NOS Management and Budget Office

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The NOS Management and Budget Office (MBO) is the focal point for all planning, management, budget, internal and external communications, and education activities. MBO provides key planning, management, and leadership expertise; develops Web products and services; and organizes events to communicate both internally and externally the significant work of NOS.

MBO highlights from fiscal year 2010 include:

  • NOAA’s State of the Coast Website
    To foster a deeper understanding of the need to better understand, manage, and protect our coastal natural resources, NOS launched NOAA’s State of the Coast website in June 2010. The site is a source for quick facts and more detailed statistics offered through interactive indicator visualizations that provide highlights of what we know about coastal communities, coastal ecosystems, the coastal economy, and about how climate change might impact the coast.  The site’s purpose is to increase awareness of the crucial importance of healthy coastal ecosystems to a robust U.S. economy, a safe population, and a sustainable quality of life for coastal residents.  NOAA's State of the Coast website launched with 15 national-level topics, telling a broad suite of stories ranging from the Gross Domestic Product generated in coastal counties, the population in the 100-year coastal flood zone, and the overall health of our nation’s coastal waters.  Please visit the site frequently as it continues to grow and be updated.
  • NOAA’s Spatial Trends in Coastal Socioeconomics Website
    The coastal management community is challenged to better understand and incorporate the spatial patterns of human activities into the management of coastal and ocean resources.  NOS updated NOAA’s Spatial Trends in Coastal Socioeconomics – or STICS – website, which provides coastal and ocean managers with one-stop shopping for demographic and economic information.  STICS recompiles national-level demographic and economic datasets such as demographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau and personal income and employment information from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, into a variety of geographic units that coastal and ocean managers must work with on a daily basis. These units include placed-based management programs (e.g., NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserves), floodplains (e.g., FEMA 100-year flood hazard areas), watersheds (e.g., NOAA estuaries and U.S. Geologic Survey hydrologic units), and political areas (e.g., counties, states, and state Coastal Zone Management Program boundaries).

    The STICS website offers three separate tools to facilitate quick data retrieval, data mapping, and detailed data queries and downloads.  Of interest to most users is a new Quick Report Tool, which offers users a map-based interface to quickly determine demographic and economic characteristics of single or aggregated coastal geographic areas.

  • 2010 NOAA Restoration Day
    In June 2010, NOS hosted over 220 NOAA employees and partners in the seventh annual NOAA Restoration Day events in Maryland and Virginia.  These events offer NOAA staff the opportunity to put NOAA’s mission to work, demonstrate their commitment to restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, and learn about NOAA science in action.  The Maryland event took place at the NOAA Cooperative Oxford Laboratory on the eastern shore of Maryland on June 15, and the Virginia event took place at First Landing State Park in northern Virginia Beach on May 20.  NOAA Restoration Day is one of the largest voluntary federal employee-sponsored environmental stewardship events in the Chesapeake Bay watershed region.  This year, participants planted switch grass; restored native oysters; seined and sampled fish; planted wetland plants and trees; conducted coastal bottom mapping; performed digital elevation mapping activities; and established geodetic benchmarks.
  • New Online Educational Game Launched
    NOS and the National Marine Fisheries Service launched the second online educational game in the WaterLife series, “Sea Turtles and the Quest to Nest.” The Web-based game encourages and explains loggerhead sea turtle conservation through a series of games and animations aimed at fourth through seventh grade students. To succeed, players must understand human actions affecting loggerheads and what people can do to improve the chance for survival of the species, both on land and in the ocean.  This game is part of NOAA’s educational strategy to engage students in challenges that maintain an interest in science and technology and to increase climate and ocean literacy.
  • Climate Stewards Pilot Project Launched
    The Climate Stewards Project started as a pilot to provide professional development opportunities to formal, informal educators and citizen scientists to encourage the creation of community stewardship actions.  The project is a national program managed by the NOS Communications and Education Division and welcomed 25 educators from 14 states in the first year. NOAA education programs from all NOAA offices have provided support to offer many online seminars, conference symposia, online classes, and workshops to help participating educators to understand and teach climate science.  Educators track their learning progress in an electronic portfolio system. The project will expand in the fall of 2010 and will build public awareness and engagement to uphold NOAA's climate and ocean stewardship responsibilities.

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