EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Environmental Assessment and Prediction Mission
Advance Short-Term Warning
Implement Seasonal to Interannual Climate Forecasts
Predict and Assess Decadal to Centennial Change
Promote Safe Navigation
Environmental Stewardship Mission
Crosscutting Initiatives
Reducing Costs and Improving Effectiveness
Budget Request--
Traditional Structure
Budget Request--
Strategic Plan Structure
Supplementary Tables
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Promote Safe Navigation
Total Request: $86,174,000
NOAA requests $86.2 million to address this strategic goal, a net decrease
of $6.8 million from FY 1999 base funding. The objectives are to:
- deliver a digital nautical charting database to underpin new electronic
navigational systems;
- update nautical surveys using full-bottom coverage technologies;
- provide mariners with predictions of water levels, tides and currents,
and weather conditions in major ports;
- transform the obsolete geodetic reference frame into a Global Positioning
System (GPS)-based system; and
- complete the transition of the aeronautical charting program activity
to the Department of Transportation.
These objectives will be accomplished largely through NOS mapping, charting,
geodesy, and tide and current subactivities.
NOAA requires: $50.9 million, to acquire hydrographic data, update nautical surveys and deliver digital
nautical charting databases, a decrease of $5.4 million from the FY
1999 base. NOAA also requires: $11.0 million to acquire oceanographic data
and to make available marine predictions and advanced oceanographic observations
systems important to pilots and port authorities, a decrease of $0.4 million
from 1998; and $19.2 million to provide a national spatial reference system
that utilizes the Global Positioning System for navigation and positioning,
a decrease of $1.5 million from 1998.
Also included is a net increase of $0.5 million for program reductions,
terminations, and distributed infrastructure changes.
Sea-going commerce has tripled in the last 50 years, and 98 percent of
our international trade by weight moves through U.S. ports. Fifty percent
of the total tonnage is oil or other hazardous material. Despite the risk
that accompanies increasing traffic, and the competitive advantage of modern
observations and systems, much of the Nation's charting and geodetic infrastructure
is not up to world standards. Accurate charts and modern navigation systems
are required for safe and efficient maritime transport.
NOAA collects, processes and distributes such information in support
of national, commercial and individual needs. NOAA is working to revolutionize
U.S. marine navigation, mapping and surveying, and to provide a precise
satellite-derived reference system as the basis for the Nation's 21st-century
positioning needs. During 1997, NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) produced
338 new editions of nautical charts; set the stage for private sector partnerships
to update nautical surveys; installed 194 Federal Base Network stations
and 28 continuously operating reference stations that will form the basic
positional framework for the Nation's future spatial data infrastructure;
and entered into a cooperative agreement to research, develop and implement
a commercially viable national Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Telemetry
System (PORTS) project.
A proposal is included in the request for fee collections in conjunction
with the U.S. Coast Guard for navigation services. Fees collected in this
fund will result in an estimated reduction to NOAA's Budget Authority and
Appropriation of $2.5 million in FY 1999. |