The thrust of New Jersey's ERTS investigation is development of procedures for operational use of ERTS-1 data by the Department of Environmental Protection in the management of the State's coastal zone. Four major areas of concern were investigated: detection of land use changes in the coastal zone; monitoring of offshore waste disposal; siting of ocean outfalls; and allocation of funds for shore protection. ERTS imagery was not useful for shore protection purposes; it was of limited practical value in the evaluation of offshore waste disposal and ocean outfall siting. However, ERTS imagery shows great promise for operational detection of land use changes in the coastal zone. Some constraints for practical change detection have been identified

Feinberg, E. B.

Mairs, R. L.

Stitt, J. A.

Yunghans, R. S.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

Paper L 12 
IMPACT OF ERTS-1 IMAGES ON MANAGEMENT OF NEW JERSEY'S COASTAL ZONE 
Edward B. Feinberg, Roland S. Yunghans, J o h n  Stitt (New Jersey Ddpartment of Envimmentel Protection, 
Trenton, N.J.) and Robert L. Mairs (Earth Sadellite corporation, Washinglvn, 0.C.) 
ABSTRACT 
The thrust of New Jersey's ERTS investigation is 
development of procedures for operational use of 
ERTS-1 data by the Department of Environmental 
Protection (DEP) in the management of the State's 
coastal zone. Four major areas of concern were 
investigated: detection of land use changes in 
the coastal zone; monitoring of offshore waste 
disposal; siting of ocean outfalls; and allocation 
of funds f o r  shore protection. 
ERTS imagery was not useful f o r  Shore protectibn 
putposes; it was of limited practical value in the 
evaluation of offshore waste disposal and ocean 
promise for operational detection of land us6 
changes in the coastal zone. Some constraints for 
practical change detection have been identified. 
outfall siting. However, ERTS imagery shows great 1y) 
INTRODUCTION 
The New Jersey Department of  Environmental Protection (DEP) 
is a regulatory agency charged by law with protecting and 
enhancing the State's total environment. The Department is 
oriented toward ifiplementing and enforcing environmental 
statutes. While DEP is not a research organization, we do 
pursue mission oriented research when that research offers 
good prospects for successful application to practical 
problems. Remote sensing research has played and will 
continue to play an important rble in DEP programs. Our 
wetlands and coastal zone statutes could not have been 
implemented without remote sensing tools. 
New Jersey's ERTS-1 investigation, which is being conducted 
in conjunction with Earth Satellite Corporation, is aimed at 
developing procedures for operational use of ERTS data by DEP 
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https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19740022627 2020-03-17T15:18:47+00:00Z
in managing the State's coastal zone. Four significant 
problem areas have been identified as potentially benefiting 
from information derived from ERTS data: 
, 
1. 
2 .  Siting of ocean outfalls for regional sewage 
3 .  Allocation of funds for shore protection; 
4 .  Detection of land use changes in the coastal zone. 
Monitoring of offshore waste disposal; 
treatment plants; 
OFFSHORE WASTE DISPOSAL 
The offshore waste disposal problem is important because of 
proximity to New Jersey's coastline of two major Federally 
regulated marine waste disposal sites--pne off Sandy Hook 
near the New York Bight and the other off Gape May near 
Delaware Bay. DEP is concerned with the effects this waste 
disposal will have on future recreational use of waters and 
beaches, fJsh resources, and public health. 
The Federal Environmental Protection Agency has designated 
five dumping areas within the New York Bight site for the 
disposal of the following waste materials: industrial acid, 
+it sewage sludge, dredge spoil, construction debris and wrecks. 
ERTS imagery primarily records acid and dredge spoil. We 
p are monitoring the dumping with each ERTS overpass to deter- 
mine geograpliical extent and generalized dispersion character- 
istics. These analyses are helping the Department to better 
understand the extent of the problem; they will also help to 
support a case with EPA for possible alternate disposal sites, 
if the data demonstrate this need. However, the long delay 
in receiving ERTS imagery has caused it to be useless in 
helping to monitor impacts of individual dumpings, even for 
the limited use of guiding water quality sampling by DEP 
inspectors. 
OCEAN OUTFALLS 
The Department presently is engaged in a long term program 
of converting New Jersey sewage waste disposal from hundreds 
of local, often improperly operated, primary and secondary 
treatment plants ta a small number of regional secondary 
treatment plants with long ocean outfalls. While ocean dis- 
charge of sewage effluent is not the ideal solution to the 
problem,it poses much less hazard to the environment than 
the alternatives available to New Jersey, ebg., discharging 
into ground water and estuarine areas, which have been 
traditional recipients of these wastes. 
A review of the outfall design criteria found in engineering 
reports indicates that little or no systematic use has been 
made of nearshore circulation of surface dispersion informa- 
tion derived from remote sensing techniques. Furthermore, 
effectiveness of ocean outfall systems rarely has been con- 
firmed after construction. Using ERTS data, repetitive black 
and white aircraft photography dating back ta 1940, and other 
historical data, we have developed tidal and wind driven 
surface current information for direct input into the design 
of New Jersey's sixteen proposed ocean outfalls. These data 
have been received enthusiastically by the sewage authorities 
and their environmental consultants, but it is still too 
early to tell if, o f  themselves, the data will be definitive. 
The Department must determine if outfall design specifications 
are being met and must insure that effluents have a minimal 
impact on nearshore waters and beaches. Federally imposed 
standards also must be attained. These determinations can 
best be made with aircraft photography and collateral ground 
truth data. We are planning to verify the models from which 
most outfalls presently are designed by injecting dye at the 
treatment plant, photographing the outfall site, contouring 
areas of equal density on the photography and relating in situ 
measurements of dye concentration to film density. In ais 
way, we hope to confirm the initial dilution ratio of  the 
outfall from the sea bottom to the ocean surface. 
ERTS still may be of benefit in these analyses. The capaci- 
ties of the proposed outfalls are much greater than all but 
one outfall now in operation, and this outfall presently is 
operating far below design capacity. We intend to conduct 
a dye study at this outfall (when it begins operating at 
capacity) in conjunction with an ERTS overpass. To date ERTS 
imagery of dye studies has not provided useful information, 
however, the larger outfalls may be detectable with ERTS. 
If this proves to be the case, repetitive coverage will be 
of great value in demonstrating the effectiveness (or lack 
of effectiveness) of the outfall design. 
SHORE PROTECTION 
New Jersey (through DEP) annually spends several million 
dollars of State funds for construction and maintenance of 
shore protection structures. These expenditures are in the 
499 
form of matching grants to local municipalities (on a seventy 
five percent State--twenty five percent local basis) and 
represent only ten percent of  the total requests for aid. 
New Jersey is probably one of the best (or worst) examples of 
beach preservation structures in the United States. The 
Atlantic shoreline consists of groin upon groin all the way 
down the coast. Over the years, the State has been building 
and repairing these structures and/or replenishing the sand- 
eroded areas without a clear understanding of the effective- 
ness of  these measures. Only recently, the United States 
Park Service decided to abandon completely shore protection 
measures on their lands and let the beaches return t o  a 
natural condition. 
ERTS proved to have insufficient resulution t o  address this 
problem, both directly in measuring beach erosion rates and 
indirectly in measuring nearshore currents. Perhaps, with 
an increase in resolution to tens of feet or even feet, 
repetitive ERTS coverage will be valuable in monitoring 
impacts and effectiveness of shore protection structures, 
but the imagery from ERTS-1 is not useful for this purpose. 
500 
COASTAL ZONE LAND USE 
The New Jersey Wetlands Act, which took effect in November, 
1970, requires that the Department map the wetlands and 
regulate their use. Approximately 938 maps are being pre- 
pared, over 500  of which have already been completed, at a 
scale of 1:2400. These maps show the upper wetlands boun- 
dary and an inventory of wetlands vegetation down to five 
acre units, for approximately 450 square miles of wetlands. 
In preparing these maps, stereo aerial photography was 
taken, in both natural color and color infrared, for over 
1300 square miles of New Jersey's coastal area. This photo 
graphy is at a scale of 1:12000. 
The New Jersey Coastal Area Facility Review Act took effect 
in September, 1973. This Act regulates use of lands adja- 
cent to the wetlands and extends DEP responsibility to 
approximately 1750 square miles. The Coastal Area Act de- 
fined the boundaries of the area in terms of roads and rail- 
roads and listed the facilities to be regulated. The Act 
also required that the DEP prepare an environmental inven- 
tory for the coastal area. Since the Act contained a grand- 
father clause for facilities already under construction on 
the effective date, the Department obtained stereo color 
infrared aerial photography on that date throughout the 
coastal area for legal documentation. This photography, at 
a scale of 1:35000, also will be used to help prepare the 
env i r o nmen t a 1 inventory 
DEP, by virtue of these two statutes, has the authority to 
control major development within the coastal area of New 
Jersey. This area constitutes approximately twenty-five 
percent of the State. Enforcement of these laws must deal 
with two basic situations: 
1. Monitoring authorized development projects 
2 .  
to ensure compliance with permit conditions. 
Detecting clandestine or unauthorized major 
land use modifications. 
In the past, the Department has approached the enforcement 
problem by using ground inspectors, supplemented by occa- 
sional observations from light aircraft and helicoptors. 
Hand held photography was obtained frequently for legal 
evidence, both on the ground and in the air. This approach 
was satisfactory when the areas over which DEP had enforce- 
ment powers were more limited; however, it is far too costly 
and slow a method to adequately cover twenty-five percent 
of the State. 
The wetlands and coastal area photography, referred to 
previously, have demonstrated clearly the value of syste- 
matic aerial photography in monitoring the coastal area. 
These photographs are scanned to detect land use changes and 
to direct a limited number of inspectors to the precise lo- 
cations of changes. This leads to far more effective 
501 
utilization of the inspectors' time. Simultaneously, the 
photographs provide a legal record of changes. 
aerial photographic coverage (three to four times a year) 
would provide cost effective surviellance, but there would 
be several months interval between observations. With 
modern construction equipment, extreme destruction of 
land can occur rapidly. More frequent observations are 
needed, but the cost for frequent aerial coverage of the 
entire coastal area would be prohibitive. For this reason, 
the Department has turned to ERTS as a potential surviellance 
tool for detecting land use changes. 
Comparisons of ERTS images for the period 10 October 7 2  through 
7 July 7 3  have detected two hundred seventy-six changes. 
These changes are plotted on 1:24000 scale photomaps, which 
are used to guide field inspectors. We have successfully 
detected changes as small as two to three acres. At present 
we are refining our interpretation techniques to distin- 
guish developmental changes from agricultural and seasonal 
changes. 
Periodic 
DISCUSSION 
For the first three problem areas - -  offshore waste disposal, 
ocean outfalls and shore protection - -  we have concluded that 
repetitive high-altitude aerial photography provides for more 
useful information than does ERTS. The resolution of ERTS-1 
is insufficient for addressing these problems. An increase 
in resolution to tens of feet or feet may provide the needed 
informat ion. 
We believe that repetitive ERTS coverage has great poten- 
tial value to the State for the fourth problem area - -  
operational detection of land use changes in the coastal area. 
A responsive change detection system initially would be used 
to enforce our coastal zone and wetlands statutes. Speci- 
fically, it would guide on-ground inspections, help us plan 
intelligently for local aircraft surveillance, and establish 
legal records for court use. All of these promote efficiency 
in management of our coastal zone and are cost effective in 
terms of time and personnel, 
To realize this potential in change detection, certain limi- 
tations of the present ERTS system must be overcome: 
1. Change detection must be automated (digital 
tapes should be used for analysis in con- 
junction with imagery); 
2 .  Approximately one acre resolution must be 
achieved ; 
502 
3 .  The repetitive coverage interval of 18 days 
should be reduced (this is highly desirable 
but not limiting) ; 
4 .  Thirty to sixty day imagery delivery times 
from NASA for standing orders are shortened 
substantially (to four to seven days); 
5. Requests for additional data are met in a 
timely fashion (rather than six months or 
longer as at present). 
The Department is prepared to initiate an operational test of 
change detection utilizing ERTS-1 imagery. This test requires 
rapid delivery of imagery by NASA. We will analyze the 
imagery rapidly and immediately provide the information to 
DEP inspectors. Timeliness of the information is most impor- 
tant in motivating our inspectors to use it. With timely in- 
formation,our inspectors can halt unauthorized land use 
changes before great environmental damage has occurred. Stale 
information is of historical interest only, and will have no 
meaningful impact on operational management of our coastal 
zone. To conduct this test, we have requested that imagery be 
made available within five working days after each ERTS over- 
pass, for five consecutive overpasses. The number of over- 
passes requested will allow for possible cloud cover. This 
test, using visual interpretive techniques, will provide de- 
tailed data on the effectiveness of ERTS in operational change 
detection. 
DEP also will propose to NASA an extension of our ERTS inves- 
tigation to improve the timeliness and accuracy of our change 
detection capability by shifting to automatic data processing 
of ERTS digital tapes. We hope that NASA will act favorably 
on this proposal. It represents a major step toward a fully 
operational change detection system. 
RECOMMENDATIONS 
In dealing with the real world problems of a regulatory agency, 
our work indicates that ERTS data coupled with repetitive 
aircraft coverage will be most productive and cost effective. 
We recommend that NASA take into account these kinds of needs 
and fund either in whole or in part worthwhile aircraft and 
ERTS supporting programs that are aimed at specific operational 
problems of state and local governmental agencies. The success 
of our ERTS investigation in addressing these real world pro- 
blems has convinced the State of New Jersey to include in its 
next budget fifty thousand dollars to participate in the kinds 
of activities mentioned above. 
We appreciate the opportunity to participate in the ERTS pro- 
gram with NASA. 
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Impact of ERTS-1 images on management of New Jersey's coastal zone

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