NCCOS Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment: COAST (Coastal Ocean Assessments, Status, and Trends)

"The Coastal and Oceanographic Assessment, Status and Trends (COAST) Branch is part of NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science in the Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA), located in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. The goal of COAST is to: "Support ecosystem-based management through integrated nationwide programs of environmental monitoring, assessment and research to describe the current status of and to detect changes in the environmental character of our Nations estuarine and coastal waters by providing information, tools and knowledge to regional, federal, state and local resource managers". COAST Branch activities focus on research and development of new remote sensing and "in situ" monitoring technologies, describing contaminant distributions throughout the Nations coasts and Great Lakes, and developing robust environmental indicators to enhance NOAAs ability to assess and forecast coastal conditions."

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