Governments at all levels are developing procedures to measure the effectiveness of management decisions. Monitoring changes in representative factors, or indicators, can be a simple and cost-effective way to obtain information about patterns in the physical state of the environment, trends in human activities that affect or are affected by the environment, or about relationships between or amongst these things. In 2000, the Florida Coastal Management Program published a catalog of existing ecological and human use data titled Florida Assessment of Coastal Trends (FACT 2000)[pdf]. FACT 2000 provided indicator data in six categories and included discussions of trends and interrelationships. The six categories are: Biodiversity and Natural Areas, Coastal Access, Coastal Hazards, Community Stewardship, Marine and Estuarine Health, and Waterfront Revitalization. FACT 2000 was well received and used extensively by coastal managers and policy makers throughout Florida.

Since 2003, the FCMP has been participating in the development of the National Coastal Management Performance Measurement System (NCMPMS) , a national indicator initiative led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to quantify the effectiveness of the Coastal Zone Management Act . As the Florida Coastal Management Program continues to participate in the federal initiative, it will also develop information to be incorporated in a future update of the FACT. In March and April, 2008, the FCMP conducted a survey [PDF - 167KB] of all coastal communities in the state to collect information for two of the performance measures, Coastal Hazards and Coastal Dependent Uses and Community Development. The FCMP will use the survey data [PDF - 77.6KB] to support updating the FACT and to determine funding and outreach priorities.

The six NCMPMS focus areas and their related goals are:

Public Access

• Provide and/or enhance public access to natural, historical, cultural and recreational coastal resources that does not damage these resources and
• Promote and enhance community awareness of public access points, as well as the rights and responsibilities surrounding the access

Government Coordination and Decision-Making

• Support local governments to balance coastal uses and
• Improve local decision making

Coastal Water Quality

• Manage coastal development to improve, safeguard and restore the quality of coastal waters
• Assist in building local and state capacity to improve the quality of coastal waters

Coastal Habitats

• Protect natural habitats in the coastal zone
• Assist in planning for the restoration of key habitats in the coastal zone
• Identify the demand for competing uses of key habitats in the coastal zone and maintain an appropriate balance
• Describe trends in disturbance of key coastal habitats

Coastal Hazards

• Raise awareness about coastal hazards and mitigation measures,
• Reduce vulnerability of life and property to coastal hazards, and
• Reduce economic loss from hazard events

Coastal Dependent Uses & Community Development

• Improve coastal community planning and development in the coastal zone
• Assist coastal communities to redevelop underutilized urban ports and waterfronts

NOAA's Publications on the NCMPMS , including current data and associated reports, are available online.