Starting with 1986, The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has periodically collected and published land use and land cover (LULC) data for all of the major watersheds in the state. In this project, that data is broken out by municipality and presented in three ways:

• As Maps, showing the size and distribution of land in each of the major land use classifications. These maps are available for each municipality and every LULC data set. They can be viewed individually or animated to show how and where land use has changed over time.
• In Graphs, showing the acreage of land use in each major land use classification, as well as the estimated amount of impervious surface in each municipality. These are also available for every LULC data set.
• As Downloads, in CSV and XML format suitable for use as spreadsheets. The downloadable data includes the acreage for all of the major and minor land use classes and for impervious surface. Data from each of the published data sets is included. The change in percent and acreage between each data set has been calculated and is included. Data for each municipality can be downloaded individually. A separate download is also available with data broken out by all municipalities and aggregated at the county and statewide level.

View the maps.

Technical note:
Unlike the majority of web maps that use image tiles to show data at different locations and zoom levels, this map uses vector tiles. Vector tiles carry more information than image tiles and allow user to interact with the feature they show. For example, features can be "clicked" using a mouse. The developer can use that to present information that is specific to the feature that was clicked, because data about individual features can be embedded in the tile and accessed by the browser.

Unfortunately, vector based tiles put a greater processing burden on client than image tiles, which means your browser needs to work harder to display them. If there is insufficient memory or processing power available, performance will be slow. To complicate things further, the vector tiles in this map were developed several years ago and use the GeoJSON format, which is less efficient than some other vector tile formats used today. If your browser is slow or unresponsive when viewing the map, this is probably the cause.

NJ MAP utilizes best available data from a variety of sources. These sources can be made available so users may assess the integrity and objectivity of the data. While attention is given to present the most up-to-date information, The NJ MAP Team, and its funders, assume no responsibility for the spatial accuracy, completeness or timeliness of data used, and expressly disclaim any and all responsibility for errors, misinterpretations, omissions or other inconsistencies depicted arising from or otherwise related to the maps maintained within this site.

Maps and data sets found on this site are for planning activities only and cannot and should not be used for any regulatory purposes - this applies to both the parcel and state-wide levels. The information on this website should be used only as a guide; an on-site investigation is the only true way to know which features exist on the ground.