Coastal Zone Enhancement Program

Dramatic population growth along the coast brings new challenges to managing national coastal resources. Challenges include: protecting life and property from coastal hazards; protecting coastal wetlands and habitats while accommodating needed economic growth; and settling conflicts between competing needs such as dredged material disposal, commercial development, recreational use, national defense, and port development.

In 1990, to meet mounting public concern for the well-being of the nation's coastal resources, Congress created a new program under Section 309 of the Coastal Zone Management Act, known as the Coastal Zone Enhancement Program. The program is designed to encourage states and territories to develop program changes in one or more of the following nine coastal zone enhancement areas of national significance: wetlands, coastal hazards, public access, marine debris, cumulative and secondary impacts, special area management plans, ocean/Great Lakes resources, energy and government facility citing, and aquaculture.

To help states target Section 309 Coastal Enhancement Program funds to identified program needs, every five years, coastal states and territories conduct an assessment of their coastal management activities within the nine enhancement areas. Through this self-assessment process, state coastal programs identify high-priority enhancement areas. In consultation with NOAA's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM), state coastal programs then develop five-year strategies to achieve changes (enhancements) to their coastal management programs within these high-priority areas. Program changes often include developing a new or revising an existing law, regulation or administrative guideline, developing or revising a special area management plan (SAMP), or creating a new program such as a coastal land acquisition or restoration program.

In Depth: How are the nine enhancement areas evaluated?

(top)