Integrated Ocean and Coastal Mapping
NOAA's Integrated Ocean and Coastal Mapping Initiative supports the U.S. Ocean Action Plan call for the Coordination of Ocean and Coastal Mapping Activities. The 2009 Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration Act (Subtitle B of Public Law 111-11) recommended NOAA as lead of an interagency committee on ocean and coastal mapping.
The primary objective of IOCM is to efficiently and cost-effectively plan, acquire, integrate, and distribute data to meet a greater range of users by using a map once, use many times paradigm. A fusion-based operational approach supports this goal by exploiting data from complementary sensors to increase both the quantity and quality of information about the coastal environment. IOCM requires intra- and inter-agency coordination with a focus on streamlining operations, reducing redundancies, improving efficiencies, developing common standards, and stimulating innovation and technological development.
Data collected to support this initiative can be freely downloaded from Digital Coast.
