The New Jersey State Policy Lab has embarked on a project to create a dataset of historical water bodies in New Jersey. This initiative began with the identification of relevant maps, specifically utilizing two atlases published by Julius Bien & Co. The first atlas, titled "Atlas of the Metropolitan District and adjacent country comprising the counties of New York, Kings, Richmond, Westchester and part of Queens in the state of New York, the County of Hudson and parts of the counties of Bergen, Passaic, Essex and Union in the state of New Jersey," was published in 1891. It features a scale of 1:31,680 or 1 mile to 2 inches and focuses on areas within Bergen, Passaic, Essex, and Union counties.
The second resource is the "Atlas of New Jersey," published in 1888 with a scale of 1:63,360 or 1 mile to 1 inch. This atlas provides coverage for the entire state but with less detail than its counterpart. Both atlases were sourced from the David Rumsey Map Collection.
The digitized maps from these atlases required georeferencing using Esri’s ArcGIS Pro Geographic Information System (GIS) software because they initially lacked spatial reference information needed for geospatial analysis. According to Esri (2025), georeferencing involves determining precise map locations on Earth.
The process begins by defining a coordinate system for each map; this project utilized "NAD 1983 (2011) StatePlane New Jersey FIPS 2900 (US Feet)," which aligns with specific latitude and longitude datums updated in 2011 (NJDEP, 2021). Subsequent steps include adjusting map size and position followed by adding control points that fix precise locations relative to already-georeferenced reference maps. An algorithm then transforms these maps so their control points align correctly.
Once georeferenced accurately through these steps described by Esri (2025), tracing historical water bodies can commence across both atlases' representations.
