Hudson River Benthic Mapper
Exploring the Bottom of the River
Have you ever wondered what secrets lurk beneath the murky waters of the Hudson? A better understanding of the benthic area - the bottom area of the river - helps with the understanding of the movement of sediments, plants animals and their habitats. The bottom of the river features a wide variety of substrates. The Benthic Mapping Project was developed to find out more about the bottom of the river. Aerial photos can not penetrate the cloudy waters of the Lower Hudson so sonar systems and sediment samples were used instead to gather various information on depth, river-bottom contours, and sediment types.
The Benthic Mapper
Now by using Benthic Mapper some of this information is available to you to map, such as the contours along the floor of the Hudson or where different sediments occur.
Go Straight To The Benthic Mapper
Or you can use the links leaving DEC's website on the right hand side of the page to link to the maps data layers in the New York State Geographic Information Systems Clearinghouse.
Using the Benthic Mapper
The four sections of the Hudson available on the Benthic Mapper are: 1) a reach north of and including the Tappan Zee Bridge, 2) Newburgh Bay, 3) the reach from Kingston to Saugerties, and 4) the reach from the City of Hudson to the south end of Schodack Island.
About the Layers and Maps - What Benthic Mapper shows about the Hudson River
About the Hudson River Benthic Data - How the data are gathered; information about the data base
Viewer Help - Using the interactive map viewer, its tools, buttons and controls
Why Professionals Value This Information
The Benthic Mapping Project data provides a solid base for management decisions affecting communities and the Hudson River Estuary. Prior to the work of the Benthic Mapping Project the knowledge of the estuary floor was restricted to numerous sediment samples, but without the knowledge of other factors this information could easily be misinterpreted. The knowledge of the sediment profile and contours of the estuary floor along with the water movements above it give a more comprehensive picture. This more complete understanding of can be used in more successful habitat management, sediment and contaminant transport prediction, oil spill response, navigation, preservation or historic resources.
