FOR INFORMATION:
Anne Hummer
Tel: (202) 737-6307
Fax: (202) 737-6410
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 28, 2003
NEW HEINZ CENTER REPORT ON COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
Washington, DC--In 1972 Congress passed the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) to “preserve, protect, develop, and, where possible, restore or enhance the resources of the Nation’s coastal zone.”
After 30 years, can we say how well we are managing our nation’s coastal resources? Have we achieved a harmonious balance between use and conservation? If so, what worked, and if not, are we making headway? Does present set of regulations, allocation systems, and legislation—federal, state, and local—enable coastal managers to meet the needs of the public? Unfortunately, we still lack the quantitative information needed to answer these questions. Instead, our information about the value and contribution of CZMA-based management is largely anecdotal.
The Heinz Center has taken an important step toward answering these vital questions in its latest report, The Coastal Zone Management Act: Developing a Framework for Identifying Performance Indicators.
This report is the result of a 2-year study by The Heinz Center, carried out in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The goal of the study was to identify shared national and state coastal resource goals, based on the objectives of the Coastal Zone Management Act, and to develop a framework for results-based management utilizing performance indicators.
Fifteen experts from industry, academia, government, and environmental organizations identified national and state coastal resource goals (focus areas) based on the objectives of the CZMA. For each of these focus areas—coastal ecosystems and populations, coastal water quality, public access, coastal hazards, coastal community development, and coastal-dependent uses—the report offers three or four “dimensions” that identify the types of indicators that should be measured. For coastal hazards, for example, the dimensions are hazard identification; vulnerability; mitigation; and land use, infrastructure, and transportation planning. Together, these focus areas and dimensions constitute the framework for performance indicators that the panel set out to create.
Long a common practice in the private sector, performance-based management can also produce benefits for the public and increase government efficiency. Applying this practice to coastal zone management will make it possible to assess program performance, provides accountability, and measure the progress of government-funded programs.
Coastal managers will be able to use the framework in The Coastal Zone Management Act: Developing a Framework for Identifying Performance Indicators to improve the internal management of their programs and to showcase the accomplishments and identify the potential needs of specific state programs. In fact, the report is already being used by coastal managers around the nation to improve the management of our precious coasts and oceans.
To obtain a free copy of the book contact Bobbi Jo Simmons at (202) 737-6307. The report is also available as a PDF file at www.heinzctr.org.
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About The Heinz Center
Established in December 1995 in honor of Senator John Heinz, The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment is a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution dedicated to improving the scientific and economic foundation for environmental policy through multisectoral collaboration. Focusing on issues that are likely to confront policymakers within two to five years, the Center fosters collaboration among industry, environmental organizations, academia, and government in each of its program areas and projects. It uses the best scientific and economic analyses to develop viable options to solving problems, and its findings and recommendations are widely disseminated to public and private sector decision makers, the scientific community, and the public.