Running Head: Lab 3- Land Use 1

Lab 3-Land Use

ENVL 4300

Holly Seelman and Justin Gimmillaro

Stockton University
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Abstract

Land use is a term used to explain how land is being used for humans and the way they interact

with the environment around them. Some land uses include, but are not limited to urban,

agriculture, forests, and wetlands. All of these are land uses that involve human activity and are

also determined by humans. This lab examines land use changes in Egg Harbor Township, New

Jersey and Atlantic County New Jersey as a whole, from 2002 to 2012. The objectives of this

project include seeing how certain land use changes affect each other and how those changes are

prevalent. This was done by examining data from NJDEP’s GIS databases that show land uses in

Atlantic County for the years 1986, 1995, 2002, 2007, and 2012. The results of this study

examined the relationship between urban and forest land use specifically. In the ten year time

period there was a growth of approximately 16,598.83 acres of urban land use; with that increase

came a decrease in approximately 11,633.67 acres of forest land use. Furthermore, In Egg

Harbor Township alone there was a decrease of forested land by nearly 4,800 acres and an

increase in urban land by nearly 1,000 acres. Speculation for why this inverse relationship

occurred includes, but is not limited to the close proximity to popular towns such as Ocean City

and Atlantic City, both of which have abundant businesses and job availability. With the increase

of urban land and development, awareness, monitoring and effective land planning is necessary

to maintain the stability and availability of all types of land across the landscape.
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Table of Contents

Abstract…………...……………………………………………………………………………….2

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………..​.​4-5

Objectives…....................................................................................................................................​.​6

Methods………………………………………………………………………………………....6-7

Results…………………………...…………………………………………………………….7-13

Discussion of Results………………………………………………...………………………13-15

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….16

References….……………………………………………………………………………………17

Appendices...…………………………………………………………………………………18-22
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Introduction

Land cover is referred to as the physical characteristics of earth’s surface such as

vegetation, soil and water as well as features created by humans such as cities and settlements.

However, land use refers to “the way in which land has been used by humans and their habitat,

usually with accent on the functional role of land for economic activities” (Rawat & Kumar,

2015). Thus, land use patterns arise from the outcome of natural, social and economic factors and

how all of these factors have been influenced and utilized by man throughout time. Indeed, as

populations arise and economies progress there is a changing demand for human needs, resulting

in land use changes and dynamics. Therefore, information on land use and the possibilities for

their optimal use is crucial for selecting, planning and implementing land use designs that will be

able to meet the needs and demands of the human population now and in the future.

Over time, various land use changes have occurred throughout New Jersey at varying

levels. In a study conducted in 2004, approximately 75,150 acres were mapped as urban land use

change in addition to the existing 1,342,250 acres of urban land as mapped in 1995/97.

Furthermore, an additional 22,000 acres of land was cleared or altered between 1995/97 and

2000 and “are likely in transition to future urban land area” (Lathrop & Kaplan, 2004). Thus, it

was revealed that one of the main categories of change was the increase in residential land use,

which accounted for nearly 57,000 acres. These results show the continued growth of developed

land use and a decline in natural land uses such as forests, grasslands and wetlands. Similarly, in

Ocean County alone, over 7,077 acres of forested land was lost as of 2007 while developed land

increased by over 7,800 acres, most of which was residential development. However, Ocean

County produced a comprehensive master plan in which one of the main goals is to “guide
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growth to existing developed areas and away from environmentally sensitive areas” (Ocean

County Planning Board, 2011). Furthermore, it seeks to predict what areas will be developed or

redeveloped and what areas will be preserved or developed at a low density. This county seeks to

emphasize sustainable economic growth while still protecting the valuable resources of the area,

an objective of which can be easily mirrored by not only other counties, but municipalities and

states as well.

Land use patterns can aid in the determination of landscape stability and understanding

those patterns are essential to properly manage and improve land. As a landscape evolves, the

composition often transitions in a particular direction and it is important to monitor that shift. As

an area progresses toward urbanization, for example, awareness of opposing land use types is

essential, such as those of forests or agriculture use. Without proper monitoring and

understanding, management strategies may neglect these land uses and/or changes and they may

end up severely damaged and irreversible or worse, being eliminated. By being conscious, land

can be properly managed to the most optimum level and still enable all land use types to persist

to some degree. However, it is not unfortunate if land use changes occur, as many are for the

benefit of all. Thus, these changes signify a variety of elements such as changes in population

composition, demand for human needs and development, requirement of more productive land in

terms of agriculture to nourish the expanding population, increased protection of wetlands and

watersheds due to pollution along with many other factors. Through Geographical Information

System (GIS) mapping, these techniques provide an accurate and detailed way to showcase and

analyze land cover and land use types and changes of desired areas.
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Objectives

1. Understand how to use data from various sources to make decisions about land use.

2. Analyze and compare various land use types throughout a span of time and determine

which uses have changed the most

3. Seek why and how those changes are most prevalent

4. Determine what has changed within the chosen land use types.

Methods

Land use data was downloaded from the New Jersey Department of Environmental

Protection’s (NJDEP) Bureau of GIS digital data downloads website. Data included 1986 Land

Use/Land Cover (NJDEP Bureau of GIS, 2019), 1995/97 Land Use/Land Cover Watershed

Management Areas (WMA) 14 (Mullica), 15 (Great Egg Harbor) and 17 (Maurice, Salem

Cohansey) (NJDEP Bureau of GIS, 2019), 2002 Land Use/Land Cover WMA’s 14, 15 and 17

(NJDEP Bureau of GIS, 2019), 2007 Land Use/Land Cover WMA’s 14, 15 and 17 (NJDEP

Bureau of GIS, 2019), and 2012 Land Use/Land Cover WMA’s 14, 15 and 17 (NJDEP Bureau

of GIS, 2019). In addition, aerial photographs of a students residence in Egg Harbor Township

were downloaded (New Jersey Geographic Information Network, 2019) and used to observed

obvious changes close to home. Once all data was downloaded, it was extracted and each year

was added to a new dataframe in ArcMap. For years 1995/97, 2002, 2007 and 2012, the 3

corresponding WMA’s were merged and clipped to the county boundary. Then, each land use

type was broken up and exported based on type. These individual shapefiles made it much

simpler to examine and assess the data. Side by side comparisons were then done with ease and
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the data created in ArcMap was easily transferred to excel to make tables and graphs to display

these changes between 2002-2012.

Results

Over the span of ten years, there has been a drastic change between urban and forest land

use types in Atlantic County, New Jersey. Beginning in 2002, there was nearly 150,790 acres of

land that were considered forest and nearly 51,067 acres of land that were considered urban.

However, in 2012 there were nearly 139,156 acres of forests and 67,666 acres of urban land.

From this, urban land has increased by roughly 16,600 acres over this timeframe and forest land

has decreased by roughly 11,600 acres (see Figure 2 and Table 2).

​ ll Land Use change 2002-2012 in Atlantic County.

Figure 1. A
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Table 1. ​All Land Use changes 2002-2012 in Atlantic County

Figure 2.​ Comparison of Urban and Forest Land use changes from 2002-2012 in Atlantic

County, New Jersey.

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Table 2​. Exact acreage change within Urban and Forest Land use type in Atlantic County from

2002 to 2012.

Within the increase of urban land, there is a large increase in residential land use as

opposed to commercial, although both are prevalent. Over the ten year span, residential land use

has increased by nearly 8,000 acres. In addition, commercial land use has increased by nearly

1,300 acres (see Figure 2 and Table 2). These changes contribute to a number of reasons in terms

of development in Atlantic County that will be further assessed in the Discussion section of this
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report.

Figure 3.​ Urban Land use increases based on land use type for Atlantic County, New Jersey​ from

2002 to ​2012.

Table 3​. Exact acreage increases of Urban Land use based on land use type in Atlantic County,

New Jersey from 2002 to 2012.

While the results of this analysis show how urban and forest land use has changed

throughout all of Atlantic County, a more detailed analysis was also performed showing the land
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use changes in Egg Harbor Township. By doing so, additional insight is provided as to how these

land use changes affect places on a smaller scale, particularly that of the municipal level across

the span of ten years. In 2002, Egg Harbor Township consisted of nearly 19,400 acres of forest

land use and nearly 15,000 acres of urban land use. However, in 2012, there was a notable

change in landuse as the forests decreased to 14,578 acres and the urban land increased to 16,110

acres (see Figure 3 and Table 3). The aerial photographs of a students residence in Egg Harbor

Township that were downloaded enabled the observation of obvious land use changes across the

ten year span as well (see Figure 4). In particular, land near the top right and the top left of the

photograph show dramatic urban/suburban development and a reduction of forested land, in

addition to minor urban increase elsewhere. It appears as if most of the urban increase includes

housing developments for single family residential use. The progression and transformation

within this town alone enables an increased awareness of the diverse land use types and changes

that occur across the state, region and country.

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​ omparison of Urban and Forest Land use changes in Egg Harbor Township, Atlantic
Figure 4. C

County, New Jersey from 2002 to 2012.

Table 4​. Exact acreage changes of Urban and Forest Land use type in Egg Harbor Township,

Atlantic County, New Jersey from 2002 to 2012.

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2002 2012

Figure 5.​ Aerial photographs comparing land use types in Egg Harbor Township, Atlantic

County, New Jersey in 2002 and 2012.

Discussion

Across the municipality of Egg Harbor Township and the County of Atlantic, land use

types are continually changing over time. Over the span of ten years, there has been an obvious

change in urban and forest land use types through both photograph observation and data analysis.

Moreover, “the largest single type of landscape change that occurred to development growth in

New Jersey over the last decade was the urbanization of forested land” (Hasse & Lathrop, 2001).

Likewise, urban growth and development in this area has increased immensely as opposed to

forested land, which has largely decreased. In this area, and many others, urban growth is a

result of growing populations and a healthy economy, leading to the demand of housing and

other conveniences in close proximity.

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Egg Harbor Township is a unique area of interest in this study due to its close proximity

to tourist locations such as Ocean City and Atlantic City. This increase in urban land could be

attributed to these two surrounding municipalities as they offer an abundance of businesses and

job opportunities. More specifically, people may be more inclined to move to a place like Egg

Harbor Township where there is easy access to these tourist areas and job locations yet they can

escape the commotion, crowds and traffic.

Yet, one issue that is presented with the increase of urban development is an increase of

impervious surfaces as a result of the development. Moreover, “the creation of impervious

surface changes the natural hydrologic cycle by impeding precipitation infiltration to

groundwater while increasing the amount of surface runoff.” (Lathrop et al., 2016). This creates

risk of increased flood levels and accelerates the rate of erosion. In Atlantic County specifically,

from 1995-2012, there are areas where the amount of impervious surfaces increased anywhere

from 25-50% (Lathrop et al., 2016).

While these type of land use changes may help to boost local economies, the

environmental implications they create can be a serious risk. The forested lands here have

experienced significant losses as “rising housing density within the wildland-urban interface

contributes to fragmentation of contiguous forest parcels” (Crocker et. al., 2013). Such

fragmentation and disturbance can have substantial ecological implications. The continued loss

of forested land is of serious concern as their role of “providing ecosystem services such as

regulating and reducing soil erosion, maintaining water quality, sequestering carbon and

providing wildlife habitat” (Lathrop & Kaplan, 2004) is at risk. With the disruption of forests,

the growing population may not have the level of water purity and air cleanliness that it desires,
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qualities of which are often an attraction to the area. Although there is no specific data for Egg

Harbor Township, in New Jersey “during the 1986-2012 study period, the state lost an estimated

135,781 acres of forest core habitat for an 11.2% loss.” (Lathrop et al., 2016). This kind of

habitat loss can be detrimental to biodiversity and is a serious problem that New Jersey needs to

take into consideration.

Although these issues seem to be pressing, according to the Atlantic County Master Plan

(2018), the county has been making strides to limit urban development and decrease the amount

of forested lands that are removed. These efforts include the utilization and redevelopment of

brownfields. Thus, “a number of municipalities in Atlantic County have designated areas within

their boundaries as being in need of redevelopment, and have prepared and adopted

redevelopment plans with the goal of restoring these properties to more productive uses.” (Gruel,

et al., 2018).
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Conclusion

Efficient and effective land use and planning is critical at municipal, county, state and

federal levels. As local economies and populations continue to evolve, the land and the way in

which it is utilized will progress as well. Although urban growth is inevitable, proper monitoring

and planning will be effective to maintain and meet the demands of the population while still

enabling the other land use types to persist. Just because the demands are sought to be met does

not mean other types of land should be sacrificed or diminished. The land development and open

space decisions that are made now will shape the landscape of the future, which can further

affect the quality of life of citizens for generations to come. With proper awareness and

management, the towns, counties, states and country can remain beautiful and beneficial to all.
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References

Crocker, S.J. et al.(2013). New Jersey Forests 2013. ​United States Department of Agriculture.

Gruel, S., Heyer F., & Barree J. (2018). Atlantic County, New Jersey Master Plan.

Heyer, Gruel & Associates and Michael Baker International

Hasse, J., & Lathrop, R. (2001). Measuring Urban Growth in New Jersey: A Report On Recent

Land Development Patterns Utilizing the 1986-1995 NJ DEP LandUse/LandCover

Dataset. ​Center for Remote Sensing & Spatial Analysis; Rutgers University.

Lathrop, R.G., Bognar, J., & Hasse, J. (2016). Changing Landscapes in the Garden State: Land

Use Change in NJ 1986 thru 2012. ​Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis

Lathrop, R.G. & Kaplan, M.B. (2004). New Jersey Land Use/Land Cover Update: 2000-2001.

Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis: Rutgers University.

Ocean County Planning Board. (2011). Comprehensive Master Plan. ​Ocean County Planning

Board.

Rawat, J.S., & Kumar, M. (2015). Monitoring Land Use/Cover Change Using remote sensing

and GIS Techniques: A Case Study of Hawalbagh block, District Almora, Uttarakhand,

India. ​The Egyptian Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Science. 1​ 8(1), 77-84.

Retrieved from​ ​https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110982315000034

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Appendices

​ and use in Atlantic County (1986).

Figure 6. L
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​ and use in Atlantic County (1995).

Figure 7. L
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​ and Use in Atlantic County (2002).

Figure 8. L
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​ and use in Atlantic County (2007).

Figure 9. L
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​ and use in Atlantic County (2012).

Figure 10. L