Community Rating System Survey

OMB Control No. 0648-0342

Expiration Date: 6/30/2021

NOAA Tools for CRS Coastal Communities Survey

Draft – August 3, 2020

[Landing screen]

Welcome! The goal of this survey is to learn more about the usefulness of the tools and resources NOAA has created to support coastal communities participating in the NFIP CRS program.

In this survey, you will be asked about several of these tools. We’ll be asking about your awareness of the tools, whether you used it to earn CRS points for your community, and how useful it was. At the end of this survey, we will provide you with a link to a PDF describing each of the tools, including information on how you can access the tools you might not have heard of yet!

Please note, your responses to this survey are voluntary and we won’t share your specific responses with anyone outside the project team (including FEMA). If you have any questions or concerns about this survey, please feel free to contact [email].

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey!

PRA Burden Reporting Statement:

A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with an information collection subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 unless the information collection has a currently valid OMB Control Number. The approved OMB Control Number for this information collection is 0648-0342. Without this approval, we could not conduct this survey. Public reporting for this information collection is estimated to be approximately 10-15 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the information collection. All responses to this information collection are voluntary. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this information collection, including suggestions for reducing this burden to the NOAA Office for Coastal Management, Tim.Goodspeed@noaa.gov.

[Initial questions page]

1. Where do you get your tools or resources to assist you in your CRS process? (Please check all that apply)

__ FEMA

__ NOAA

__ USGS

__ U.S. Army Corp of Engineers

__ Developed by my state

__ Developed by my municipality

__ Local/state colleges or universities

__ Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM)

__ Other associations (besides ASFPM)

__ Other CRS coordinators

__Other? Please describe:__________

We’d like to ask you about several NOAA products or services that could assist coastal communities in the CRS process. We’ll begin by asking you about which NOAA products or services you used and then ask some more detailed questions about ones you’ve used.

Note: Items listed above the dark line in the table were considered “high” priority for this survey and items below were considered “medium” priority for the survey. A set of “low” priority items were excluded. In the implementation, the 60 percent of respondents will see just the “high” priority items and the others half will see both groups.

2. Which the following NOAA tools and data products have you used?

NOAA Tool	I never heard of this	I have heard of this, but did not use it	I used this as part of the CRS process
Coastal Flood Exposure Mapper – An online visualization tool used to assess coastal hazard risks and vulnerabilities
Sea Level Rise Viewer – A web mapping tool used to visualize community-level impacts from coastal flooding or sea level rise
Habitat Priority Planner – A decision support tool that assists users in prioritizing important areas for conservation or restoration action
C-CAP Land Cover Atlas – An online data viewer that provides access to coastal land cover and land cover change information.
Impervious Surface Analysis Tool - A downloadable suite of scripts for ArcGIS that calculates the percentage of impervious surface area within user-selected geographic areas.
National Storm Surge Hazard Maps (NHC) – A depiction of storm surge flooding vulnerability for communities in hurricane-prone coastal areas.
Storm Surge Inundation maps – A story map that illustrates historical hurricane tracks, strike frequency, and potential areas of coastal flooding and inundation from storms.
OpenNSPECT – An open-source version of the Nonpoint Source Pollution and Erosion Comparison Tool used to investigate potential water quality impacts from climate change and development to other land uses.
Environmental Sensitivity Index – A mapping tool that provides a concise summary of coastal resources that are at risk if an oil spill occurs.
C-CAP: high resolution land cover and change data – A nationally standardized, raster-based inventories of U.S. coastal land cover data derived from the analysis of multiple dates of remotely sensed imagery.
Coastal County Snapshots - An online tool that provides managers and citizens with easy-to-understand charts and graphs that describe complex coastal data.
Riverine Flood Inundation Maps – Online interactive maps that help users visualize where inundation will affect their communities.
Historic aerial photography available from NOAA – Historical coastal images gathered from numerous sources, scanned and georeferenced to existing base map data.
National Vector Shorelines – A website that provides vector shoreline data generated by federal agencies.

3. Which the following NOAA trainings, guides and other resources have you used?

NOAA Tool	I never heard of this	I have heard of this, but did not use it	I used this as part of the CRS process
Building Risk Communication Skills – An in-person training session that provides insights into how and why people respond to risk and helps participants develop new skills to better connect with a variety of audiences.
CRS Task Force – A Task Force draws on expertise in floodplain management from all levels of government and the private sector to make recommendations regarding the CRS program components.
“How to Map Open Space Preservation for Community Rating System Credit” (NOAA Digital Coast) – A step-by-step process that describes how to calculate open space credits for existing preserved lands and areas that may be considered for future protection.
“Using Flood Exposure Maps” (formerly, “Roadmap for Adapting to Coastal Risk”) – A live interview with a guest speaker where participants hear first-hand experiences from field experts who have used maps to engage stakeholders.
“How to Use Land Cover Data as a Water Quality Indicator (NOAA Digital Coast)” – A step by step guide to using C-CAP data for water quality indicators.
“How to Calculate Coastal Flood Frequency” (NOAA Digital Coast) – A step by step guide to calculate flood frequency.
Coastal Community Planning and Development – An online and then in-person follow-up workshop that focuses on planning and development.
Introducing Green Infrastructure for Coastal Resilience training session – An in-person training session that introduces fundamental green infrastructure concepts and practices.
Coastal Management Fellows – A NOAA fellowship program that provides postgraduate students to provide project assistance to state coastal zone management programs.
Coastal Management Program Section 309 Strategies – Strategies to improve coastal zone management developed every 5 years by state programs.
Coastal and Waterfront Smart Growth website – A NOAA website promoting Smart Growth strategies in coastal areas.
Green Infrastructure Mapping Guide – An online guide that shows spatial analysts how to incorporate nature-based solutions, or green infrastructure, into their GIS work.
NOAA Regional Personnel – Staff in NOAA’s regional offices who provide support to local communities.
Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program – A coordinated national effort to mitigate the impact of tsunamis through public education, community response planning, hazard assessment, and warning coordination.

Note: Only items selected as “I used this as part of the CRS process” in Question 2 or 3 would be included in Question 4 or 5, respectively.

4. The following list contains only those tools and data products you indicated you used. How useful were those tools or data products in earning CRS points?

NOAA Tool	Not at all useful	Slightly useful	Moderately useful	Very useful	Extremely useful
Coastal Flood Exposure Mapper
Sea Level Rise Viewer
Habitat Priority Planner
C-CAP Land Cover Atlas
Impervious Surface Analysis Tool
National Storm Surge Hazard Maps (NHC)
Storm Surge Inundation maps
OpenNSPECT
Environmental Sensitivity Index
C-CAP: high resolution land cover and change data
Coastal County Snapshots
Riverine Flood Inundation Maps
Historic aerial photography available from NOAA
National Vector Shorelines

5. The following list contains only those trainings, guides, and other resources you indicated you used. How useful were those tools or trainings, guides, and other resources in earning CRS points?

NOAA Tool	Not at all useful	Slightly useful	Moderately useful	Very useful	Extremely useful
Building Risk Communication Skills training
CRS Task Force
“How to Map Open Space Preservation for Community Rating System Credit” (NOAA Digital Coast) guide
“Using Flood Exposure Maps” (formerly, “Roadmap for Adapting to Coastal Risk”) training/interview
“How to Use Land Cover Data as a Water Quality Indicator (NOAA Digital Coast)” guide
“How to Calculate Coastal Flood Frequency” (NOAA Digital Coast) guide
Coastal Community Planning and Development – training
Introducing Green Infrastructure for Coastal Resilience training session training
Coastal Management Fellows
Coastal Management Program Section 309 Strategies
Coastal and Waterfront Smart Growth website
Green Infrastructure Mapping Guide
NOAA Regional Personnel
Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program

Note: Respondents who are asked these questions will only be asked about items that were rated as “very useful” or “extremely useful” in Question 4 or 5. Based on the design, only a subset of the respondents would be asked either Question 6 or Question 7 to determine whether these two questions impact response. Specifically, 40 percent would not be asked wither Question 6 nor Question 7, 30 percent would be asked Question 6, and 30 percent would be asked Question 7.

6. To what extent did {NOAA product or service} contribute to you earning points in the following areas of the CRS Coordinator’s Manual?

CRS Manual Series	Not at all	Minor contribution	Moderate contribution	Significant contribution
300: Public Information Activities
400: Mapping and Regulations
500: Flood Damage Reduction Activities
600: Warning and Response

7. To what extent did {NOAA product or service} contribute to you earning points in the following sections of the CRS Coordinator’s Manual?

CRS Manual Section	Not at all	Minor / Moderate contribution	Significant contribution
310: Elevation Certificates
320: Map Information Service
330: Outreach Projects
340: Hazard Disclosure
350: Flood Protection Information
360: Flood Protection Assistance
370: Flood Insurance Promotion
410: Flood Hazard Mapping
420: Open Space Preservation
430: Higher Regulatory Standards
440: Flood Data Maintenance
450: Stormwater Management
510: Floodplain Management Planning
520: Acquisition and Relocation
530: Flood Protection
540: Drainage System Maintenance
610: Flood Warning and Response
620: Levees
630: Dams

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