Researchers have been in the process of creating digital representations or features of historical water bodies in New Jersey to map and identify problem areas with a history of flooding and sewer overflow problems. By utilizing the NJDEP’s Land Use/Land Cover of New Jersey 2020 dataset, the researchers were able to contrast that against identified historical water bodies and examine how the size and shape of these water bodies have changed over time.
Topic
water bodies
NJSPL: Georeferencing Historical Maps for Geospatial Analysis
As part of ongoing research to create a dataset of historical water bodies in New Jersey, researchers have begun locating and charting these historical water bodies with the use of atlases from the David Rumsey Map Collection. The digitized maps in these atlases were then georeferenced, a process of determining the precise location of these maps on the Earth’s surface. The ultimate goal is to trace water bodies in order to evaluate flood vulnerability across the state.