Lab 3: Land Use Exercise

Paul Pansini
ENVL 4300: Environmental Issues

S t o c kt on U n iv e rsity 2 0 1 6

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction/Obective/Abstract. 3
Ocean County (my county). 4
Ocean County Urban/Residential vs Forest vs Water.. 5
Ocean County Agriculture vs Urban/Residential. 6
Passaic County Forest. 7
Passaic County Urban. 8
Bergen County Forest. 9
Bergen County Urban. 10
Camden County Forest.. 11
Camden County Urban.. 12
Camden County Agriculture 13
Comparing Land Uses Changes for my Neighborhood from 1995-2012 14-15
Conclusion 16
Work Cited.. 17
Appendix.. 18

Introduction
New Jersey is a state that is smack dab in the middle of 3 major US cities. To the west,
we have Philidelphia, to the south we have Baltimore, and to the east is the most popular, New
York City. Because of this, New Jersey is one of the most densly populated states in the country
and with population, comes development. But New Jersey is also home to New Jersey Pine
Barrens, 1.1 million acres of protected forests that consume the lower portion of the state. This
diversity of development and natural areas are why monitering and studying chang es in land
use is so important. Most of the time, the urban development becomes a direct and major
source of the loss of forests, wetlands, water, and agriculture. By monitoring these trends, we
can accuratly view and keep track of the effects and the encroachment of urban development
on the natural areas of the state. This allows officals to both protect natural areas as needed
and also find areas where safe urban development can happen.
Objective
The main objective of this lab was to, over two lab periods, gather information and
better understand the changes of land use over time in New Jersey counties. We were taught
different mehtods to collect and analyze data found through the NJDEP GeoWeb. With this
data, we were to create maps using ArcGIS of each of the counties, showing different land uses
of forests, barren land, wetlands, water, agriculture, and lastly urban development, over a
period of 16 years, from 1986 to 2012.
Abstract
Monitoring and studying changes in land use is very important in New Jersey. This
report will show land use changes such as urban development, wetlands, water, barren land,
forests, and agriculture from 1986 to 2012. The counties covered in this report are Passaic
County, Camden County, Bergen County, and lastly my county, Ocean County. Observed in
most counties are a decrease in forested areas and an increase in urban areas. Unfortunately
these land use changes are directly connected in that urban development is often the reason
for forest decrease. This report will give a better understanding and accurately show land use
changes in New Jersey.

OCEAN COUNTY (my county)

Agriculture- LIME GREEN
WATER- BLUE

1986

Urban- YELLOW

Barren Land- GREY

FOREST- EARTH GREEN

RESIDENTIAL- RED

WETLANDS- BROWN

2012

At first glance it can be seen that Ocean Countys land use has had very little change over the 26
year span of 1986 to 2012. What can be seen right away though, is the increase of urban development
(yellow), specifically in residential areas (red). What is very interesting however, is where the residential
areas (red) expanded. Since the entire forested area (green) in the above maps are protected Pine
Barrens, they simply cannot be developed on, which is why there is little to no change in urban
development within the Pine Barrens itself. Officially, the New Jersey Pine Barrens were protected by
Congress federal National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 which led New Jersey to pass the Pinelands
Protection Act of 1979 (Pinelands Preservation Alliance, 2016). Since the Pinelands National Preserve
was created in 1979, it makes sense that very little development is seen in both the 1986 map, and the
2012 map.

Ocean County Urban/Residential vs Forest vs Water

Urban- YELLOW

WATER- BLUE

1986

FOREST- EARTH GREEN

RESIDENTIAL- RED

2012

By looking at the map from 2012 you can see very similar trends to the 1986 map. As I said earlier,
what is very interesting is where the urban (yellow) and residential (red) areas expanded. You can see by
looking at the maps that many if the places in 1986 that had residential areas seemed to have grown in
volume but have not really expanded outwards. If you take a look along the shoreline of Barnegat Bay
(blue) however, you see that from 1986 to 2012, more residential development has been created but only
expanding towards the water and not the protected Pine Barrens. Another aspect that can be seen while
looking at the increase of residential development are where many places that were urban but not yet
residential changed. A lot of urban areas (yellow) in 1986 have in fact changed to residential areas (red).
This suggests that New Jersey from 1986 to 2012 implemented smart growth and developed in areas
that were already considered urban areas. This is interesting because i n 1986 the state passed its State
Planning Act which, among other things, mandated the creation of a State Development and
Redevelopment Plan and a State Planning Commission to oversee the plan (Corbalis, 2011). Overall,
because of the water on one side, and protected forests on the other, Ocean County is very limited on
where urban development can happen.

Ocean County Agriculture vs Urban/Residential

Agriculture- LIME GREEN

1986

Urban- YELLOW

RESIDENTIAL- RED

2012

The maps above show the loss in Agricultural areas in the North-West region of Ocean County. A
majority of the agriculture in the North-West section of the county are organic/specialty farms,
livestock/dairy farms, nursery produce farms, christmas tree farms, and also wineries (Skylands, 2016).
The encroachment of these urban (yellow) and residential (red) areas from 1986 to 2012 show a large
decrease in agricultural land (lime green). Unlike the southern portions of the county which are
surrounded by both water and protected lands, the north-west region of Ocean County is much more
vulnerable to sprawl, and this map reflects that perfectly. Ocean County in 1997 voted to establish the
Ocean County Natural Lands Trust Program. The program dedicates a 1.2 cent tax that provides the
Board of Chosen Freeholders with the funds to acquire lands in Ocean County for conserv ation and
farmland preservation (Ocean County Department of Planning, 2016). This is another reason why only
some of the farm lands were lost and not all of them during this period of time.

Passaic County Forest

Figure 1.

1986- RED
2012- BLUE
OVERLAY- PURPLE

Passaic County
Forest Land Use
Passaic County Forests has had a
clear decrease from 1986 to 2012. Of
the many reasons why this may
happen, the largest source of this is
Urban Development. Most of the
northern region is where a majority
of the forests in Passaic County is
located. This is because the southern
region of Passaic is where most of
the Urban Development is (Figure 2).
Looking at the bottom map in Figure
1, it can be seen that if the maps
from 1986 and 2012 are overlaid,
there is a clear decrease in Forests
and spots where you see red, are
where forests used to be in 1986,
compared to the purple sections of

where they are now.

Passaic County Urban

Figure 2.

1986- BLACK
2012- GREY
OVERLAY- DARK GRAY

Passaic County
Urban Land Use
Looking at Figure 2 it can be seen
that there is an increase in urban
development. The majority of the
urban development lies in the
southern portion of the county due
to the northern portion being
mostly forested areas. Looking at
the bottom map the dark gray areas
are where urban development have
no changed. In the north, I would
say that the lack of urban

development also has to do with the

landscape. The mountainous
regions may be more challenging to
develop. The areas that are light
gray, are all the areas where urban
development has seen an increase
over time.

Bergen County Forest

Figure 3.

1986- BROWN
2012- GREEN
OVERLAY- DARK GREEN

Bergen County
Forest Land Use
In Bergen County the decrease in
forests can be seen across the
county. If you take a look at Figure 4
on the next page, which are maps
covering Bergen County urban
development, you can see why the
forested areas are where they are.
They are limited to by urban
development which is also the
reason why there is a decrease in
forested areas. As urban
development increases, the
forested areas get smaller and
smaller.

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Bergen County Urban

Figure 4.

1986- LIGHT BLUE 2012- LIGHT PURPLE

OVERLAY- DARK PURPLE

Bergen County
Urban Land Use
Being so close to New York City, is it
no surprise that there is an increase
in urban development in Bergen
County. Even in 1986, Bergen
County was extremely developed.
Looking at the bottom map in Figure
4, it can be seen that the urban
development continues to encroach
on the forested areas on Bergen
County. The spots that are, the
forest areas, are getting smaller as
time goes on (Figure 3.) As more
people come to New Jersey in
search of jobs, New York City
becomes an area of huge
opportunity, which is why even
though Bergen was so developed in
1986, it continued to grow over the

years to 2012.

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Camden County Forest

Figure 5.

1986- VELVET
2012- LIGHT GREEN
OVERLAY- DARK GREEN

Camden County
Forest Land Use

Looking at Figure 5 it can be seen

that there is a juristic decrease in
forest throughout Camden County.
The south-eastern portion of the
county holds most of the forested
areas because it is part of Wharton
State Forest, which is protected land
and cannot be developed on.

Unfortunately, the main reason that

the forested areas are decreasing is
because of the urban development
moving from the northwest areas,
and expanding towards the
southeast (Figure 6). In the bottom
map of Figure 5, all of the pink areas
are where forested areas used to be
back in 1986.

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Camden County Urban

Figure 6.

1986- BROWN
OVERLAY- ORANGE

2012- TAN

Camden County
Urban Land Use
The urban land development in
Camden County has increased over
the years. A big impact on the
location of the urban land
development has to do with
Philadelphia being so close. Many
commuters will live in Camden and
commute to Philadelphia to work.
Looking at the bottom map in Figure
6, it can be seen that the overlaying
of the 1986 map and the 2012 map
that there is a lot of tan areas,
which are urban areas that were not
here in 1986. This is also linked to
the decrease in forest areas (Figure
5) because they are cutting down
forests in order to expand

development.

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Camden County Agriculture

Figure 7.

1986- EARTH GREEN

OVERLAY- ORANGE

2012- PINK

Camden County
Agriculture Land
Use
Not surprisingly, Camden County
has had a decrease in agriculture
from 1986 to 2012. Mainly, this is
due to urban development as the
land in the south west portion used
for agriculture has had little change
over the years. Once again, this is
due to the land being protected by
being part of Wharton State Forest.
The last map in Figure 7, the green
portions shows how much land was
once used for agriculture in 1986
compared to the orange areas,
where the land is still being used for
agriculture.

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Comparing Land Uses Changes for my Neighborhood from 1995-2012

County: Ocean
1995

2002

2007

Town: Barnegat

Address: 22 Freedom Hills Drive

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2012

Looking at these pictures, it can be seen that my neighbor has had major changes in
land use from 1996 to 2012. The images from 1996 and 2002 shows that my block was not yet
developed. It is all wooded areas dominated by pine trees. The area behind the wooded area
has had little change, showing how long my neighborhood had been developed. In 2007, you
can see the first of major land use change on my block. The completely forested area was
developed into a block full of houses and empty lots, where more houses were eventually to be
built. You can also see that at the bottom of the block is a water collection basin that collects
the runoff from the road, which is a respectively steep hill. Finally, in 2012, the last stage of
development can be seen. In this last picture the barren, open lots are fully developed with
houses, many backyards have pools, and the water basin has concrete drainage paths to help
navigate runoff. Overall, my neighborhood changed greatly from 1996 to 2012, going from a
completely forested area, to an urban residential road with many homes and other
developmental structures.

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Conclusion
This report strongly supports and highlights the importance of monitoring land use
changes throughout the state. In each of the 4 counties covered, the trend is clear. Increase in
urban/residential development, and decrease in forested ad natural regions. With this
information, the importance to implement smart growth and continue to protect forests
throughout the state is shown. Ocean County, the county I live in, is a great example of both
smart growth and forest preservation. Because the southern portion of the county is made of
protected Pine Barrens and a lot of water, developing in areas that are already urbanized is key.
If more counties would develop like my county, I think that New Jersey can become an even
more green state!

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Work Cited

Pinelands Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved February 15, 2016, from

http://www.pinelandsalliance.org/protection/overview/
Merging smart growth and economic development in New Jersey. (n.d.).
Retrieved February 15, 2016, from
http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/2011/11/02/merging-smart-growthand-economic-development-in-new-jersey/
Farmland Preservation Program. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2016, from
http://www.planning.co.ocean.nj.us/farmpres.htm
Farmland Preservation Program. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2016, from
http://www.planning.co.ocean.nj.us/farmpres.htm
Farmland Preservation Program. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2016, from
http://www.planning.co.ocean.nj.us/farmpres.htm

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Appendix

Map of New Jersey showing the 4

county locations used in this report.

Statewide Land Use/Land Cover

Statistics (In Acres) from 2002-2007

Land Use Type

2002

2007

Net Change

Agriculture

594,599

566,045

-28,554

Barren Land

59,138

51,678

-7,460

Forest

1,568,809

1,526,367

-42,442

Urban Land

1,452,077

1,532,364

80,287

803,611

810,541

6,930

1,005,735

996,675

-8,760

Water
Wetlands