Due to the ecological importance of seagrasses and recent indications of disease and dieback, we have synthesized existing mapped survey information concerning the spatial and temporal distribution of seagrass beds (primarily eelgrass,Zostera marina) in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. Mapped surveys from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s were digitized and compiled in a geographic information system to facilitate analysis. Comparison of the earlier maps with the 1990s survey shows an overall decrease of approximately 2,000 to 3,000 ha in the area of seagrass beds. While there are indications of seagrass decline, due to the great difference in mapping methods used for each of the surveys, we are cautious in directly attributing the decrease in mapped eelgrass acreage to a large-scale dieback. We examined the extent to which light could be used to predict the distribution of seagrass in Barnegat Bay. Data on Secchi depth throughout the bay were combined with a modification of an existing model (Duarte 1991) of the relationship betweenZ. marina compensation depths and light attenuation coefficients to predict the distribution of seagrasses in Barnegat Bay. When compared with mapped seagrass distribution in the bay, the model correctly predicts seagrass presence-absence over two-thirds of the time. The majority of the model error is due to errors of commission, i.e., the model predicts seagrass occurrence where it was not observed to occur. Most of this commission error is located in specific geographic areas (i.e., southern third of Little Egg Harbor and the western shoreline of the bay).

While sea level rise is a world-wide phenomenon, mitigating its impacts is a local decision-making challenge that is going to require site-specific remedies. Faced with a variety of conflicting mandates and uncertainty as to appropriate responses, local land use planners and managers need place-based decision support tools. With the increasing availability of high-resolution digital elevation models and the advancing speed and sophistication of web-based mapping, a number of web geographic information systems (GIS) tools have been developed to map and visualize what areas of a coastal landscape will potentially be flooded under different scenarios of sea level rise. This paper presents a case study of one such WebGIS application, NJFloodMapper (www.NJFloodMapper.org), with a focus on the user-centered design process employed to help our target audience of coastal decision-makers in the state of New Jersey, USA, access and understand relevant geographic information concerning sea level rise and exposure to coastal inundation, as well as assess the vulnerability of key infrastructure, populations and natural resources within their communities. We discuss the success of this approach amidst the broader context of the application of WebGIS tools in this arena. Due to its flexible design and user-friendly interface, NJFloodMapper has been widely adopted by government and non-governmental agencies in the state to assess coastal flooding exposure and vulnerability in the aftermath of a recent destructive coastal storm. However, additional decision support tools are needed to help coastal decision-makers translate the place-based information into concrete action plans aimed at promoting more resilient coastal land use decisions.

Rising temperature and shifting precipitation patterns due to climate change are likely to intensify droughts throughout the world. Understanding the drought characteristics of possible future scenarios under climate change requires verification of past drought events using appropriate drought indices. Consequently, this study investigates the application of two widely used drought indices, the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and standardized streamflow index (SSI), to characterize historical droughts, drought trends, and their impact on water quality and stream integrity for a selected study basin in New Jersey. Results indicated that both SPI and SSI were able to identify historical drought events, including three drought emergency periods and the most recent drought-watch periods. A significant positive meteorological drought was observed at the western side of the basin, whilst a significant positive hydrological drought was found in the eastern side. The average pollutant concentration of drought periods were lesser than non-drought periods due to reduction of different processes, such as erosion and transport of sediment and nutrients into rivers and streams, during drought periods as opposed to non-drought periods. The findings from this study will serve to bolster the ongoing efforts to formulate better drought management strategies for future climate change in the Raritan Basin.

Large-scale fuel assessments are useful for developing policy aimed at mitigating wildfires in the wildland–urban interface (WUI), while finer-scale characterisation is necessary for maximising the effectiveness of fuel reduction treatments and directing suppression activities. We developed and tested an objective, consistent approach for characterising hazardous fuels in the WUI at the scale of individual structures by integrating aerial photography, airborne laser scanning and cadastral datasets into a hazard assessment framework. This methodology is appropriate for informing zoning policy questions, targeting presuppression planning and fuel reduction treatments, and assisting in prioritising structure defence during suppression operations. Our results show increased variability in fuel loads with decreasing analysis unit area, indicating that fine-scale differences exist that may be omitted owing to spatial averaging when using a coarser, grid-based approach. Analyses using a local parcel database indicate that approximately 75% of the structures in this study have ownership of less than 50% of the 30 m buffer around their building, illustrating the complexity of multiple ownerships when attempting to manage fuels in the WUI. Our results suggest that our remote-sensing approach could augment, and potentially improve, ground-based survey approaches in the WUI.