GENERAL CATEGORY DESCRIPTIONS
The six categories
included here represent the six general categories that are part of the
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/gis/digidownload/metadata/lulc07/codelist2007.html.
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/gis/digidownload/metadata/lulc07/anderson2007.html.
URBAN LAND
The URBAN LAND
category includes most of what normally would be considered developed land.
Residential areas, commercial areas, services and institutions, industrial
areas, and those developed for transportation and utilities are the primary
land uses included in the URBAN category. In addition, there area several open
land categories that are included here. Developed recreation areas, whether
they be part of a park, educational facility, or
private concern such as a golf course, are included in the URBAN series.
Lastly, there is also a code used do identify other undeveloped open space in
urban areas. Included in this last category would be such areas as large
landscaped lawns in corporate business and service centers, parks and
residential areas. These areas do not have buildings and pavement
characteristic of more highly developed categories, but are given an URBAN code
to distinguish them from undeveloped open areas that exist outside an urban
setting. The impact of these areas on environmental quality can be suspected to
be different than undeveloped areas outside of an urban setting.
Not included in the
URBAN category are those disturbed wetlands discussed above. Business parks,
large educational institutions, golf courses, transportation right of ways,
among other urban categories, often include sections that while not having
typical wetlands vegetation, do show obvious signs of
soil saturation, and which extend over areas that do have hydric
soils. Again, these areas are considered wetlands from a regulatory
perspective, even though viewing these areas from the ground or from an aerial photo, you might be inclined to put them in the urban
category. The numbers given for the URBAN values below do not include any of
these disturbed wetlands areas. Since the full data set allows users to select
categories in any of a number of ways, these areas can be included in URBAN
calculations if need be. They have not, however, been included in the URBAN
numbers shown below.
AGRICULTURE
Included are all land areas associated with agricultural production.
The greatest amount of these lands would be areas used in the active
cultivation of crops, both row and field crops. Also included, however, are
pasturelands and grazing lands associated with horse or cattle raising
operations, orchards, vineyards, nurseries and other horticultural areas, and
confined feeding operations. In addition, other lands used in support of the
agricultural activities, such as the farmsteads, associated barns, stables, and
corrals, among others, are also included.
As with the URBAN
category, there are also AGRICULTURAL lands that are considered WETLANDS for
regulatory purposes. These areas are generally under active cultivation, and so
do not support typical wetland vegetation. But these areas do exist on
saturated, hydric soils, and are absent the wetland
vegetation only because of the active cultivation. The acreage of these
AGRICULTURAL wetlands are included in the general
category of WETLANDS, below, and not in the category of AGRICULTURE. As with
the URBAN wetlands, users of the full data sets can reselect out these
AGRICULTURAL wetlands individually and include them in other general categories
if need be.
FORESTS
Included is all
upland areas covered by woody vegetation. The vegetation may be primarily
deciduous, coniferous or a mixture of both, and include scrub/shrub and brush
areas as well as mature tree stands of various densities. Also included in this
category, with a separate code, are early stage forest successional
stands, commonly referred to as old fields. These do not normally have a
significant amount of mature trees on them, but are placed in this category
because of their potential development to FORESTS. The 14 specific upland
FOREST types can be identified and analyzed individually, or grouped into
several more general
Not included in the
WATER
Included is both tidal and non-tidal open water bodies of the state.
Freshwater lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, and salt and brackish water ponds and
enclosed tidal bays, such as
Included in the
boundaries of several of the coastal Watershed Management Areas are portions of
WETLANDS
Wetlands are those
areas that exist where the water table is at, near or even above the soil
surface for significant time periods of the year. The soil is, therefore,
generally saturated, and only plant types capable of growing under saturated
conditions are found. Wetlands serve a variety of ecological functions, and are
given special attention in the NJDEP mapping programs, and in environmental
protection strategies.
A large number of
specific WETLAND types are included here. Bogs, herbaceous swamps, wet meadows,
forested wetlands, scrub/shrub and brush covered wetlands, vegetated pond
margins, and inter tidal marshes, among others, are mapped. Although not
normally thought of as occupying saturated areas, vegetated dune communities
are also included under the WETLANDS category to highlight their importance.
While categories
exist for both non-tidal and inter-tidal WETLANDS, the non-tidal WETLANDS are
mapped in much greater detail. This is because the delineations of non-tidal
WETLANDS were originally done under a mapping program developed to support the
New Jersey Freshwater Wetlands Legislation. The classification used in the
freshwater mapping program was the Cowardin classification
system used by the USFWS. This system allows a more detailed division of
wetlands types than does the
As mentioned
previously, also included in the acreage values given below, are the disturbed
WETLAND categories under NJDEP regulatory programs. These wetlands can be
isolated by their numeric land use codes, which place them in the land use
categories representative of the use of these areas, if need be. But all such
disturbed, altered or modified wetlands have been included in the wetland
acreage values included here.
The
One type of area
within the 7000 series, however, which is not included in the figures, is that
identified with the code 7430. These are another class of disturbed wetlands
that may be found in a wide variety of disturbed or developed situations. As
with the other altered wetlands, these areas show signs of obvious soil
saturation. But alterations have led to the removal of any natural wetland
vegetation, and grading or other surface modifications may have also occurred.
These areas are regulated under the NJ Freshwater Wetlands Regulatory Program,
and so are included in the acreage figures as WETLANDS. They can be isolated
and analyzed separately using the specific numeric code, if need be.