Project
The Seaweed Zone Project maps where community-scale seaweed cultivation could be feasible along New York City's coastline, within the bounds of the Waterfront Revitalization Program (WRP) coastal zone.
Layers are organized into exclusion zones that prevent cultivation, condition layers that describe environmental suitability, and equity layers that surface climate justice and community access factors.
Data Sources
NYC Dept. of City Planning
Waterfront Revitalization Program (WRP) boundaries
US Army Corps of Engineers
National Channel Framework — navigation channel polygons
Borough outlines — codeforgermany/click_that_hood
Community-maintained NYC borough polygons (CARTO-derived, 2013 vintage), vendored as data/nyc-boroughs.geojson. Used for schematic borough context only; the authoritative water-included municipal boundary is sourced separately from NYC Open Data (below).
NYC Borough Boundaries (water areas included)
NYC Open Data (wh2p-dxnf), dissolved to one outline — the canonical NYC municipal boundary. Drives the in-scope fade, the dataset clip, and the drawn city-limits line (incl. the full Bronx Sound waters).
GBIF (iNaturalist, herbaria, research datasets)
Macroalgae occurrence records — Ulvophyceae, Florideophyceae, Bangiales, Phaeophyceae — split into recent (2001–present) and historical (pre-2001 / undated). Popup includes dataset provenance, links to original records, and CC-licensed photos where available.
NYC Dept. of City Planning — MapPLUTO
Tax lots within ~50 m of the NYC coastline, classified by ownership (public / institutional / private). Loaded on demand.
NYC Planimetric Database: Hydrography
NYC Open Data (pjs3-c3z5) — polygon waterbodies. Candidate sites Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek (by name).
OpenStreetMap
Filled tidal-creek water polygons (natural=water; water=river/stream) for the Fresh Kills candidate site — the creek surface, confined to the Fresh Kills system (Main, Richmond, Springville Creeks + the Fresh Kills channel). NHD named creeks used to confine the selection.
NOAA Office of Coast Survey
NOAA Chart Display Service (NCDS) — ENC data rendered with traditional nautical-chart symbology (depth contours, soundings). Optional reference tile layer, off by default.