The document summarizes an environmental resource inventory (ERI) created by the Oceanport Environmental Commission in GIS format. It includes base maps of Oceanport along with maps of geology, watersheds, land cover, forests, and habitats. It also identifies some proposed projects like a community forest management plan and expanding safe walking paths. The ERI was created using existing data from NJDEP and the county to compile required natural resource information for the municipality's master plan as mandated by law.

1. GIS Application:
Environmental Resources Inventory
Case Study: Borough of Oceanport
Presented by Kathleen Devine
Intro to GIS - Spring 2012

2. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Environmental Resource Inventory
• The Environmental Resource Inventory (ERI), also called Natural
Resource Inventory (NRI), or Index of Natural Resources, is a
compilation of text and visual information about the natural resource
characteristics and environmental features of an area.
• The Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL) (N.J.S.A.40:55D-1 et seq.)
requires municipalities to have a land use plan element in their master
plan, “including but not necessarily limited to, topography, soil
conditions, water supply, drainage, flood plain areas, marshes, and
woodlands...” (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-28b(2)).
• Environmental commissions will find that most of the basic
information needed for an ERI has already been collected by agency.
The challenge is to find out which information is where.

3. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Environmental Resource Inventory
• Currently, the Oceanport Environmental Commission is developing
their ERI.
• This project confirmed that NJDEP and Monmouth County GIS Office
has the information needed to develop a ERI in GIS format.
• The project prepared the following GIS documents:
• Base Map
• Geology - Bedrock, Surface, and Historic Fill
• Watersheds
• Land Cover - Land Use and Forest Type
• Habitats
• Proposed projects

4. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Base Map

5. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Base Map
• Oceanport is a “home of Monmouth Park Racetrack
and Fort Monmouth. Though only 3.2 square miles,
Oceanport’s nearly six thousand residents enjoy not
only the Shrewsbury River, but various recreational
sports programs, an active senior group and a true
feeling of community.”
• Two elementary schools, several parks both municipal
and county.
• Population 6000 people, approximately 800 children
under 14, and 700 dogs.
• Two firehouses and dispatch service with West Long
Branch

6. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Bedrock Geology Map

7. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Bedrock Geology
• The Hornerstown formation is dark greenish gray,
very clayey glauconite sand to micaceous, quartzose,
glauconite sand.
• The Tinton formation is a massive "olive to evergreen"
green glauconitic quartz sand which is locally clay-rich
and silty.
• The Vincentown Formation is slightly glauconitic
quartz sand and silt. In places the Vincentown is very
fossiliferous consisting of a bryozoan bioherm.
• SAND, SAND, and more Sand….

8. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Surface Geology Map

9. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Historic Fill Map

10. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Surface Geology and Historic Fill
• Alluvium is sediment that has carried by and deposited
from running water.
• Historic fill is non-indigenous material placed on a site
in order to raise the topographic elevation of the site.

11. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Watersheds

12. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Watersheds
• Three distinct subwatersheds of the Shrewsbury River
• Ridge line runs through Borough.
• Depth of the Shrewsbury River is from 4 to 15 feet.
• Three sides of Borough is Water.
• Ongoing water quality study by Waterwatch
Committee to determine impact of Monmouth Park

13. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Land Use

14. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Forest Type

15. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Land Use and Forest Type
• A GPS unit identified approximately 20 trees at the
Community Center Park
• Three sections left of undeveloped wooded wetlands.
• NJDEP encourages municipalities to develop
Community Forest Management Plans
• Community Forest Plan is an essential guide to
successfully achieving a healthy, economically efficient,
and safe community forest.
• Trees provide shade, cleaner air, and help to manage
storm water.

16. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Habitats

17. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Habitats
• The shore line is the habitat to terns, heron, and
egrets.
• There are suitable nesting places for Bald Eagles and
Osprey along the shore and in the wooded wetlands.
• Sighting of a juvenile Bald Eagle at Seven Bridges
• The community has had Black Bear and Fox sightings.
• Islands in the River have nesting grounds for
horseshoe crabs and Diamond Back Terrapins
• Some deer, rabbits, and snapping turtles

18. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Proposed Projects

19. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
Proposed Projects
• A Community Forest Management Plan
• Outdoor Classroom at Blackberry Bay
• Osprey Nesting Platform
• Rain Garden at Middle School
• New sidewalks for safe passage from residential area
to “Downtown” with Pizza Parlor and Convenience
Store
• Encourage exploration of natural resources and safe
bicycle traffic through borough.

20. Kathleen Devine - Spring 2012
References
http://www.anjec.org/pdfs/EnvironmentalResource.pdf
http://www.oceanportboro.com/
http://geology.rutgers.edu/research/rutgers-core-repository/nj-coastal-
plain/hornerstown-formation
http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/nyc/coastalplain/cretaceous.htm
http://geology.about.com/od/geoprocesses/ig/mechweathering/alluvium.htm
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/geodata/dgs04-7md.htm
http://www.nj.gov/dep/parksandforests/forest/community/grants-gcg.html