Judy Huynh

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New Jersey Underwater

NJ Underwater county map of New Jersey flood risk and income
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Flood risk to people, public infrastructure and the economy, in every New Jersey town

My roleLed it, from the parcel analysis to the maps, fact sheets and launch

When2025 to July 2026, in three releases

WithA Rebuild team of six or more, Milliman and Rutgers

Scale3.4 million parcels, 18,959 public assets, all 564 towns

NowBacks a $3 billion state bond call for flood protection

01

The question

When a town floods, what does it lose besides houses? The schools, fire stations, hospitals and water plants people depend on, and the property taxes that pay for them. I wanted every New Jerseyan to be able to look up their own town and see it.

I wrote every one of these traps into the project notes, under a line that says they all caused real published errors. The next person who works on how towns are matched should not have to find them the way I did.

02

The hard part

The data to see this already existed, spread across FEMA, state tax records, the Census and a dozen state agencies. None of it was in a form a resident or a mayor could use, and the files did not even spell town names the same way.

It also had to be right at a scale where nobody could check it by hand: 3.4 million parcels and 564 municipalities. Twelve township names repeat in different counties. There are five Washington Townships alone, and a town list keyed on the name gives all five the same numbers.

What brokeTown names were spelled differently across state files, so for months the map placed only 107 of 1,677 buyouts. Now every count must add back to its source total before release.

03

How I ran it

Three releases, each one building on the last, so the work could be used and tested in public while the next part was built.

  1. 2025People and propertyWith Milliman, classified all 3.4 million properties and showed who lives in high flood risk areas and who can afford to move.
  2. 9 April 2026Public assetsMapped 18,959 schools, hospitals, fire stations and more against 2025 and 2050 flood risk, for all 21 counties and eight cities. Led the rollout with a team of six or more: website, press release, newsletter and social media.
  3. June to July 2026Every townRebuilt the city map and fact sheets to know each town by name and county, and expanded them to all 564 municipalities, with a fact sheet for each one that anyone can download.
The Atlantic City fact sheet
One of 564 town fact sheets: Atlantic City

I called a parcel high risk if at least half of it floods, so a sliver of floodplain at the back cannot decide the whole lot.

04

What I built

Two interactive maps, one by county and one by city and town, with address search, plus a fact sheet for every county and municipality with PDF export. The county map carries the parcel-level flood risk and 1,677 Blue Acres buyouts. The city map switches between 2025 and 2050 flood risk, and each town’s map links straight to its fact sheet, like Atlantic City’s.

Explore the county map →
Explore the city and town map →
County fact sheets →
City and town fact sheets →

QGIS · Python/R · Mapbox GL JS · JavaScript · UX/UI Design

I used Rutgers’ New Jersey Design Flood Elevation because it was made for this state and has a 2050 version.

I matched towns on name and county together, because matching on name alone was adding the two Hamilton Townships into one town.

05

What it found

  • Nearly 1 in 4 public assets in New Jersey sit in flood risk areas today. By 2050, more than 1 in 3.
  • Schools see the fastest growth: 196 in flood zones today, 524 by 2050.
  • By 2050, 35 municipalities will have every one of their public assets in flood risk areas, and 155 will have at least half.
  • By 2050, 1.3 million New Jerseyans will live in high flood risk areas. Half are lower income.
  • $435.9 billion in property value and $5.9 billion a year in property tax revenue are at risk by 2050.
The city and town map, Newark
The city and town map, Newark

06

Where it went next

More work