Digital Coast Act

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 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 decision making 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 decision makers 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 16 U.S.C. 1451 33 U.S.C. 3601 33 U.S.C. 892 (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; (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 11, 1994 (59 Fed. Reg. 17671), as amended by Executive Order 13286 of February 28, 2003 (68 Fed. Reg. 10619); and (5) developing and maintaining a best practices document that sets out the best practices used by the Secretary in carrying out the program and providing such document to the United States Geological Survey, the Corps of Engineers, and other relevant Federal agencies. (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 (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; and (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 (B) may, to the maximum extent practicable, 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) Fees (A) Assessment and collection The Secretary may assess and collect fees for the conduct of any training, workshop, or conference that advances the purposes of the program. (B) Amounts The amount of a fee under this paragraph may not exceed the sum of costs incurred, or expected to be incurred, by the Secretary as a direct result of the conduct of the training, workshop, or conference, including for subsistence expenses incidental to the training, workshop, or conference, as applicable. (C) Use of fees Amounts collected by the Secretary in the form of fees under this paragraph may be used to pay for— (i) the costs incurred for conducting an activity described in subparagraph (A); or (ii) the expenses described in subparagraph (B). (3) Survey and mapping Contracts entered into under paragraph (1)(B) shall be considered surveying and mapping chapter 11 (f) Ocean economy The Secretary may establish publically available tools that track ocean and Great Lakes economy data for each coastal State. (g) Authorization of appropriations There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary $4,000,000 for each fiscal year 2018 through 2022 to carry out the program.

Summary: Digital Coast Act This bill 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.) The program must: (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. NOAA must focus on filling data needs and gaps for critical coastal management issues and support continued improvement in existing efforts to coordinate the acquisition and integration of key data sets needed for coastal management, and other purposes. NOAA may enter into financial agreements to carry out the program. NOAA may enter into contracts with private sector entities as may be necessary to collect, process, and provide remote sensing and other geospatial data and products. Additionally, NOAA may establish public tools that are capable of tracking ocean and Great Lakes economy data for each coastal state.