[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6475 Introduced in House (IH)]
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 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.
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 of 2012''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that--
(1) the lack of current, accurate, uniform, and standards-
based geospatial information to characterize the United States
coastal region presents a significant liability to adequately
manage and maintain 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 average 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;
(5) over half of the Nation's economic productivity 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 economy, including for flood and coastal
storm surge prediction; hazard risk and vulnerability
assessment; emergency response and recovery planning; community
resilience to longer range climate change impacts; permitting
and zoning decisionmaking; habitat and ecosystem health
assessments; and landscape change detection; and
(7) the Digital Coast is a model approach in effective
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 constituent-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
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
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.
(3) The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of Commerce,
acting through the Administrator of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.
(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 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 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 Committee'' means
the interagency committee that promotes 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 following 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.
(C) Benthic habitat and submerged aquatic
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 navigational 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 Archive.--The Secretary shall--
(1) make data and resulting integrated products 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 training on use of such
tools;
(3) document such data to Federal Geographic Data Committee
standards; and
(4) archive all raw data acquired under this Act at the
appropriate National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
data center or other appropriate 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 Integration 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 territories;
(C) local governments; and
(D) representatives of nongovernmental entities;
(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 protocols as are 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;
(3) 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 No. 12906; and
(4) providing for the utilization of contracts with the
private sector, to the maximum extent practicable, to provide
such products and services as are necessary to collect remote
sensing and other geospatial data; which contracts shall be
considered ``surveying and mapping'' services as such term is
used and as such contracts are awarded at the discretion of the
Secretary in accordance with the selection procedures in
chapter 11 of title 40, United States Code.
SEC. 5. COASTAL SERVICES CENTERS.
(a) Establishment.--The Secretary shall establish, within the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Coastal Services
Centers to facilitate the development of products and services that
address the needs of local, State, and regional entities involved with
coastal and ocean decisionmaking including those State coastal
management and research reserves benefitting from this Act, and to lead
development and maintenance of the Digital Coast.
(b) Purpose.--The purpose of the Coastal Services Centers shall be
to--
(1) support the environmental, social, and economic well-
being of the coast by linking people, information, and
technology;
(2) identify and assess coastal and ocean management needs
and increase the capabilities and capacities of managers to
address them at the local, State, and regional levels;
(3) manage the Digital Coast program to carry out the
intent of this Act;
(4) convene and engage coastal managers and decisionmakers
in dialog concerning coastal issues and share information and
best practices across this audience; and
(5) collaborate with various programs of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, other Federal agencies,
and nongovernmental entities to bring data, information,
services, and tools to the Nation's coastal and ocean
decisionmakers.
(c) Financial Agreements.--To carry out this Act, including to
provide program support to non-Federal entities that participate in
implementing this Act, the Secretary--
(1) may enter into financial agreements including grants,
cooperative agreements, interagency agreements, and contracts
with other Federal, tribal, State, and local governmental and
nongovernmental entities; and
(2) may collect registration fees in support of training,
workshops, and conferences that advance the purposes of this
Act.
SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary $85,000,000
for each of fiscal years 2013 through 2018 to carry out this Act.
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