ESTUARINE SHORELINE CHANGES IN JAMAICA BAY, NEW YORK CITY: IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT OF AN URBAN NATIONAL PARK

Remote sensing and GIS are becoming increasingly important tools used for resource monitoring and ecosystem modeling within national parks.

The Jamaica Bay portion of Gateway National Recreation Area, located next to highly urbanized New York City, faces many challenges to preserve and protect its natural, cultural, and recreational resources. To aid in the management of the park resources, detailed estuarine shoreline analyses of Jamaica Bay have been undertaken using air photos taken in 1924, 1951, 1974, and 2006. A 16 class land use/land cover scheme was created after doing an initial examination of the types of land cover in the 2006 air photos and then consistently applied in the analyses of the other years. By quantifying how and where the shoreline has changed over the past 85 years, park managers will have a better understanding of shoreline changes within and outside of the park boundaries as well as before and after the park was created in 1972. A comparison of each quarter-century period shows the effects of heavily increased urbanization, while indicating the effectiveness of the park’s management and providing insights on ways to better restore and protect its natural resources. Despite the heavy development of New York City, the shoreline of Jamaica Bay within and outside the park has maintained large percentages of vegetation and sandy beaches.