[116th Congress Public Law 223]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[[Page 134 STAT. 1067]]
Public Law 116-223
116th Congress
An Act
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. <<NOTE: Dec. 18, 2020 - [S. 1069]>>
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, <<NOTE: Digital Coast
Act.>>
SECTION 1. <<NOTE: 16 USC 1451 note.>> SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Digital Coast Act''.
SEC. 2. <<NOTE: 16 USC 1467 note.>> 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;
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(F) habitat and ecosystem health assessments; and
(G) landscape change detection.
SEC. 3. <<NOTE: 16 USC 1467 note.>> 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. <<NOTE: 16 USC 1467.>> 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 archive by--
(1) <<NOTE: Web posting.>> 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;
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(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) <<NOTE: Consultations.>> 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;
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(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) <<NOTE: Determination.>> 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,
to the extent provided in advance in appropriations
Acts, 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 shall be
available to the extent and in such amounts as are
provided in advance in appropriations Acts 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
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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 2021
through 2025 to carry out the program.
Approved December 18, 2020.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY--S. 1069:
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SENATE REPORTS: No. 116-234 (Comm. on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation).
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 166 (2020):
Sept. 30, considered and passed Senate.
Nov. 16, considered and passed House, amended.
Dec. 2, Senate concurred in House amendment.
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