This project was a collaboration between Dr. John Hasse of the Department of Geography at Rowan University and Dr. Richard Lathrop of the Rutgers University Center for Remote Sensing & Spatial Analysis. Funding provided by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.

As America’s most densely populated state, New Jersey struggles with managing land and natural resources in the face of ongoing development pressure. To inform the public and government agencies about land use change issues and the overall state of New Jersey’s landscape, the research team of Dr. John Hasse of the Department of Geography at Rowan University and Dr. Richard Lathrop of the Rutgers University Center for Remote Sensing & Spatial Analysis, has released the report Tracking New Jersey’s Dynamic Landscape: Urban Growth and Open Space Loss 1986-1995-2002.  The report provides a comprehensive assessment of the condition of New Jersey’s landscape and in particular, patterns of urban development in the latter 20th and early 21st century.  In addition to charting urban growth and open space loss at statewide and county scales,  municipal level changes were assessed as part of a Municipal Report Card.  This project was funded by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.

Results of the study confirm that regardless of the fact that population growth has slowed, land development has continued at a robust pace throughout the past several decades.  Urban development increasing statewide by 105,988 acres during the 1995 to 2002 time period.  This urban growth equates to approximately 15,140 acres per year or a conversion of over thirty football fields of open space into development every day.  While the rate of farmland conversion to development has declined, the rate of upland forest loss has increased.  Forest land is not only shrinking but becoming more fragmented. Rather than developing in a “smart growth” fashion, a majority of the new urban land demonstrated various characteristics associated with sprawl. 
 
The project made use of the updated 2002 New Jersey Land Use/ Land Cover (LU/LC) data set that was released by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in January 2007.  This GIS dataset is one of the most highly detailed and accurate statewide GIS databases in the nation and was developed using color infrared digital orthophotography acquired in the spring of 2002.  This 2002 data set updates the existing statewide digital maps of LU/LC for 1986 and 1995.  The GIS data set is available through the NJ Geographic Information Network (NJGIN) website  http://njgin.state.nj.us/. This project updates our earlier work on this same topic that examined urban growth and associated land use change from 1986 to 1995 (for more information go to http://crssa.rutgers.edu/projects/lc/urbangrowth8695/).