Using a comprehensive approach on an ecosystem scale, the NOAA Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) works through key partnership
programs to address the complex management issues facing the U.S. coasts and oceans. This session provides an overview of integrated coast management as practiced in the United States, including OCRM's Coastal Zone Management Program and the federal Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). Strategic goals include:
Goal 1: Protect and restore coastal and ocean resources to sustain ecological functions, cultural heritage, and economic benefits.
Goal 2: Build resilient coastal communities that value and sustain healthy oceans and coasts.
Goal 3: Improve people’s ability and willingness to take actions that benefit coastal communities and ecosystems
To realize these goals, current priority actions include strengthening management decisions, improving understanding through science, enhancing capacity and education, and protecting priority resources. Implementation is illustrated through recent partnerships such as:
• The National Coastal Zone Management Program that assists State programs to engage in comprehensive planning and community development and other activities to protect and restore habitats, mitigate hazards, protect water quality, and enhance public access to coastal areas.
• The Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET), a partnership between OCRM and the University of New Hampshire to develop, demonstrate, and implement tools for coastal managers to use to detect, prevent, and reverse the impacts of coastal pollution and habitat degradation on coastal ecosystems and communities nationwide.
• The California Ocean Uses Atlas Project, a public-private partnership that fills an increasingly critical information gap in ocean management by documenting the full range of important human uses of State and Federal waters off California. The resulting Atlas maps illustrate the location and intensity of consumptive, non-consumptive, and industrial ocean uses and will help guide ocean planning and management by State, Federal, and regional organizations.
OCRM's Coastal Programs Division helps 34 states and territories advance national coastal management objectives while maintaining and strengthening their management capabilities. Support is provided to state and territory partners through financial assistance, mediation, technical services and participation in state, regional and local forums. The office also oversees “federal consistency,” a powerful tool within the CZMA, which ensures that federal activities in a state are consistent with state coastal policies. OCRM also administers the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP - pronounced “kelp”), established in 2002 to protect coastal and estuarine lands considered important for their conservation, recreation, ecologic, historic or aesthetic values.
Recognizing the connectivity between upstream "whitewater" and downstream "bluewater," NOAA aims to further integrate "upriver" aspects through a more ecosystem-based approach to ICM. This includes incorporating perspectives associated internationally with "land-based sources of marine pollution" and the NOAA-formulated large marine ecosystem (LME) approach. Ongoing challenges include developing inclusive visions for the future of coastal management; providing adequate tools and knowledge for local-level decision making; creating appropriate, meaningful and effective indicators for tracking outcomes; and realizing positive impacts over realistic spatial and temporal scales.