraded by stressors like coastal 

development and climate change. The 

economic models developed for this 

project can be used to conduct 

valuation studies for based on a 

variety of changes to natural resource 

attributes.

PLACE‐BASED CONSERVATION

America’s coastal and marine environments are under 

increasing pressure from a number of stressors and 

demands. NOS’s place‐based conservation efforts have 

been effective in helping to reduce stress on marine 

ecosystems while providing economic and social benefits to 

coastal communities. Coastal and marine places, such as a 

national marine sanctuary, an estuarine reserve, or coral 

reef ecosystem, provide a focal point for decision makers, 

researchers, and citizens alike. Place‐based conservation 

enables a comprehensive approach to problem solving—

balancing the often competing and occasionally conflicting 

demands of coastal resource use, economic development, 

and conservation. 

Place‐based conservation is also, by its very nature, a 

grassroots approach to improving the lives of Americans. 

Being "place‐based" means that NOS looks to local and 

regional communities to help develop our coastal and 

ocean conservation programs.  Although these programs 

are national in scope and leverage national assets and 

attention, they are implemented by NOS staff and partners 

in the places where people live: from Maine to American 

Samoa. Place‐based programs value the experiences of 

local and indigenous populations and help provide services 

that combine their traditional knowledge with 

contemporary understandings and applications.

Conserving coastal and marine places takes time, 

dedication, and persistence. The strategies in this document will help build on significant recent 

achievements in place‐based conservation and will help continue ongoing efforts. To be fully successful, 

however, place‐based conservation strategies will require contributions from all NOS programs. Coastal 

intelligence strategies will help NOS's places by providing for safer maritime commerce. Building and 

enhancing coastal communities' ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters and the 

chronic effects of a changing climate will similarly pay huge dividends for place‐based conservation by 

reducing, or encouraging adaptation to, the impacts of these events on natural systems, coastal 

economies, and our maritime heritage.  

PLACE‐BASED OUTCOME 1

NOS special places are valued, protected, and preserved

STRATEGY [Lead: ONMS]

PB1.1 Expand protection at current sites and add protection at new sites.
NOS Priorities Roadmap, p. 10 

STRATEGY [Lead: OCM]

PB1.2 Raise awareness of the value of special places and the importance of stewardship for their 

long‐term sustainability.

PLACE‐BASED OUTCOME 2

Managers of NOS special places have the capacity to protect these locations and sustain the 

socioeconomic benefits they provide.

STRATEGY [Lead: NCCOS, ONMS]

PB2.1 Assess and prioritize the critical problems confronting NOS special places.

STRATEGY [Lead: NCCOS, ONMS]

PB2.2 Implement methods to better address threats and impacts to these special places.

STRATEGY 2.3 [Lead: NCCOS, ONMS]

PB2.3 Assess the social, economic, and cultural values that communities derive from NOS special 

places and factor them into their management.
NOS Priorities Roadmap, p. 11 

APPENDIX 1: DEFINITIONS

All‐hazards

Any incident or event, natural or man‐made, which requires an organized response in order to protect 

human life, environment, and property as well as to minimize any disruption of government, social, 

and/or economic services. For NOS this is limited to those activities that are directly within our scientific 

expertise, authorities, and fall within the scope of NOS priorities.

Communities

In the context of the NOS roadmap, the predominant meaning will be a coastal community:  towns, 

cities, and counties that are on the coast and rely (at least in part) on the coastal and marine 

environment for its welfare.  However, depending on the context and where appropriate, community 

may refer to a collection of individuals with similar interests, such as the “marine heritage community” 

or “community of coastal natural resource managers.”

Major Incident/Event

A major incident includes all characteristics of a significant incident, with maximum staffing and 

reporting, and a regional or national impact with substantial interest from the public, Congress and 

media.   In the NOAA All‐Hazards Concept of Operations (CONOPS), this would correspond to a Level 1 

incident.

Resilience

The ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse 

events.

Significant Incident/Event

A significant incident requires a substantial surge in operations relative to the norm.  This type of 

incident is characterized by multiple Line Office engagement, and regional or national impact.  In the 

NOAA All‐Hazards Concept of Operations (CONOPS), this would correspond to a Level 2 incident.

Special places

In the context of the NOS Roadmap, special places are those marine areas that are designated, reserved 

or in some way set aside for particular use(s), including conservation, and are managed by NOAA or long 

term NOAA partners (states and territories).  Examples include, but are not limited to, National Marine 

Sanctuaries, National Estuarine Research Reserves, and protected areas managed by State partners.
NOS Priorities Roadmap, p. 12 

APPENDIX 2: ACRONYMS

CONOPS  Concept of Operations

CO‐OPS   Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services

IOOS®    NOAA Integrated Ocean Observing System Program

MTS    Marine Transportation System 

NCCOS    National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science

NGS    National Geodetic Survey

NOS    National Ocean Service

OCM  Office for Coastal Management 

OCS    Office of Coast Survey

ONMS    Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

ORR     Office of Response and Restoration 

oceanservice.noaa.gov