Coastal Services Center

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About the Coastal Storms Program

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How We Began

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) started the Coastal Storms Program (CSP) in 2001 in an effort to reduce the adverse impacts of storms on life, property, the economy, and environmental health in coastal areas. To meet this need, NOAA draws upon expertise from across the organization.

The CSP determined early on that the best way to accomplish its goals would be to localize the effort by implementing regional pilot projects. Through this approach, the CSP can focus its energies and tailor its products to each pilot region’s specific coastal issues and hazards. The pilot regions are chosen for their representative geographies, while products are chosen, with local user input, to address an area’s needs. Each region has a local outreach and extension lead, typically provided through Sea Grant, to ensure that the improved information and tools gained from the Coastal Storms Program are available to CSP partners and users.

Our Goals

Specifically, CSP’s products and services seek to:

• Focus NOAA’s diverse capabilities to mitigate coastal storm impacts
• Address gaps in knowledge and improve coastal decision making related to storm preparation, response, and mitigation
• Train local users on products and build local capacity
• Increase coastal communities’ ability to anticipate and reduce the ecological impacts of coastal storms
• Increase capability of marine- and coastal-dependent industries and communities to reduce the disruption of commerce due to coastal storms

Kicking Off a New Pilot Effort

Kickoff meetings are held in each pilot area to assess the needs of state and local officials, planners, resource managers, and other stakeholders, and to determine what storm-related issues are of the greatest importance to the community. Once the needs have been assessed, NOAA works to determine its capabilities to address those issues, where partnerships are needed, and potential products. The CSP will produce new and improved tools, data, information, forecast models, and training for coastal communities.

Wrapping Up a Pilot Effort

At the conclusion of each pilot project, CSP products are generally available to all. Although products are developed for a specific region, they will often be useful to a broad range of coastal communities. Generally, training is held as needed as each project progresses. However, each pilot project will have a wrap-up meeting to let local users know what has been accomplished, show where they can access products, and provide any additional training needed for the pilot area.