GIS Application: Environmental Rescource Inventory for NJ Coastal Borough

GIS Application: Environmental Resources Inventory

Case Study: Borough of Oceanport

Presented by Kathleen Devine

Intro to GIS - Spring 2012

Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012

Environmental Resource Inventory

• The Environmental Resource Inventory (ERI), also called Natural Resource Inventory (NRI), or Index of Natural Resources, is a compilation of text and visual information about the natural resource characteristics and environmental features of an area.

• The Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL) (N.J.S.A.40:55D-1 et seq.) requires municipalities to have a land use plan element in their master plan, “including but not necessarily limited to, topography, soil conditions, water supply, drainage, flood plain areas, marshes, and woodlands...” (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-28b(2)).

• Environmental commissions will find that most of the basic information needed for an ERI has already been collected by agency. The challenge is to find out which information is where.


Environmental Resource Inventory

• Currently, the Oceanport Environmental Commission is developing their ERI.

• This project confirmed that NJDEP and Monmouth County GIS Office has the information needed to develop a ERI in GIS format.

• The project prepared the following GIS documents:• Base Map• Geology - Bedrock, Surface, and Historic Fill • Watersheds• Land Cover - Land Use and Forest Type • Habitats • Proposed projects


Base Map


Base Map• Oceanport is a “home of Monmouth Park Racetrack and Fort Monmouth. Though only 3.2 square miles, Oceanport’s nearly six thousand residents enjoy not only the Shrewsbury River, but various recreational sports programs, an active senior group and a true feeling of community.”

• Two elementary schools, several parks both municipal and county.

• Population 6000 people, approximately 800 children under 14, and 700 dogs.

• Two firehouses and dispatch service with West Long Branch


Bedrock Geology Map


Bedrock Geology• The Hornerstown formation is dark greenish gray, very clayey glauconite sand to micaceous, quartzose, glauconite sand.

• The Tinton formation is a massive "olive to evergreen" green glauconitic quartz sand which is locally clay-rich and silty.

• The Vincentown Formation is slightly glauconitic quartz sand and silt. In places the Vincentown is very fossiliferous consisting of a bryozoan bioherm.

• SAND, SAND, and more Sand….


Surface Geology Map


Historic Fill Map


Surface Geology and Historic Fill

• Alluvium is sediment that has carried by and deposited from running water.

• Historic fill is non-indigenous material placed on a site in order to raise the topographic elevation of the site.


Watersheds


Watersheds

• Three distinct subwatersheds of the Shrewsbury River

• Ridge line runs through Borough.

• Depth of the Shrewsbury River is from 4 to 15 feet.

• Three sides of Borough is Water.

• Ongoing water quality study by Waterwatch Committee to determine impact of Monmouth Park


Land Use


Forest Type


Land Use and Forest Type • A GPS unit identified approximately 20 trees at the Community Center Park

• Three sections left of undeveloped wooded wetlands.

• NJDEP encourages municipalities to develop Community Forest Management Plans

• Community Forest Plan is an essential guide to successfully achieving a healthy, economically efficient, and safe community forest.

• Trees provide shade, cleaner air, and help to manage storm water.


Habitats


Habitats • The shore line is the habitat to terns, heron, and egrets.

• There are suitable nesting places for Bald Eagles and Osprey along the shore and in the wooded wetlands.

• Sighting of a juvenile Bald Eagle at Seven Bridges

• The community has had Black Bear and Fox sightings.

• Islands in the River have nesting grounds for horseshoe crabs and Diamond Back Terrapins

• Some deer, rabbits, and snapping turtles


Proposed Projects


Proposed Projects• A Community Forest Management Plan

• Outdoor Classroom at Blackberry Bay

• Osprey Nesting Platform

• Rain Garden at Middle School

• New sidewalks for safe passage from residential area to “Downtown” with Pizza Parlor and Convenience Store

• Encourage exploration of natural resources and safe bicycle traffic through borough.


References

http://www.anjec.org/pdfs/EnvironmentalResource.pdf

http://www.oceanportboro.com/

http://geology.rutgers.edu/research/rutgers-core-repository/nj-coastal-plain/hornerstown-formation

http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/nyc/coastalplain/cretaceous.htm

http://geology.about.com/od/geoprocesses/ig/mechweathering/alluvium.htm

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/geodata/dgs04-7md.htm

http://www.nj.gov/dep/parksandforests/forest/community/grants-gcg.html

Documents

GIS Application: Environmental Rescource Inventory for NJ Coastal Borough