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Coastal Storms

+$3.0 Million in FY 2002

(part of NOAA's Marine Transportation System Initiative)

Coastal Storms - life and property at risk!

NOAA is requesting an increase of $3 million to initiate efforts to help dramatically reduce the loss of property and life from Coastal Storms in the pilot region of Florida's St. John's River watershed. NOAA's Coastal Storms proposal seeks to apply a cross-section of NOAA capabilities to: ensure the safety of the coastal population; support and enhance the coastal economy; and sustain the environmental health of coastal communities and resources. This effort will be a critical component of the agency's Marine Transportation System Initiative, providing enhanced data to ensure safe navigation.

Recent estimates for disaster losses are between $10 and $50 billion per year, with an average cost of $50 million per event. Seventy-one percent of disaster losses occur in coastal states or territories. Much of this damage occurs in inland areas adjacent to the coast resulting in impacts throughout coastal watersheds. New funding will allow NOAA to better provide an integrated suite of capabilities to predict and reduce the watershed impacts of coastal storms by developing improved products and services that address specific state/local decision-maker needs.

NOAA FY 2002 Budget
National Ocean Service (OR&F)	FY 2002 Change $ in millions
Navigation Services
Mapping & Charting Shallow-water bathymetry	$1.0
Tides & Currents Enhanced water level observations	$1.0
Ocean Resources Conservation & Assessment
Ocean Assessment Program Environmental monitoring, outreach, education	$1.0
Total Change from FY 2001	$3.0

NOAA's Response to Reduce Coastal Storm Impacts

This initiative will build upon existing NOAA capabilities and will enhance our efforts to provide Marine Transportation System users, as well as coastal emergency and resource managers, with the data and tools needed to safely maximize commercial shipping, mitigate hazards, and sustain environmental health of coastal communities and resources. In order to accomplish meaningful progress in reducing the impacts of coastal storms, this program must first provide observation-to user capabilities and address specific immediate needs in the first pilot area in the St. John's River area of Florida.

The framework NOAA and its partners will use to address watershed impacts from coastal storms incorporates a spectrum of NOAA products and services that will be advanced and integrated seamlessly to meet the goal of this initiative. This framework:

• Collect and archive observations and other data.
• Integrate disparate data and develop an increased understanding of coastal processes and impacts.
• Predict environmental conditions and impacts.
• Disseminate environmental data, warnings, forecasts, research results, and other information.
• Provide end user decision support tools for 1) the application of data, information and forecasting and 2) a resource for planning, design and implementation of regional efforts.
• Provide Outreach and Extension to form new linkages and partnerships for place-based approaches and solutions to challenges.
• Build Capacity by providing technical assistance, training, and place-based projects to apply or provide solutions.
• Influence Policy and Standards through a national framework of policies, standards, and protocols to ensure knowledge-based decisions for environmentally sound development.

Since this effort engages partners at a variety of levels, a significant proportion of these resources will be devoted to contracts and grants.

NOAA's Role

NOAA has four critical statutory responsibilities that support its role in this initiative and provide a solid foundation for the planned activities. First, NOAA has responsibilities for the nearshore bathymetry, nautical charts, and real-time and forecast information necessary for safe and efficient transport and movement of goods and services in the nearshore environment. Second, NOAA has a mandate to facilitate the national coastal management program and working with coastal states to ensure life and property are protected. Third, the National Weather Service provides weather, hydrologic, and climate forecasts and warnings for the United States, its territories, adjacent waters and ocean areas, for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy. Lastly, the U.S. Weather Research Program is focused on the research community's contribution to a reduction in the impacts of disastrous weather in the nation's inland and nearshore communities.

NOAA is ideally positioned to use its many resources to help the Nation reduce the impacts of devastating coastal storms.

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