4.4: Coastal Water
Improved coastal water quality supporting human health and coastal ecosystem services Other Information:
Coastal communities in the U.S. and economies, including tourism, recreation, and commercial fisheries, rely on healthy coastal
environments. Through work and recreation, more than 70 percent of the U.S. population comes into contact with coastal waters
that can contain a diverse array of chemical contaminants, excessive nutrients, pathogens, biotoxins, and marine debris, which
degrade habitat quality and negatively impact human health and the services provided by ecosystems in the coastal zone. Beach
advisory days due to biological contamination have more than tripled, levels of contaminants in coastal waters have risen,
and marine debris has become one of the most widespread pollution problems in the world's oceans and waterways. More than
10 percent of coastal waters are considered unfit for designated uses, and more than 50 percent of the Nation's estuaries
experience hypoxia (that is, reduced dissolved oxygen content). In the face of these trends, State, tribal, and Federal partners
need (1) coordinated efforts to address drivers of this degradation and reverse trends; and (2) early warning networks to
identify and predict threats to human and ecosystem health, and to implement effective and timely management efforts. To achieve
this objective, NOAA will build upon its capabilities in assessing climate impacts to human health and ecosystem services,
conserving habitat, and delivering integrated nationwide health and ecological decision-support services. Incorporating these
scientific advancements, research will examine the transport and fate of chemicals, nutrients, sediments, pathogens, harmful
algal blooms, toxins, and marine debris in waterways. Chemical and biological data, as well as economic and other social data,
will be collected to expand coastal habitat characterizations. Marine and biological sensors will be developed to monitor,
assess, and predict ecological and human health threats. Efforts to remove marine debris from coastal habitats will continue,
and research will more clearly identify the damage marine debris causes to coastal economies and habitats. NOAA and its partners
will develop, implement, and improve advanced water quality monitoring programs for nationally significant areas, trust resources,
and coastal and Great Lakes areas to improve resource managers' knowledge of ecological stressors, and to assess the efficacy
of management decisions. Results of water quality monitoring and research activities will be provided to NOAA collaborators
to further inform their development and refinement of nationwide early warning efforts, predictions, and ecological forecasts.
Over the next five years, evidence of progress toward this objective will include: * Greater understanding of the effects
of natural and human-induced contaminants on the health of humans and marine life; * Reduced impacts to human health and ecosystem
services due to degraded water quality; * Faster detection of sediments and contaminants in coastal waters; and * Accelerated
recovery and restoration of coastal resources and revitalization of coastal communities through improved water quality.
Indicator(s):
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