Digital Coast Act of 2016

To require the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to establish a constituent-driven program to provide a digital information platform capable of efficiently integrating coastal data with decision-support tools, training, and best practices and to support collection of priority coastal geospatial data to inform and improve local, State, regional, and Federal capacities to manage the coastal region, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Digital Coast Act of 2016 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 increasingly important role in decisionmaking and 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 coastal change; (E) local planning and permitting; (F) habitat and ecosystem health assessments; and (G) landscape change detection. 3. Definitions In this Act: (1) Coastal region The term coastal region (2) Coastal State The term coastal State coastal state 16 U.S.C. 1453 (3) Federal Geographic Data Committee The term Federal Geographic Data Committee (4) Remote sensing and other geospatial The term remote sensing and other geospatial (5) Secretary The term Secretary 4. Establishment of the Digital Coast (a) Establishment (1) In general The Secretary shall establish a program for the provision of an enabling platform that integrates geospatial data, decision-support tools, training, and best practices to address coastal management issues and needs. Under the program, the Secretary shall strive 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. (2) Designation The program established under paragraph (1) shall be known as the Digital Coast program (b) Program requirements In carrying out the program, the Secretary shall ensure that the program 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 information distribution 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. (c) Coordination The Secretary shall coordinate the activities carried out under the program to optimize 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 academia, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations; (2) consulting with other Federal agencies, including interagency committees, on relevant Federal activities, including activities carried out under the Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration Act ( 33 U.S.C. 3501 et seq. 16 U.S.C. 1451 et seq. 33 U.S.C. 3601 et seq. 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 (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). (d) Filling needs and gaps In carrying out the program, the Secretary shall— (1) maximize the use of remote sensing and other geospatial data collection activities conducted for other purposes and under other authorities; (2) focus on filling data needs and gaps for coastal management issues, including with respect to areas that, as of the date of the enactment of this Act, were underserved by coastal data and the areas of the Arctic that are under the jurisdiction of the United States; (3) pursuant to the Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration Act ( 33 U.S.C. 3501 et seq. (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; and (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. (e) Financial agreements and contracts (1) In general In carrying out the program, the Secretary— (A) may enter into financial agreements to carry out the program, including— (i) support to non-Federal entities that participate in implementing the program; (ii) grants, cooperative agreements, interagency agreements, contracts, or any other agreement on a reimbursable or non-reimbursable basis, with other Federal, tribal, State, and local governmental and nongovernmental entities; and (iii) registration fees in support of training, workshops, and conferences that advance the purposes of the program; and (B) shall enter into such contracts with private sector entities for such products and services as the Secretary determines may be necessary to collect, process, and provide remote sensing and other geospatial data and products for purposes of the program. (2) Survey and mapping Contracts entered into under paragraph (1)(B) shall be considered surveying and mapping chapter 11 (f) Authorization of appropriations There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary such sums as may be necessary to carry out the program in each of fiscal years 2017 through 2021.

Summary: Digital Coast Act of 2016 This bill authorizes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management to establish a Digital Coast program for the sharing of digital information to help coastal communities better prepare for storms, plan for long-term coastal resilience, and manage coastal resources. The program launches the next phase of development at NOAA for the use of coastal mapping. In order for coastal communities to effectively use coastal mapping to solve coastal problems there must be coordination and information sharing among federal, state, local, and private participants in each coastal area. NOAA's Office for Coastal Management should optimize the development and use of coastal mapping data by: integrating the data to make it readily accessible via the internet, developing visualization and predictive tools that makes the data easier to find and use, providing training on how to decipher and use the data to make accurate decisions, making sure the data meets federal standards, and archiving the data at the NOAA data center. In addition, the Digital Coast program requires NOAA's Office for Coastal Management to prioritize the collection of coastal mapping data in critical coastal areas, and support existing efforts to improve the acquisition of the key data sets necessary for coastal communities to effectively solve coastal problems.