Geospatial Research Lab

Geospatial Research Lab

Welcome to the GEOspatial Research LAB. Founded by Dr. John Hasse in 2009, the GeoLab explores environmental topics with a laser focus on New Jersey. Our research and interactive maps address land use change, land conservation efforts, sustainable community planning, smart growth, ecological resources and environmental education. 

We are proudly supported by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, F. M. Kirby Foundation, The Nature Conservancy and New Jersey Conservation Foundation.

Please explore our current projects below.

NJ MAP

NJ MAP is an interactive atlas for ecological resources, environmental education and sustainable communities. The GeoLab created and maintains this free online map viewer to connect NJ citizens, municipalities and advocacy groups with real time geospatial tools to support their planning and conservation efforts.

Organized into a suite of publicly available geospatial tools, each NJ MAP project focuses on a specific New Jersey environmental, land use and sustainability issue. Intended users include Sustainable Jersey Green Teams, municipal planning boards, environmental commissions, land trusts, watershed organizations and concerned citizens among others. The NJ MAP vision is to make statewide GIS data relatable and easy to understand.

Scroll below to see all of our interactive maps and projects!

Conservation Blueprint

Created in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, New Jersey Conservation Foundation and a consortium of 21 conservation-focused groups both governmental and non-profits this series of maps showcase a shared, living blueprint of lands to be protected in the next few decades.

Learn more: njblueprint.org

Parcel Explorer

The Parcel Explorer tool allows users to easily find publicly available information about individual tax parcels in NJ.

NJ Land Change Viewer

Animated maps of three decades of environmental change in the Garden State.

This map collection allows you to observe and explore dynamic land changes throughout NJ including:

  • Urban Growth
  • Farmland Loss
  • Wetlands Encroachment
  • Forest Fragmentation
  • Farmland Preservation Efforts

Municipal Land Use Change Viewer

These maps and data visualization tools graphically depict land use change from 1986-2012 at the municipal level with custom stats for each town.

Municipal Buildout Modeler

This municipally-focused portal is focused on graphically depicting the correlation between nitrate pollution levels and municipal zoning scenarios, including current zoning ordinances and user provided alternative zoning.