All hands on deck
The 9th Annual Watershed Conference was held 26th and 27th February.
Hosted by The Watershed Institute and the New Jersey Department Of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) the conference focused on water, watershed health, and environmental solutions for municipal, county, and state elected officials, staff, NGOs, environmental professionals and community members.
LivGreen was in attendance and getting the scoop on the latest research and best practices we can share in support of our community.
Sidd Ganesh, Livingston High School Junior and member of the Science Research Program attended the Thursday sessions:
"This year's annual watershed conference was incredibly interesting, the information shared by the speakers was truly enriching. One session I found particularly interesting came during the last presentation of the day, in which researchers from Rutgers University compiled a wealth of watershed and GIS data sets into a single map-based application. The tool allowed users to visualize key watershed metrics, such as water quality indicators, land use patterns, and upstream data, all within one interactive platform. What made it especially impressive was how it condensed what would otherwise require navigating multiple applications into a single, accessible interface, making the information far more digestible for both researchers and the general public alike."
Check it our for yourself: WatershedNJ Health Assessment Tool
A few other favorites included: a case study from NYC DEP on the pilot of Cloudburst an innovative tool box of green infrastructure solutions and their application at South Jamaica Houses in Queens. An interactive online session on Community Development approaches for Brownfield sites; heat mapping tools for community science and solar energy as a driver of climate and movement in our watersheds; and defining ‘what does restoration mean?’ have we over simplified the view of stressors on our watersheds and in turn the success of localised projects that don’t integrate the scope and scale of the watershed.
Key note speakers helped frame the issues and fights we have ahead of us in New Jersey with defecits in the state budget, and Henry Gajda, NJ DEP Chief of Staff also outlined the five priorities of the new administration:
Time & money - increase in transparency for partners and use of technology for streamlining
Customer experience - the user interface
Flooding - Green and grey solutions
PFAS
Envirionmental Justice Integration
