Coastal Issues | Hazards | Activities

What Is OCRM Doing to Address Coastal Hazards?

Through its coastal management efforts, the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) is helping address coastal hazards in a number of ways.

Coastal Zone Management Program

One of the main objectives within the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) is to "minimize the loss of life and property caused by improper development in flood-prone, storm surge, geological hazard, and erosion-prone areas and in areas likely to be affected by or vulnerable to sea level rise, land subsidence, and saltwater intrusion, and by the destruction of natural protective features such as beaches, dunes, wetlands, and barrier islands, minimize loss of life and property caused by erosion and sea level rise while continuing to protect our natural coastal resources." As such OCRM's Coastal Zone Management Program, in partnership with state coastal management programs, provides technical assistance and funding to support many projects that address coastal hazard concerns at the state and local level including developing hazard management plans, revising construction setback regulations, conducting shoreline change studies and shoreline mapping efforts to identify high-risk erosion areas.

hurricane surf

Hurricane surf on the north coast of Puerto Rico. Note the building for scale.

Through the Coastal Zone Enhancement Program's five-year assessments and strategies, states and territories have incentives to enhance their coastal management programs in a wide array of coastal issues of national significance, including coastal hazards. The Coastal Zone Enhancement Program provides state programs with an opportunity to establish new regulations, policies, and management programs for coastal hazards.

Shoreline Management Technical Assistance Toolbox

OCRM, in partnership with NOAA's Restoration Center, has developed a Shoreline Management Technical Assistance Toolbox to provide coastal managers, local decision makers, and other interested parties with information about and easy access to management tools, case studies, and other resources available for addressing shoreline management issues. The site focuses on management approaches that avoid shoreline hardening, including policy tools (e.g., set backs, planning, shoreline zoning, etc.) and alternative "soft" shoreline stabilization methods (e.g., marsh restoration with breakwater sill).

NOAA Coastal Storms Program

The Coastal Storms Program is a nationwide effort to help coastal communities lessen the impacts of coastal storms. Local, state, and federal organizations, lead by NOAA's Coastal Services Center, are working together to develop a large suite of new and improved tools, information, and forecast models to meet this goal.

The Coastal Storms Program has thus far focused efforts on three pilot regions: the St. Johns watershed in Florida, the lower Columbia River and adjacent coastal areas, and the Southern California Bight. While the efforts are focused on specific regions of the country, the results are helping the entire coastal zone do a better job of preparing for the inevitable coastal storm. The types of products (developed through each pilot) cover a variety of storm-related issues ranging from community risk and vulnerability assessments to flood response to improved weather forecasting.

National Estuarine Research Reserve System

The National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) help to addresses coastal hazards through their Coastal Training Program and other research and planning efforts. The Coastal Training Program provides current scientific information and skill-building opportunities to coastal decision-makers such as state and local government officials, land use planners, regulators, and engineers. Through this program, the NERRS can ensure that these decision makers have the knowledge and tools they need to address critical resource management issues of concern to local communities. Recently several Coastal Training Programs have focused on shoreline erosion. In addition, the NERRS System-Wide Monitoring Program provides both long-term and near real-time data on water quality and weather conditions at all times, including during coastal storms. These data are invaluable for assessing current conditions and long-term changes resulting from storms.

Measuring Success

Since addressing coastal hazards is an important goal of the CZMA and state coastal management programs, OCRM has worked with our state coastal program partners to develop a suite of coastal hazard performance indicators as part of the CZMA Performance Management System. The indicators will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the national coastal management program at addressing coastal hazard concerns.

 

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