Digital Coast Act of 2014

To authorize the Secretary of Commerce, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to establish a constituent-driven program that develops an information platform capable of efficiently integrating coastal data with decision-support tools, training, and best practices, and coordinates the 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 2014 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. 3. Definitions In this Act: (1) Coastal region The term coastal region (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 (4) Federal Geographic Data Committee The term Federal Geographic Data Committee (5) Remote sensing and other geospatial The term remote sensing and other geospatial (6) Secretary The term Secretary 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. (3) participating, pursuant to section 216 of the E-Government Act of 2002 ( Public Law 107–347 (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. (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 chapter 11 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.

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.