Continuous terrain model for water circulation studies, Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. (10 meter resolution, 32-bit GeoTIFF, UTM 18, WGS 84)

Water quality in the Barnegat Bay estuary along the New Jersey coast is the focus of a multidisciplinary research project begun in 2011 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. This narrow estuary is the drainage for the Barnegat Bay watershed and flushed by just three inlets connecting it to the Atlantic Ocean, is experiencing degraded water quality, algal blooms, loss of seagrass, and increases in oxygen-depletion events. The scale of the estuary and the scope of the problems within it required a regional approach to understand and model water circulation within the bay and adjacent ocean. A continuous elevation surface (terrain model) integrating all available elevation data in the area was produced for the water circulation modeling efforts.

新泽西海岸沿线的巴内加特湾河口水质，是美国地质调查局（U.S. Geological Survey, USGS）与新泽西州环境保护部于2011年联合启动的多学科研究项目的核心研究对象。这片狭长河口作为巴内加特湾流域的汇水区域，仅通过三处连通大西洋的河口完成水体交换，目前正面临水质恶化、藻华暴发、海草床退化以及缺氧事件频发等多重生态环境问题。鉴于该河口的空间尺度与内部问题的复杂程度，需采用区域化研究手段，以解析海湾及邻近海域的水动力循环过程并构建相应数值模型。为支撑该项水动力循环模拟工作，研究团队整合该区域所有可用高程数据，构建了一套连续高程表面（地形模型）。