Digital Coast Act of 2012 - Defines "Digital Coast" as a constituent-driven effort led by the Secretary of Commerce, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to provide an enabling platform integrating geospatial data, decision support tools, training, and best practices to address coastal and emergency management issues and enhance coastal economies and ecosystem services by helping communities with cost-effective and participatory solutions.
Directs NOAA to establish and implement the Digital Coast to: (1) collect data concerning coastal elevations, land use and cover, habitat and submerged aquatic vegetation, parcels, planimetrics, socioeconomics, and human use; and (2) integrate other data sources for the broadest measure of coastal resource management constituents and applications.
Directs NOAA to: (1) make such data and resulting products accessible via the Digital Coast and other related Internet technologies, (2) provide training on decision support tools developed under this Act, (3) document data to Federal Geographic Data Committee standards, and (4) archive the raw data at appropriate NOAA or federal data centers.
Requires coordination and data sharing with states, U.S. territories, local governments, nongovernmental entities, and other federal efforts.
Requires the establishment of NOAA Coastal Services Centers to facilitate the development of products and services addressing the needs of local, state, and regional entities involved with coastal and ocean decisionmaking and to lead development and maintenance of the Digital Coast.