This data set was generated through the 2020 LU/LC update mapping effort. This is a subset where TYPE20 = WETLANDS of the complete data layer. The 2020 update is the seventh in a series of land use mapping efforts that was begun in 1986. Revisions and additions to the initial baseline layer were done in subsequent years from imagery captured in 1995/97, 2002, 2007, 2012, 2015 and now, 2020. This present 2020 update was created by comparing the 2015 LU/LC layer from NJDEP's Geographic Information Systems (GIS) database to 2020 color infrared (CIR) imagery and delineating and coding areas of change. Work for this data set was done by Aerial Information Systems, Inc., Redlands, CA, under direction of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), Bureau of Geographic Information System (BGIS). LU/LC changes were captured by adding new line work and attribute data for the 2020 land use directly to the base data layer. All 2015 LU/LC polygons and 2015 LU/LC coding remains in this data set, so change analysis for the period 2015-2020 can be undertaken from this one layer. The mapping was done by USGS HUC8 basins, 13 of which cover portions of New Jersey. This statewide layer is composed of the final data sets generated for each HUC8 basin. Initial QA/QC was done on each HUC8 data set as it was produced with final QA/QC and basin-to-basin edgematching done on this statewide layer. The classification system used was a modified Anderson et al., classification system. Minimum mapping unit (MMU) is 1 acre for changes to non-water and non-wetland polygons. Changes to these two categories were mapped using .25 acres as the MMU. This data set, edition 20241101, is a statewide layer that includes updated land use/land cover data for all HUC8 basins in New Jersey. The polygon delineations and associated land use code assignments are considered the final versions for this mapping effort. Note, this edition includes additional attributes from the National Hydrography Database (NHD) that are specific to the waterbodies mapped in this layer, and several attributes containing impervious surface estimates for each polygon. Evaluating the NHD codes facilitates extracting the water features mapped in this layer and using them to update the New Jersey portion of the NHD. Similarly, impervious surface (IS) amounts generated from two independent projects, one of which was just completed by NOAA, have been incorporated into this base land use layer. While the NHD and IS attributes will enhance the use of this base layer in several types of analyses, this present layer can be used for doing all primary land use analyses without having those attributes evaluated. Further, evaluating these extra attributes will result in few, if any, changes to the polygon delineations and standard land use coding that are the primary features of this layer. As such, the layer is being provided in its present edition for general use. The basic land use features and codes, however, as mapped in this version of the data set will serve as the base 2020 LU/LC update. As stated in this metadata record's Use Constraints section, NJDEP makes no representations of any kind, including, but not limited to, the warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use, nor are any such warranties to be implied with respect to the digital data layers furnished hereunder. NJDEP assumes no responsibility to maintain them in any manner or form. By downloading this data, user agrees to the data use constraints listed within this metadata record.

Please note that this file is large, ~150 MB, and may take a substantial amount of time to download especially on slower internet connections.Shapefile (NJ State Plane NAD 1983) download: Click "Open" or Click hereThis data was created by combining two separate data sets, the land use/land cover layer from the Integrated Terrain Unit Maps (ITUM) for this county and the freshwater wetlands (FWW) layer generated under the New Jersey Freshwater Wetlands Mapping Program. The Arc/INFO LULC coverage has been converted to an ArcView shapefile for distribution. The ITUM land use/land cover was photo interpreted from 1986 color infrared (CIR) 1:58000 aerial photos, and delineated using a modified Anderson et al. 1976, classification system to 1:24000 rectified photo-basemaps. These basemaps complied with National Map Accuracy Standards (NMAS) as individual quadrangles but were not produced from a sophisticated aero-triangulation photogrammetric solution. Minimum mapping unit = 2.5 acres. The ITUM land use/land cover was integrated with three other sources (soils, USGS floodprone areas, and 1906 Atlas Sheet Geology) based on coincident features. The four data layers have subsequently been split out into four separate themes for distribution and use. Beginning in 1998, the NJDEP does not support the data as a single integrated ITUM theme but rather as four separate themes. Freshwater wetlands delineations were made on 1986 orthophoto quarterquad basemaps (1:12000) by photo interpretation of 1986 CIR photos. The classification system used was a modified Cowardin system (Cowardin, et al., 1979). All freshwater wetland polygons greater than 1 acre in area and all linear freshwater wetland features greater than 10 feet in width were mapped. The 1986 quarterquad basemaps meet NMAS and are orthophotos.

New_Jersey_1971_78_Digitized_Shoreline.zip features a digitized historic shoreline for the New Jersey coastline (Point Pleasant, NJ to Longport, NJ) from 1971 to 1978. Imagery of the New Jersey coastline was acquired from the New Jersey Geographic Information Network (NJGIN) as two images: “1970 NJDEP Wetlands Basemap” (1971-78) and the “1977 Tidelands Basemaps” (1977-78). These images are available as a web mapping service (WMS) through the NJGIN website (https://njgin.state.nj.us/NJ_NJGINExplorer/jviewer.jsp?pg=wms_instruct). To reduce digitizing error, the imagery was acquired on a hard drive from the NJGIN via personal communication. Using ArcMap 10.3.1, the "1970 NJDEP Wetlands Basemap" was used to delineate and digitize historical foreshore, backshore, mainland, and island shoreline positions, with the “1977 Tidelands Basemaps” being used to fill in missing shorelines and clarify areas of uncertainty from the 1970s imagery. These shorelines were digitized for use in long-term shoreline and wetland analyses for Hurricane Sandy wetland physical change assessment.

The wetlands polygons included in this data set are extracted from the Land Use 2007 layer. Displayed are all polygons that have a TYPE07 code of 'WETLANDS'. While these wetland delineations are not regulatory lines, they represent important resource data in identifying potential wetland areas. The 2007 LU/LC data set is the fourth in a series of land use mapping efforts that was begun in 1986. Revisions and additions to the initial baseline layer were done in subsequent years from imagery captured in 1995/97, 2002 and 2007. This present 2007 update was created by comparing the 2002 LU/LC layer from NJ DEP's Geographical Information Systems (GIS) database to 2007 color infrared (CIR) imagery and delineating and coding areas of change. Work for this data set was done by Aerial Information Systems, Inc., Redlands, CA, under direction of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), Bureau of Geographic Information System (BGIS). LU/LC changes were captured by adding new line work and attribute data for the 2007 land use directly to the base data layer. All 2002 LU/LC polygons and attribute fields remain in this data set, so change analysis for the period 2002-2007 can be undertaken from this one layer. The classification system used was a modified Anderson et al., classification system. An impervious surface (IS) code was also assigned to each LU/LC polygon based on the percentage of impervious surface within each polygon as of 2007. Minimum mapping unit (MMU) is 1 acre. ADVISORY: This metadata file contains information for the 2007Land Use/Land Cover (LU/LC) data sets, which were mapped by Watershed Management Area (WMA). There are additional reference documents listed in this file under Supplemental Information which should also be examined by users of these data sets. As stated in this metadata record's Use Constraints section, NJDEP makes no representations of any kind, including, but not limited to, the warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use, nor are any such warranties to be implied with respect to the digital data layers furnished hereunder. NJDEP assumes no responsibility to maintain them in any manner or form. By downloading this data, user agrees to the data use constraints listed within this metadata record.

Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on October 29, 2012, near Brigantine, New Jersey, had a significant impact on coastal New Jersey, including the large areas of emergent wetlands at Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and the Barnegat Bay region. In response to Hurricane Sandy, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has undertaken several projects to assess the impacts of the storm and provide data and scientific analysis to support recovery and restoration efforts. As part of these efforts, the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program (CMGP) sponsored Coastal National Elevation Database (CoNED) Applications Project in collaboration with the USGS National Geospatial Program (NGP), and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) developed a three-dimensional (3D) 1-meter topobathymetric elevation models (TBDEMs) for the New Jersey/Delaware sub-region including the Delaware Estuary and adjacent coastline. The integrated elevation data are extending the USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) Elevation Dataset within the Hurricane Sandy impact zone to enable the widespread creation of flood, hurricane, and sea-level rise inundation hazard maps. More information on the USGS CoNED project is available at http://topotools.cr.usgs.gov/coned/index.php. The CoNED Applications Project team is also developing new applications for pre- and post-Hurricane Sandy regional lidar datasets for mapping the spatial extent of coastal wetlands. These new methods have been developed to derive detailed land/water polygons for an area in coastal New Jersey, which is dominated by a complex configuration of emergent wetlands and open water. Using pre- and post-Hurricane Sandy lidar data, repeatable geospatial methods were used to map the land/water spatial configuration at a regional scale to complement wetland mapping that uses traditional methods such as photointerpretation and image classification.

The wetlands polygons included in this data set are extracted from the Land Use 2002 layer. Displayed are all polygons that have a TYPE02 code of 'WETLANDS'. While these wetland delineations are not regulatory lines, they represent important resource data in identifying potential wetland areas. These wetland data have a somewhat involved delineation history. Non-tidal wetlands were first mapped in a separate effort under the Freshwater Wetlands Mapping Program (FWW), based on 1986 photography. Although the original FWW maps were produced as a separate data set, they were incorporated into a state wide composite land use/land cover (LU/LC) data set also being initially mapped from the 1986 photography. The FWW delineations were integrated into the LU/LC data layer in their entirety as originally delineated, with all line work and coding intact. The tidal wetlands were being mapped as part the LU/LC mapping effort itself. This integrated data set, including the FWW delineations, and the remaining land use/land cover delineations for areas outside of the FWW polygons, which included tidal wetland areas, became the initial 1986 LU/LC layer for the NJDEP. Beginning in 1995, NJDEP acquired new aerial imagery, and began updating the initial integrated LU/LC layer from 1986 based on this newer imagery. The 1986 layer was examined with the new imagery, and areas of change delineated, with any new line work and land use codes needed to map the changes added to the base data set. This updated LU/LC layer is identified as Land Use 1995 in this application. Included in the change analysis were any non-tidal wetland polygons mapped in the original FWW mapping effort, as well as any tidal wetland polygons mapped in the 1986 LU/LC mapping effort. More recently, new photography was acquired in the spring of 2002, and this photography was used in a second land use update project. The Land Use 1995 layer was examined over the 2002 imagery, and an updated layer based on the 2002 imagery was created, available in this application as 'Land Use 2002'. The layer displayed here is the selection of all wetlands, both tidal and non-tidal, as included in that 2002 land use layer. As with all original wetland delineations delineations, this data set is intended to serve as a resource for analysis rather than regulatory delineations. The NJDEP may change the line work of any wetlands polygon based on more in depth analysis and field inspection for regulatory purposes.

This data set represents the extent, approximate location and type of wetlands and deepwater habitats in the conterminous United States. These data delineate the areal extent of wetlands and surface waters as defined by Cowardin et al. (1979).

Certain wetland habitats are excluded from the National mapping program because of the limitations of aerial imagery as the primary data source used to detect wetlands. These habitats include seagrasses or submerged aquatic vegetation that are found in the intertidal and subtidal zones of estuaries and near shore coastal waters. Some deepwater reef communities (coral or tuberficid worm reefs) have also been excluded from the inventory. These habitats, because of their depth, go undetected by aerial imagery.

By policy, the Service also excludes certain types of "farmed wetlands" as may be defined by the Food Security Act or that do not coincide with the Cowardin et al. definition. Contact the Service's Regional Wetland Coordinator for additional information on what types of farmed wetlands are included on wetland maps.

This data is hosted at, and may be downloaded or accessed from PASDA, the Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access Geospatial Data Clearinghouse http://www.pasda.psu.edu/uci/DataSummary.aspx?dataset=1455

Hurricane Sandy directly hit the Atlantic shoreline of New Jersey during several astronomical high tide cycles in late October, 2012. The eastern seaboard areas are subject to sea level rise and increased severity and frequency of storm events, prompting habitat and land use planning changes. Wetland Aquatic Research Center (WARC) has conducted detailed mapping of marine and estuarine wetlands and deepwater habitats, including beaches and tide flats, and upland land use/land cover, using specially-acquired aerial imagery flown at 1-meter resolution.These efforts will assist the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) continuing endeavors to map the barrier islands adhering to Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) guidelines. Mapped areas consist of selected federal lands including, National Park Service areas, USFWS National Wildlife Refuges, and selected CBRA Units, including barrier islands and marshes in New York and New Jersey. These vital wetland areas are important for migratory waterfowl and neotropical bird habitats, wildlife food chain support and nurseries for shellfish and finfish populations. Coastal wetlands also play an important function as storm surge buffers. This project includes mapping of dominant estuarine wetland plant species useful for wetland functional analysis and wildlife evaluation and management concerns. It also aims to integrate with and offer updated databases pertinent to: USFWS NWR and NWI programs, NOAA tide flats and beaches data, FEMA flood zone data, Natural Heritage Endangered and Threated Species, watershed management, and state and local land use planning.

This data represents the tidal wetland vegetation types delineated on the 1970 Wetlands Basemaps. The wetlands depicted are below the Revised Upper (Inland) Wetlands Boundary. Each wetland type has its own letter, number or combination letter/number code hand drawn within a vegetation type boundary on scanned photograph geotiffs. There are 953 geotiffs which are indexed and correspond to the Riparian Tidelands Grid. Other non-vegetated codes, such as Water or Beach are included but are not part of the original code document of report. All digitizing has been heads-up over the basemaps in inventory and may omit areas indiscernible. The collection is incomplete.

This data set contains boundary layers for the Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey.

National Wildlife Refuges are federal lands managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The primary source for boundary information is the USFWS Realty program (status maps, legal surveys). An effort by the USFWS Region 5 (northeast states - ME,NH,VT, MA, RI, CT, NY, PA, NJ, MD, DE, WV, VA) Realty Division, Cartography and Spatial Data Services Branch has resulted in digital refuge boundaries for all refuges in the northeast at a scale of 1:24,000.

The purpose of this data is to serve as a spatial reference of refuge boundaries for other data layers in GIS and mapping applications. It is specifically not intended to be used as a land survey or representation of land for conveyance or tax purposes.

Status maps were registered to geographic coordinates, boundaries were digitized and labeled. Digital files were updated using survey and collateral data, then stepped through 3 levels of quality-control review for spatial and thematic accuracy.

Refuge boundaries define areas that are approved by U.S. Congress for acquisition into the National Wildlife Refuge System, or are currently owned by USFWS. Arcs are coded with an item "boundary" with the type of boundary line; polygons are coded with an item "status" that describes their ownership status.

[Summary provided by U.S. Fish

Hurricane Sandy directly hit the Atlantic shoreline of New Jersey during several astronomical high tide cycles in late October, 2012. The eastern seaboard areas are subject to sea level rise and increased severity and frequency of storm events, prompting habitat and land use planning changes. Wetland Aquatic Research Center (WARC) has conducted detailed mapping of marine and estuarine wetlands and deepwater habitats, including beaches and tide flats, and upland land use/land cover, using specially-acquired aerial imagery flown at 1-meter resolution.These efforts will assist the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) continuing endeavors to map the barrier islands adhering to Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) guidelines. Mapped areas consist of selected federal lands including, National Park Service areas, USFWS National Wildlife Refuges, and selected CBRA Units, including barrier islands and marshes in New York and New Jersey. These vital wetland areas are important for migratory waterfowl and neotropical bird habitats, wildlife food chain support and nurseries for shellfish and finfish populations. Coastal wetlands also play an important function as storm surge buffers. This project includes mapping of dominant estuarine wetland plant species useful for wetland functional analysis and wildlife evaluation and management concerns. It also aims to integrate with and offer updated databases pertinent to: USFWS NWR and NWI programs, NOAA tide flats and beaches data, FEMA flood zone data, Natural Heritage Endangered and Threated Species, watershed management, and state and local land use planning.

The dataset is a feature class representing the Freshwater Wetlands (FWW) and Hydric Soils in Southern New Jersey as defined by the New Jersey Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan. The 1986 Freshwater Wetlands from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) were used as the base layer and hydric soils from a Pinelands Integrated Terrain Unit Mapping (ITUM), derived from a dataset from the NJDEP, were added to create the layer. The boundaries are intended to provide reasonable representation of the FWW and hydric soils for planning purposes. They are not survey grade and are not definitive. This information is NOT to be used for describing actual or true wetland boundaries. A wetlands delineation will be required in order to determine the full extent of wetlands and/or buffers on a property and the NJPC's determination on a proposed development application shall constitute the definitive determination of the presence, absence, or extent of wetlands/buffers on a parcel.

The E-LOI dataset is a composite of boundaries for wetlands and transition areas associated with Freshwater Wetland Letter of Interpretation (LOI) applications submitted to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Land Resource Protection (NJDEP LRP) within the Watershed and Land Management Program (WLM). This group of layers contains site boundaries, footprint of disturbance boundaries, wetland boundaries and transition area boundaries. These layers contain information on the name and license number of the surveyor, accuracy of the data, type of LOI application, NJDEP File number and dates or status associated to the application.

The E-LOI dataset is a composite of boundaries for wetlands and transition areas associated with Freshwater Wetland Letter of Interpretation (LOI) applications submitted to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Land Resource Protection (NJDEP LRP) within the Watershed and Land Management Program (WLM). This group of layers contains site boundaries, footprint of disturbance boundaries, wetland boundaries and transition area boundaries. These layers contain information on the name and license number of the surveyor, accuracy of the data, type of LOI application, NJDEP File number and dates or status associated to the application.

NJDEP has developed a map-based application to help users identify areas regulated by the Division of of Land Resource Protection (LRP) as well as other environmental features and resources that may affect their proposed project. Users of this application can locate areas of interest, view and interact with the DEP's GIS data and aerial imagery, and query for related environmental information. All layers shown within this LRP Profile are tailored to display information pertinent for application for LRP authorizations and permits. Some of these layers include potential wetlands, threatened and endangered species, flood hazard areas, and special development areas such as the New Jersey Pinelands area and Highlands area. These areas can impact what development or redevelopment can occur on a site. There are also select years of aerial imagery that correspond to specific program regulation milestones, including the 1970 imagery for wetlands determination, and 1977 for the Tidelands Program.This information can help an applicant determine what permits may be required prior to starting a Land Resource Protection (LRP) application.All information found within the web application is restricted to the limitation described in the metadata and should not replace a field assessment of the site constraints. This application is a helpful screening tool to identify potential regulated areas and environmental resources on or in close proximity of a project area. This application uses publicly available Geographic Information System data from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), the New Jersey Office of Information Technology (NJOIT) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Descriptive information about each surface elevation table (SET), including data owner, installation info, coordinates, surveyed relative elevations, and other notes. These are important secondary data that support the data layer “Surface Elevation Table Data”.

For each surface elevation table (SET) with five years of data or more, the elevation change rate was estimated and then compared to long-term and 19-year sea-level rise rates from NOAA’s National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) stations. In addition to the elevation change rates, data include the date range for monitoring, total number of sampling events, and the spread of confidence intervals for elevation change, long-term sea-level rise, and 19 year water level changes.

This is the primary website for the New Jersey Tidal Wetland Monitoring Network (NJTWMN). The NJTWMN is a collection of more than 15 research organizations, universities, and non-profits, including NJDEP which was a founding member. The main mission of the NJTWMN is to identify the current conditions and trends of tidal wetlands in New Jersey to improve resilience of coastal communities and ecosystems by providing data to prioritize restoration efforts and support informed management decisions.This website is designed to share information about wetland monitoring in New Jersey with researcher, managers, and other interested stakeholders. This main page is primarily intended to provide background information about the NJTWMN, summarize the long-term monitoring data in an embedded map application, and detail the methodology and best practices used by network members.These monitoring efforts are aimed at answering the question “is marsh elevation keeping pace with sea-level rise?”. To help answer this question, we used long-term monitoring datasets to estimate elevation change rates at Surface Elevation Table (SET) stations throughout the state. Then, we compared these elevation rates to the sea-level rise (SLR) rates at the nearest NOAA National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) station. Long-term SLR rates were estimated using the full NWLON station dataset whereas short-term SLR rates were estimated from the 19-years of NWLON data preceding the most recent SET measurement.Additional wetland metrics including vertical accretion rates, shallow subsidence, and vegetation are also available on the map.

The wetlands polygons included in this data set are extracted from the Land Use 2012 layer. Displayed are all polygons that have a TYPE12 code of 'WETLANDS'. While these wetland delineations are not regulatory lines, they represent important resource data in identifying potential wetland areas. The 2012 LU/LC data set is the fifth in a series of land use mapping efforts that was begun in 1986. Revisions and additions to the initial baseline layer were done in subsequent years from imagery captured in 1995/97, 2002, 2007 and 2012. This present 2012 update was created by comparing the 2007 LU/LC layer from NJDEP's Geographic Information Systems (GIS) database to 2012 color infrared (CIR) imagery and delineating and coding areas of change. Work for this data set was done by Aerial Information Systems, Inc., Redlands, CA, under direction of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), Bureau of Geographic Information System (BGIS). LU/LC changes were captured by adding new line work and attribute data for the 2012 land use directly to the base data layer. All 2007 LU/LC polygons and attribute fields remain in this data set, so change analysis for the period 2007-2012 can be undertaken from this one layer. The classification system used was a modified Anderson et al., classification system. An impervious surface (IS) code was also assigned to each LU/LC polygon based on the percentage of impervious surface within each polygon as of 2007. Minimum mapping unit (MMU) is 1 acre. ADVISORY: This metadata file contains information for the 2012 Land Use/Land Cover (LU/LC) data sets, which were mapped by USGS Subbasin (HU8). There are additional reference documents listed in this file under Supplemental Information which should also be examined by users of these data sets. As stated in this metadata record's Use Constraints section, NJDEP makes no representations of any kind, including, but not limited to, the warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use, nor are any such warranties to be implied with respect to the digital data layers furnished hereunder. NJDEP assumes no responsibility to maintain them in any manner or form. By downloading this data, user agrees to the data use constraints listed within this metadata record.Somerset County data extracted & processed from the latest NJDEP dataset by the Somerset County Office of GIS Services (SCOGIS) on April 05, 2024

In 2001 ENSP partnered with Rutgers University Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis (CRSSA) to develop a method for mapping potential vernal pools throughout New Jersey. Through an on-screen visual interpretation of digital orthophotography, CRSSA identified over 13,000 potential pools throughout the state. A subset of these pools was field verified and confirmed, with an 88% accuracy rate (Lathrop et al. 2005), to meet the physical characteristics to qualify as a vernal pool.In accordance with N.J.A.C. 7:7A-1.4, the term "vernal habitat" includes a vernal pool - or the area of ponding - plus any freshwater wetlands adjacent to the vernal pool. The Department here includes mapping of vernal habitat locations that relies upon data developed by the Department and Rutgers University Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis (CRSSA) to identify sites that should be field checked for possible identification as vernal habitats areas. DEP staff is in the process of field-verifying these pools. The Department also maps vernal habitat areas based upon on-the-ground assessment of sites not captured by the CRSSA mapping. These vernal habitat locations, all of the CRSAA-identified sites, as well a sites identified by on-the-ground reconnaissance, are categorized as either "potential vernal habitat location" or "vernal habitat location."