Interagency Working Group on Ocean and Coastal Mapping (IWG-OCM)

The Interagency Working Group on Ocean and Coastal Mapping (IWG-OCM) is a working group of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology (SOST). The IWG-OCM also reports to the Office of Science and Technology (OST) Subcommittee of the Ocean Policy committee (OPC) via the NOMEC Council. The IWG-OCM was established in 2006 to “facilitate the coordination of ocean and coastal mapping activities and avoid duplicating mapping activities across the Federal sector as well as with State, private sector, academic, and non-governmental mapping interests” (National Ocean and Coastal Mapping Strategic Action Plan 2009). The IWG-OCM focus areas include U.S. coasts, Great Lakes, and the ocean out to the limits of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, and the Extended Continental Shelf (ECS). Focus areas and the IWG-OCM were established in law by the Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration Act of 2009 (OCMIA; embedded in Pub. L. 111-11) and reauthorized in 2022 (Pub. L. 117-263; 33 USC 3501 et seq.). The IWG-OCM also represents the ocean and coastal mapping components of “elevation” on the Federal Geographic Data Committee's 3D Nation Elevation Subcommittee.