Digital Coast Act
This bill provides statutory authority for and revises the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Digital Coast program. (The program currently exists under NOAA to provide data, tools, and training that communities use to manage their coastal resources.)
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.
NOAA may
[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2189 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2189
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.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 9, 2019
Mr. Ruppersberger (for himself and Mr. Young) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Digital Coast Act''.
SEC. 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.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Coastal region.--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.
(2) Coastal state.--The term ``coastal State'' has the
meaning given the term ``coastal state'' in section 304 of the
Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1453).
(3) Federal geographic data committee.--The term ``Federal
Geographic Data Committee'' means the interagency committee
that promotes the coordinated development, use, sharing, and
dissemination of geospatial data on a national basis.
(4) Remote sensing and other geospatial.--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 related thereto,
including surveys, maps, charts, satellite and airborne remote
sensing data, images, LiDAR, and services performed by
professionals such as surveyors, photogrammetrists,
hydrographers, geodesists, cartographers, and other such
services.
(5) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Commerce, acting through the Administrator of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
SEC. 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'' (in this section
referred to as the ``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 archiving 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 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.), and the Hydrographic Services Improvement
Act of 1998 (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
note), in the establishment of such standards and common
protocols as the Secretary considers necessary to assure the
interoperability of remote sensing and other geospatial data
with all users of such information within--
(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 et seq.), support continue improvement in
existing efforts to coordinate the acquisition and integration
of key data sets needed for coastal management and other
purposes, including--
(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''
services as such term is used in and as such contracts are
awarded by the Secretary in accordance with the selection
procedures in chapter 11 of title 40, United States Code.
(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 2020
through 2024 to carry out the program.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife.
Subcommittee Hearings Held.
Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife Discharged.
Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Unanimous Consent.
Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. 116-315.
Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. 116-315.
Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 256.
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