text: 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.
target: Digital Coast Act of 2012 - Defines "Digital Coast" as a constituent-driven effort led by the Secretary of Commerce, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to provide an enabling platform integrating geospatial data, decision support tools, training, and best practices to address coastal and emergency management issues and enhance coastal economies and ecosystem services by helping communities with cost-effective and participatory solutions.
  
  Directs NOAA to establish and implement the Digital Coast to: (1) collect data concerning coastal elevations, land use and cover, habitat and submerged aquatic vegetation, parcels, planimetrics, socioeconomics, and human use; and (2) integrate other data sources for the broadest measure of coastal resource management constituents and applications.
  
  Directs NOAA to: (1) make such data and resulting products accessible via the Digital Coast and other related Internet technologies, (2) provide training on decision support tools developed under this Act, (3) document data to Federal Geographic Data Committee standards, and (4) archive the raw data at appropriate NOAA or federal data centers.
  
  Requires coordination and data sharing with states, U.S. territories, local governments, nongovernmental entities, and other federal efforts.
  
  Requires the establishment of NOAA Coastal Services Centers to facilitate the development of products and services addressing the needs of local, state, and regional entities involved with coastal and ocean decisionmaking and to lead development and maintenance of the Digital Coast.
feat_title: 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.