Upper Wetlands Boundary/Upper Wetlands Limit (NJDEP) [NJ.UPPER_WETLAND_BOUNDRIES]

The Upper Wetlands Boundary/Upper Wetlands Limit data is composed of two wetlands limit lines mapped in two separate NJDEP mapping programs. Those arcs identified as the Upper Wetlands Boundary (UWB) were delineated under the Wetlands Act of 1970 (N.J.S.A. 13:9A-1 et seq). The intent of this act was to regulate development in tidal wetlands of the state. The initial task outlined in the legislation was to identify and map where those tidal wetlands existed in the state. The tidal wetlands delineations were based on the presence of 25 common tidal marsh species, as well as the extent of tidally flowed bare ground. Areas delineated in the original program extend from Trenton on the Delaware River, south around the Cape May Peninsula, and then north to Perth Amboy on the Arthur Kill. UWB delineations under this program were officially promulgated, and the original UWB arcs form a legal regulatory boundary line. While tidally influenced areas do exist north of Perth Amboy, these areas were not mapped in this program due to funding constraints. In 1987, New Jersey passed the Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act (N.J.S.A. 13:9B-1). As part of the requirements of that act, the NJDEP was required to map all non-tidal wetlands of the state, as they existed on 1986 photo basemaps in a separate freshwater wetlands (FWW) mapping program. As tidal areas of the state were already under tidal wetlands regulations, they were to be excluded from the FWW regulations and from the FWW mapping program. Since the UWB, where it existed, was the regulatory boundary for the tidal wetlands program, it was incorporated into the FWW maps to identify the lower, or seaward, limit of the areas under FWW jurisdiction and mapping. All areas below the UWB were excluded from the FWW program; all areas above the UWB were to be mapped. Where the UWB had not been delineated, a functionally similar line was delineated from the 1986 products used in the FWW mapping to separate tidal from non-tidal areas. As with the UWB, areas below, or seawards, of this line were not mapped under the FWW program. However, since this new line was not delineated through the same procedures as the original UWB, and is not a promulgated regulatory line, it is not to be considered analogous to the UWB. To distinguish this new line from the original UWB, it has been given a new name, the Upper Wetlands Limit (UWL). The data layer also includes another type of coded line. To clarify the UWB delineation along the Atlantic coast barrier island area, the land/water interface as delineated in a 1986 land use/ land cover mapping project was also included. These arcs are identified as COASTLINE in the data set. These arcs do represent any delineations based on vegetation or other parameters associated with the UWB or UWL. Both of these lines were digitized as part of the FWW mapping program, and the UWB/UWL data layer has been extracted from the FWW maps, as described in the Process Steps.

Data quality information