Digital Coast Act

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The expanded summary of the Senate reported version is repeated here.)

Digital Coast Act

(Sec. 4) This bill requires the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to establish a constituent-driven Digital Coast program. (This program currently exists under NOAA to provide data, tools, and training that communities use to manage their coastal resources.) The program must: (1) provide an online resource that integrates geospatial data, decision-support tools, training, and best practices to address coastal management issues and needs, and to enhance resilient communities, ecosystem values, and coastal economic growth and development; and (2) provide for the documentation, dissemination, and archiving of the data.

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, and other purposes. NOAA may: (1) enter into financial agreements and collect fees to carry out the program; (2) enter into contracts with private sector entities as may be necessary to collect, process, and provide remote sensing and other geospatial data and products.

Additionally, NOAA may establish publicly available tools that track ocean and Great Lakes economy data for each coastal state.