Land Use refers to the human use of an area. Some examples of this would be a road for transportation or a grass field for a sports match. A variety of factors in the State of New Jersey are changing large areas of the state from land uses such as agricultural and tree covered to residential, commercial, or industrial uses. This change is due to a variety of factors including a shift to a more suburban lifestyle, affordable transportation provided by cars and new roads, and the need for new houses and jobs as the state population increases.

The tutorial provides very useful information for coastal decision makers including zoning alternatives, build-out scenarios and indicators of zoning impacts. The web site is located on the JCNERR main page. Go>>

Confronted with the potential threat of brown tide blooms to the state's coastal waters, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Division of Science, Research and Technology (NJDEP/DSRT) established the Brown Tide Assessment Project and funded a systematic monitoring program (2000-2003). The objective was to assess the spatial/temporal extent of brown tide blooms in selected coastal bays and identify environmental factors that may contribute to the blooms.

The Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis at Cook College-Rutgers University, in cooperation with the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, has developed the brown tide web site. The objective of the site is to provide up-to-date information on the status of brown tide in the Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor estuary to the coastal community, especially those groups that depend on the bays' water quality. We want to get the information out to those who can make the best use of it.

The brown tide monitoring project is a collaboration of the NJ DEP, Rutgers University, NJ Marine Sciences Consortium, USEPA and others with the NJDEP Office of Science, Research and Technology (DSRT) taking the lead role. Dr. Mary Downes Gastrich at the NJDEP DSRT is the project manager.

Due to budgetary constraints, sampling is conducted only on a biweekly basis at approximately a dozen points spread out north-south along the main axis of the bay. Thus we might miss the initial stages of a bloom or a really localized bloom event. Ideally we would have more points sampled on a more frequent basis. >>

The JCNERR GIS web site, hosted by the Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis (CRSSA), has been overhauled as of July 2002. The site still showcases samples of JCNERR maps and has additional capabilities including an internet map server, one-stop gallery of maps, habitat tours and photos (photos to come in Fall 2002), and JCNERR Coastal Resource Repository information.