From the Director: Guest Editorial

Articles

Sea Briefs is a report on the results of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium.

Editor: Valerie Winn

This newsletter is available in PDF format from:
masgc.org/seabriefs

MASGC supports applied, interdisciplinary marine science research, education and outreach efforts to foster the sustainable development and management of the Mississippi and Alabama coasts and nearshore ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico

Mississippi-Alabama
Sea Grant Consortium
703 East Beach Drive
Ocean Springs, MS 39564
Phone: 228-818-8840
E-mail: seabriefs@masgc.org
MASGP 07-011-02

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Guest Editorial

New NOAA Coastal Services Center Spans Five Gulf States

Todd Davison The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coastal Services Center (CSC) has opened a regional office at the Stennis Space Center to serve stakeholders in the five Gulf states. The vision for the NOAA Gulf Coast Services Center (GCSC) is to provide technical expertise, financial assistance, training and capacity building to local and state coastal resource and emergency management agencies. GCSC efforts in the region will include implementation of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) Governors’ Action Plan, providing support to the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System, collaborating closely on projects with the Northern Gulf Institute, partnering with the National Coastal Data Development Center (NCDDC), the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) offices at Stennis and supporting NOAA’s regional collaboration team for the Gulf.

In a preliminary appraisal of the needs and challenges facing coastal managers from the Gulf, the following GCSC priority issues surfaced: hazards and coastal storms; integrated ocean observing systems; mapping and change analysis; spatial positioning, navigation and ports; and hydrodynamic and other physical modeling. These will be addressed by working across NOAA and other organizations to develop a wide array of products and services, with the result being an increase in the technical and management capabilities for state and local partners. The GCSC will be requirements driven and focused on delivering useful products and services to managers.

We have begun by assigning five staff to the GCSC with expertise in ecosystems management, habitat characterization and mapping, coastal hazards mitigation, community resilience and human dimensions and training. We anticipate future growth beginning in fiscal year 2008 to support grant initiatives optimistically anticipated for the GOMA, the Ocean Research Priority Plan (ORPP), Geospatial support, the Coastal Storms Program (CSP), and NOAA staffing to support the NGI. As is the CSC model, the GCSC will foster one-NOAA activities, so we also anticipate staffing from other NOAA line offices over the long term. The GCSC will place emphasis on expanding existing partnerships, as well as developing new partnerships.

Examples of our first year activities include: preparation of a comprehensive needs assessment, facilitation support for Sea Grant Research Planning forums, conducting focus groups for the CSP, assisting Dauphin Island with its strategic planning process, assisting the Gulf National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs) with training, including storm surge, Coastal No-Adverse Impacts (CNAI) and geospatial courses, sponsoring community resiliency pilots in several Gulf states; heavy support for GOMA, and LIDAR assistance to FEMA and the COE for development of new flood maps and the MS Coastal improvements Program (MsCIP).

GCSC Needs Assessment
In the summer of 2006 the GCSC initiated a formal needs assessment. This report summarizes the information gathered during an eight-month process. The assessment considered the GOMA Action Plan and other regional efforts, as well as the effects of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and the recovery needs of the region. It confirms priority Gulf needs previously identified, identifies specific issues and processes where the services and expertise available from NOAA and CSC can be particularly useful, and suggests ways in which communication and coordination can be enhanced.

The assessment will guide the strategic planning of the newly-formed GCSC. A final draft on the needs assessment is expected to be released in September. The GCSC was initially co-located with the NDBC at Stennis (and we thank our NDBC friends for their hospitality). Recently we moved into the EPA Gulf of Mexico Program Office, (room 232 of Building 1100 at Stennis, 39529-6000).