U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy - Joint Ocean Commission Initiative

Recommendation 10–2The National Ocean Council should establish a task force of appropriate federal agencies andstate and local governments, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the lead,to improve the collection and use of hazards-related data.Under the oversight of the NOC’s Committee on Ocean Resource Management, the hazardsrelateddata task force should develop a coordinated effort that includes the followingfunctions:• systematic collection, storage, analysis, and dissemination of data on post-disaster lossesand the cost of mitigation efforts.• development and transmittal to communities of the information and tools they need tounderstand the risks of hazards to their residents and their social, physical, economic, andenvironmental infrastructures.• cooperation with the Federal Geographic Data Committee and state and local governmentsto achieve comprehensive, digitized, georeferenced mapping and identification ofall natural hazards.• development of adequate funding proposals for the National Flood Insurance Programmap modernization initiative, including a high-priority effort to update maps for highriskcoastal communities.Recommendation 10–3The National Ocean Council should recommend changes in the National Flood InsuranceProgram (NFIP) to reduce incentives for development in high-hazard areas.Specifically, NFIP changes should:• establish clear disincentives to building or rebuilding in coastal high-hazard zones byrequiring property owners at risk of erosion to pay actuarially sound rates for insurance.• enforce measures that reduce vulnerability to natural hazards, including assistance inretrofitting older structures and buyout programs for susceptible structures with repetitive-losshistories.• create enforceable mechanisms to direct development away from undeveloped floodplainsand erosion zones.Recommendation 10–4The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should enhance technical assistance tostate and local governments for developing or improving their hazard mitigation plans. TheNational Ocean Council should identify opportunities for conditioning federal hazardsrelatedfinancial and infrastructure support on completion of FEMA-approved state and localhazards mitigation plans.Chapter 11: Conserving and Restoring Coastal HabitatRecommendation 11–1Congress should amend the Coastal Zone Management Act to create a dedicated fundingprogram for coastal and estuarine land conservation. In addition, a larger share of U.S.Department of Agriculture and other federal agency conservation programs should bedirected to coastal and estuarine lands. To guide these programs, each state should identifypriority coastal habitats and develop a plan for establishing partnerships among willinglandowners for conservation purposes, with participation from federal agency, local government,nongovernmental, and private-sector partners.CHAPTER 31: SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS491