News & Events
Small NJ city at center of corruption probe as ex-lawmaker charged
“Elected officials should really watch who are they are appointing to positions, where they can appoint political patronage jobs. They really need to know who they are appointing because when it goes bad it brings down a lot of people,” said Marc Pfeiffer, assistant director at the Bloustein Local Government Research Center at Rutgers University. “It...
A Watershed-Based Approach to Flood Hazard Mitigation in the Raritan Region
This project examined the flood mitigation plans of the seven counties in the Raritan River watershed to better understand local government flood mitigation planning in the region. The study examines how county agencies analyze flood risks and mitigation strategies at the watershed level, the challenges that hazard mitigation planners face when thinking...
Local governments face financial crunch from coronavirus
The coronavirus pandemic has wrecked state finances – ballooning its spending, decimating its tax collections, requiring a federal rescue to keep it afloat. Similar stresses, though not as severe, are faced by local governments. “What they have in common primarily is uncertainty,” said Marc Pfeiffer, assistant director of the Bloustein Local Government...
Many public employees cannot work from home. Towns are searching for new options.
Marc Pfeiffer, assistant director of the Local Government Research Center at Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, said municipal officials need to update their understanding of computer systems as well as their software. “It’s not whether a system is ‘closed’ or not,” Pfeiffer said in an email. “A network that is connected...
Aquatic Connectivity Through Climate-Ready Culverts
Aquatic connectivity is a key restoration goal for the New York – New Jersey Harbor & Estuary Program (HEP) and its partners. The creation of connectivity assessment protocols, training methods and data sharing developed by the North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (NAACC) streamlined the effort to prioritize barrier removal to improve...
Near-real-time Water Quality Monitoring in the Raritan River Using Hybrid Vehicular-static Stations
Near-real-time water-quality monitoring of different variables in the Raritan River is critical to protect the aquatic life and to prevent propagation of the potential pollution in the water. Using only static sensors attached to fixed monitoring stations with predefined configurations is not a real-time and efficient solution for data collection as the...
Blue Carbon in the Tidal Marshes of the Raritan
Tidal marshes provide a range of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration. Although New Jersey’s tidal marshes appear to have kept pace with historical sea level rise in the pre-industrial period (Kemp et al., 2013), accelerating rates of sea level rise (Sweet et al., 2017) coupled with land-use changes (Lathrop et al., 2014) and sediment...
#lookfortheriver: finding historic streams of the Lower Raritan Watershed
The changing climate and development patterns of the Lower Raritan Watershed occur against a backdrop of substantial impervious surface coverage (approximately 34%), high population density, and significantly modified stream networks (e.g., stream straightening and burial, culverts, underground retention). Through hundreds of years of anthropogenic...
RISE on the Raritan
The Rutgers Raritan River Consortium (R3C) is dedicated to providing students, especially those from diverse backgrounds, with opportunities to access and study the Raritan alongside professionals, stakeholders and decision-makers. Similarly, the RISE at Rutgers program, run by the Rutgers School of Graduate Studies, works to engage undergraduate students...
Development of a Volunteer Science Pathogen Monitoring Program on the Lower Raritan River
Little water quality data exists that can inform the safety of recreating on the highly urbanized Lower Raritan River. The Lower Raritan is actively used for fishing, paddling, catching bait fish, crabbing, jet skiing, wading and even swimming on a hot day, yet limited information is available for pathogen levels that have a direct effect on human health....
Recent Products
An integrated model of real estate market responses to coastal flooding
Understanding and improving how humans adapt to climate change are priorities in our research community, and coastal settlements are good places to study adaptation. Severe storm events and sea-level rise are threatening coastal communities with increasing levels of...
Transition Plan for the Return of Local Control to Paterson Public Schools, Second Annual Report
The Paterson school board regained full control of the school district in early 2018, after a 20 plus-year state takeover. Dr. Leila Sadeghi of the Bloustein Local Government Research group analyzed and evaluated the documentation provided by the district and produced...
Presence and variability of culturable bioaerosols in three multi-family apartment buildings with different ventilation systems in the Northeastern US
Bioaerosol concentrations in residential buildings located in the Northeastern US have not been widely studied. Here, in 2011-2015, we studied the presence and seasonal variability of culturable fungi and bacteria in three multi-family apartment buildings and...
Opportunities to Address Ocean Acidification Impacts in New Jersey
The Environmental Analysis & Communications Group's Jeanne Herb, in partnership with Grace Saba and Janine Barr, co-authored Opportunities to Address Ocean Acidification Impacts in New Jersey: An Outline of Options for the New Jersey Coastal Management program....