I 
112TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6475 
To authorize the Secretary of Commerce, through the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration, to establish a constituent-driven program 
that collects priority coastal geospatial data and supports an information 
platform capable of efficiently integrating coastal data with decision 
support tools, training, and best practices to inform and improve local, 
State, regional, and Federal capacities to manage the coastal region. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 20, 2012 
Mr. RUPPERSBERGER (for himself and Mr. YOUNG of Alaska) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To authorize the Secretary of Commerce, through the Na-
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to estab-
lish a constituent-driven program that collects priority 
coastal geospatial data and supports an information plat-
form capable of efficiently integrating coastal data with 
decision support tools, training, and best practices to 
inform and improve local, State, regional, and Federal 
capacities to manage the coastal region. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Digital Coast Act of 
2012’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds that— 
(1) the lack of current, accurate, uniform, and 
standards-based geospatial information to charac-
terize the United States coastal region presents a 
significant liability to adequately manage and main-
tain the Nation’s— 
(A) environment; 
(B) infrastructure; 
(C) economy; and 
(D) public safety and homeland security; 
(2) more than half of all people of the United 
States (153 million) currently live on or near a coast 
and an additional 12 million are expected in the next 
decade; 
(3) coastal counties in the United States aver-
age 300 persons per square mile, compared with the 
national average of 98; 
(4) 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; 
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(5) over half of the Nation’s economic produc-
tivity is located within coastal regions; 
(6) highly accurate, high-resolution remote 
sensing and other geospatial data play an important 
role in management of the coastal zone and econ-
omy, including for flood and coastal storm surge 
prediction; hazard risk and vulnerability assessment; 
emergency response and recovery planning; commu-
nity resilience to longer range climate change im-
pacts; permitting and zoning decisionmaking; habitat 
and ecosystem health assessments; and landscape 
change detection; and 
(7) the Digital Coast is a model approach in ef-
fective Federal partnerships with local and State 
government, nongovernmental organizations, and the 
private sector. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) The term ‘‘Digital Coast’’ means a con-
stituent-driven effort led by the Secretary to provide 
an enabling platform that integrates geospatial data, 
decision support tools, training, and best practices to 
address coastal and emergency management issues 
and needs. The Digital Coast strives to sustain and 
enhance coastal economies and ecosystem services by 
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helping communities address their issues, needs, and 
challenges through cost-effective and participatory 
solutions. 
(2) The term ‘‘remote sensing and other 
geospatial’’ means collecting, storing, retrieving, or 
disseminating graphical or digital data depicting 
natural or manmade physical features, phenomena, 
or boundaries of the Earth and any information re-
lated thereto, including surveys, maps, charts, sat-
ellite and airborne remote sensing data, images, 
lidar, and services performed by professionals such 
as surveyors, photogrammetrists, hydrographers, ge-
odesists, cartographers, and other such services. 
(3) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 
of Commerce, acting through the Administrator of 
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-
tion. 
(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 Mex-
ico, Long Island Sound, or one or more of the 
Great Lakes; and 
(B) includes Puerto Rico, the United 
States Virgin Islands, Guam, the Common-
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wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the 
Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands, Amer-
ican 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. 
(5) The term ‘‘coastal region’’ means the area 
of United States waters extending inland from the 
shoreline to include coastal watersheds and seaward 
to the territorial sea. 
(6) The term ‘‘Federal Geographic Data Com-
mittee’’ means the interagency committee that pro-
motes the coordinated development, use, sharing, 
and dissemination of geospatial data on a national 
basis. 
SEC. 4. BUILDING THE DIGITAL COAST. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish 
and implement the Digital Coast to collect the fol-
lowing priority supporting data and integrate such 
data with other available data for the benefit of the 
broadest measure of coastal resource management 
constituents and applications: 
(A) Coastal elevation data. 
(B) Land use and land cover data. 
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(C) Benthic habitat and submerged aquat-
ic vegetation data. 
(D) Parcels data. 
(E) Planimetric data. 
(F) Socioeconomic and human use data. 
(2) FOCUS ON FILLING NEEDS AND GAPS.—In 
implementing this section, the Secretary shall— 
(A) recognize that remote sensing and 
other geospatial data acquisition for naviga-
tional and positioning purposes is carried out 
through other authorities and programs; and 
(B) focus on filling data needs and gaps 
for critical coastal management issues. 
(b) DATA
INTEGRATION, TOOL
DEVELOPMENT, 
TRAINING, DOCUMENTATION, DISSEMINATION, AND AR-
CHIVE.—The Secretary shall— 
(1) make data and resulting integrated prod-
ucts developed under this section readily accessible 
via the Digital Coast and other related Internet 
technologies; 
(2) develop decision support tools that use and 
display resulting integrated data and provide train-
ing on use of such tools; 
(3) document such data to Federal Geographic 
Data Committee standards; and 
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(4) archive all raw data acquired under this Act 
at the appropriate National Oceanic and Atmos-
pheric Administration data center or other appro-
priate Federal data center. 
(c) 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 efforts 
under the Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integra-
tion 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 terri-
tories; 
(C) local governments; and 
(D) representatives of nongovernmental en-
tities; 
(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 proto-
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