[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 126 (Tuesday, July 6, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35495-35496]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-14354]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Economic Analysis of Shoreline Treatment Options for Coastal 
New Hampshire

    The Department of Commerce will submit the following information 
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the 
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and 
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of 
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on April 26, 2021 (86 FR 22034) during a 60-day 
comment period. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public 
comments.
    Agency: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Commerce.
    Title: Economic Analysis of Shoreline Treatment Options for Coastal 
New Hampshire.
    OMB Control Number: 0648-0788.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Regular submission [revision of a current 
information collection].
    Number of Respondents: 2,701.
    Average Hours per Response: Pretest--17 minutes; Full survey--20 
minutes; Non-response survey--5 minutes.
    Total Annual Burden Hours: 824.
    Needs and Uses: This is a request for a revision to information 
collection 0648-0788, sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (NOAA) National Center for Coastal Ocean Science 
(NCCOS). This collection will benefit the NOAA, Office of Coastal 
Management (OCM), and decision-makers on the state and local level in 
New Hampshire. NOAA will collect economic data pursuant to the Coastal 
Zone Management Act (CZMA) and Digital Coastal Act.
    The New Hampshire Coastal Risk and Hazards Commission (CRHC) was 
established by the State Legislature through RSA 483-E on July 2, 2013. 
The purpose of the Commission, as stated in the law, is to ``recommend 
legislation, rules and other actions to prepare for projected sea-level 
rise and other coastal watershed hazards such as storms, increased 
river flooding and storm water runoff, and the risks such hazards pose 
to municipalities and the state assets in New Hampshire.'' Further, in 
carrying out this charge, the Commission is specifically directed to 
``review National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other 
scientific agency projections of coastal storm inundation and flood 
risk to determine the appropriate information, data, and property 
risks'' to incorporate into its recommendations.
    In 2016, the CRCH recommended the development of a ``comprehensive, 
integrated New Hampshire Coastal Shoreline Management Plan (CSMP) that 
presents general priorities for coastal shoreline management, as well 
as site-specific and place-based strategies including, where 
appropriate, protection, adaptation, and abandonment.'' Following a New 
Hampshire Shoreline Management workshop organized by GBNERR in 2014 and 
consistent with CRHC Recommendation BL6, NHCP has prioritized living 
shoreline assessment and implementation in its five-year strategy to 
enhance coastal management (309 Strategy, 2015) and set a longer term 
goal to develop a Tidal Shoreline Management Plan (TSMP) for New 
Hampshire.
    The National Ocean Service (NOS) proposes to collect economic data 
to document perceived effects of weather and climate events and 
adaptation strategies, to assess probable public benefits that would be 
derived from shoreline treatment options within coastal New Hampshire, 
and to establish a baseline for future monitoring of NOAA's success in 
meeting its mandates and obligations.
    Respondents will be randomly sampled from households (1) within New 
Hampshire, (2) within block groups in Maine adjacent to the Piscataqua 
River, and (3) within block groups in Massachusetts adjacent to the 
Hampton-Seabrook Estuary. Questions will explore such issues as 
participation in recreational activities, familiarity with weather and 
climate effects and adaptation methods, sense of place, and opinions on 
shoreline treatment options. No PII will be collected. The final 
collection will support the development of a CSMP for New Hampshire as 
well as provide information to help inform local coastal zone 
management and planning.
    Upon analysis of the pre-test data and guidance from experts in 
survey methodology, the following changes were made to enhance 
understanding, response rate, and to minimize respondent burden:
     Question 4: ``suffered damage'' has been replaced with 
``been damaged'' to avoid potential bias an increase data quality.
     Questions 7a/8a: ``coastal flooding'' has been replaced 
with ``flooding'' to not exclude riverine flooding.
     Questions 7a/8a, 7b/8b: ``flooding damage'' and 
``shoreline erosion damage'' were replaced with ``damage from 
flooding'' and ``damage from shoreline erosion'' to improve 
understanding.
     Questions 14h and 14i were removed based on pre-test 
results to reduce burden without decreasing data quality.
     Questions 16-21 originally asked respondents to indicate 
their preference to six unique policy options, but now respondents are 
asked to compare three sets of unique policy options. Pre-test results 
suggested that respondents would prefer to compare policies rather than 
rate them individually, and comparing three sets of policy options 
should reduce burden while increasing data quality.
     Question 22b: This question is now asked after each policy 
comparison instead of once to improve data quality.
     Question 22f: ``a public vote or referendum'' was replaced 
with ``being considered by the New Hampshire legislature'' to convey 
the same information, but using region-specific terminology, which 
should increase data quality.
     Question 22: An additional statement was added to capture 
potentially invalid responses due to ``scenario rejection,'' which 
should increase data quality.
     Question 23: The question and response option phrasings 
have been updated to reflect the modified choice experiment.
     Question 30: The year has been updated from 2019 to 2020 
when asking about the previous year's household income.
     A question has been added to ask how long the respondent 
has been a

[[Page 35496]]

resident of their current state. Respondents who have recently moved 
within their state may have different opinions than those who have 
recently moved from out-of-state, so this additional question should 
increase data quality.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Frequency: Once.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: This information collection request may be viewed 
at www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of 
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently 
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search 
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB 
Control Number 0648-0788.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2021-14354 Filed 7-2-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-JE-P