WatershedNJ
Primary Investigator: Richard G. Lathrop1
Lucas Marxen2, Kate Douthat1, Janine Barr2, Michelle Stuart2, Jeanne Herb2(retired), Bob Schuster3, Larry Torok3
1 Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis (CRSSA), Rutgers University
2The State University of New Jersey, Environmental Analysis and Communications Group, Rutgers University
3The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Start Date: January 2022; Updated November 2025
Funding for this project is from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection via Corporate Business Tax; State account number 22-100-042-4850-099.
WEBSITE UPDATED NOVEMBER 2025
News
- The Watershed Health Assessment is live. Visit https://watershednj.rutgers.edu/health-assessment to find essential data about your HUC14 watershed.
- The Stressors Source Tracking tool is in development. Technical reviewers from around the state are currently providing feedback on a model of Critical Source Areas for phosphorus and fecal indicator bacteria as well as the individual data that will be included in the web-based tool. This phase will continue through November 2025. Look for the new Stressors tool in early 2026.
Overview
Expanding upon NJ Coastal Ecological Resilience and Adaptation Plan (CERAP), New Jersey’s implementation of the state’s groundbreaking Environmental Justice law, release of the statewide climate resilience plan and decades of NJDEP experience with stakeholder-based watershed planning, NJDEP proposes to develop a statewide restoration and adaptation plan, called WatershedNJ,that aims to transform traditional watershed planning to a framework that:
- Is informed by future environmental and climate conditions;
- Aligns with New Jersey’s priorities to address environmental injustices in overburdened communities;
- Builds on development of a methodology for a wetlands assessment designed to rank or categorize wetlands based, in part, on highly valued functions;
- Intersects science-informed data with state-of-the-art and equitable participatory processes; and
- Informs policies including regulatory standards, priorities for restoration and other investments, and to set appropriate requirements for mitigation that reflect future climate conditions and commitments to Environmental Justice.
Phase 1
The first phase of WatershedNJ, 2022-2023, began with an evaluation of existing tools/data/platform, and stakeholder engagement. In addition to engagement with state agencies and commissions, the Rutgers team met with nongovernmental stakeholders to identify priorities to inform the design of the tools that WatershedNJ would provide.
In addition to planning, the NJDEP identified areas in need of data development to support watershed planning including:
- Wetland regulatory buffer mapping based on existing land use regulations
- Stream/Riparian zone regulatory buffer mapping based on existing land use regulations
- Ecological riparian area mapping based on defining a more inclusive riparian zone that includes regulated buffers, and adjacent contiguous zones of wetlands, floodplains, and hydric soils.
- Schema to score wetland function based on a number of ecological services.
Find links to these products in the "Maps and Reports" section below.
Phase 2
WatershedNJ (https://watershednj.rutgers.edu/) is suite of online data and tools designed to support watershed education and watershed management activities. This phase spans 2024-2025. WatershedNJ tools are being designed to use authoritative data to generate reports, maps, and recommendations that can be used by both members of the public and watershed planning professionals to understand and improve the health of waterbodies and watersheds across the state of New Jersey. WatershedNJ is a “one-stop-shop" for your water quality data needs by pulling together essential data from multiple sources. Tools are being designed in consultation with a broad stakeholder group. Modules include:
- Watershed Health Assessment, to provide a cross-section of watershed health indicators for the HUC14s across the state: coming Spring 2025
- Stressors Track Down tool, to identify potential sources of water pollution and expedite the process of tracking down problems: coming Fall 2025
- Watershed Improvements tool, to bring together information from the Watershed Health Assessment and Stressors tool and identify locations and project types that could provide the most benefit to water quality: coming Fall 2025
Reports and Maps
Flood Hazard Area Control Act Riparian Zone Mapping
Report: Douthat, K.D., Lathrop, R.G., Torok, L. 2025. New Jersey Flood Hazard Area Control Act Rules Riparian Zone Map—DRAFT. PDF.
Map Feature Service: https://rutgers.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=0909ce3d75a7416da8292c7b2e28c449#overview
Wetland Regulatory Buffer Mapping
Report: Douthat, K.D., Lathrop, R.G., Torok, L. 2024. New Jersey Freshwater Wetlands Buffers and Transition Areas—DRAFT Version 2. PDF
Map Feature Service: https://rutgers.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=5bafd6ab83fb477b9fc376d41f8d7014
Ecological Riparian Area Mapping
Report: Douthat, K.D., Lathrop, R.G. 2024. New Jersey Ecological Riparian Area Map. PDF
Map Feature Service: https://rutgers.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=8da1e55b47b246debdd397d5f3a538d7
Wetland Function Mapping
User Guide: Barr, J, Douthat K.D., 2024. Wetland Function Scoring – User Guide. PDF
Map Feature Service: https://rutgers.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=dcce35800c874f7a87174d13752ffb49
Report: Douthat, K.D., Tropiano, V. 2023. WatershedNJ Existing Tools and Resources Summary. PDF
Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis (CRSSA)
School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
14 College Farm Road, Cook Campus
New Brunswick, NJ USA 08901-8551
Tel: 848/932-1582
Fax: 732/932-2587
Web: crssa.rutgers.edu
Web site composed by the Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis (CRSSA), © 2025. Page contents last updated 11/10/2025. Site contains DRAFT reports and will updated when final versions are available.