The Digital Coast Act (Authorization bill) passed the full senate on Nov 28. If the bill passes the house and becomes law, it will authorize NOAA to fully establish Digital Coast, a robust geospatial program for the coastal management community.
The Digital Coast within NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS), has been operational since 2007 and has demonstrated its value as a foundational resource of critical data for local, state, regional and federal coastal management officials and communities. The program is a partnership that provides data and training to a diverse group of local, regional, and statewide coastal interests including floodplain managers, coastal zone managers, those working on green infrastructure activities, coastal and ocean habitat management – all of which goes to supporting and building and sustaining the resilience of the coastal economy.
Digital Coast tools help users turn data into powerful information that continues to increase the coastal environmental intelligence which is a cornerstone of NOAA’s strategic plan – To increase the amount and use of environmental intelligence. For example, content in the Digital Coast is already used in diverse ways
- Flood Exposure Coastal County Snapshots turn complex county-level data into useful products that help communities understand how to become more resilient.
- Port Resilience Planning is used to help make freight transportation infrastructure more storm resistant.
- Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA) is used to help emergency responders and environmental resource managers deal with incidents that may adversely impact the environment, such as oil spills, chemical spills, and vessel groundings.
- Hurricane-Induced Coastal Erosion Hazards is an interactive map that shows users where hurricane-induced coastal erosion hazards exist in order to inform sand management decisions.
- The Coastal Resilience Decision-Support Framework supports decisions to reduce the ecological and socioeconomic risks of coastal hazards.
Funding requested for the program will be used to implement the following activities
- Develop Partnership-Driven Local Projects such as applying for Community Rating System credits under the National Flood Insurance Program; preparing adaptation strategies for near- and long-term coastal flooding scenarios; and implementing effective risk communication strategies.
- Develop a Digital Coast Fellowship Program to help build an educated and trained workforce in coastal resilience.
- Expand availability of priority coastal data sets including high-resolution topography and bathymetry data to support coast flood modeling, regional stormwater management, and data needed to support ecosystem services valuation. Through well-coordinated federal acquisition strategies, the private sector geospatial industry can help to cost-effectively fill these critical data gaps and provide new employment opportunities as additional funding and partnerships, including partnerships become available.
- Establish an Interagency Project Testbed because a compelling need exists for the joint development of a more seamless decision-support solution and data integration approach. Such a jointly funded testbed would serve as the mechanism for facilitating partnerships, user engagement, reducing uncertainties, and delivering the collaborative product.