Coastal Zone Management Act The Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (see http://coastalmanagement.noaa.gov/czm/czm_act.html) established two national programs, the Coastal Zone Management Program (CZMP, a partnership between the Federal government and each of the coastal states and territories) and the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS). Both programs are administered at the national level by the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Coastal Zone Management Program The Coastal Zone Management Program (CZMP) is voluntary and currently (2013) includes 29 coastal states and 5 U.S. territories, each of which has developed and received Federal approval for a coastal management plan (Illinois being the last state to receive approval, in 2012). A 30th coastal state, Alaska, withdrew from the CZMP on July 1, 2011. Each of the participating states and territories uses its own definition of the coastal zone for purposes of the CZMP; a list of the counties and equivalent entities originally included in the CZMP is in appendix A of the “Coastal Zone Management Act Performance Measurement System: Contextual Indicators Manual” (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, 2009). Subsequent name or boundary changes can be tracked in “Substantial Changes to Counties and County Equivalent Entities: 1970–Present” (U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.).