ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION 


UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHE' BETWEEN LANDSCAPE FEATURES 
ON hRJNICIPALLY-MANAGED DUNES AND RESIDENTIAL PRIVATE LOTS ON 
AN URBAN SHORELME: NEW JERSEY. 


By WENDY A. hUTTEAGER 


Dissertation Director: 
Karl Nordstrom 


As population pressures increase on ocean shores, it is important to restore the images of nature and their acceptance to tourists and the local community. The focus of scientific research on restoration of beaches and dunes in developed areas has centered on municipally-managed zones while adjacent private lots have received little attention. Private shorefront residential lots in an urban coastal setting are managed according to homeowners' preferences. Suburban ideas of landscaping are commonly utilized, creating lots with flat, grecn lawns and trimmed shrubs and hedges. Lawns eliminate diversity of topography and vegetation and require more maintenance than natural vegetation. Cultural features such as boardwalks, troughs, and property demarcation lines, disrupt the cross-shore environmental gradient and provide a non-natural image of the coast. 

Municipalities in New Jersey manage the beach and dune environment many different ways, creating a longshore texture that is inconsistent in appearance and function with a naturally functioning shore. A landscape analysis is performed to identify the relationship between dunes on municipally-managed beaches and the adjacent 

residential lots using field data collected on 364 lots and video data collected on 1364 lots. 

Dunes on private lots usually are lower, less mobile, and have different vegetation than would occur on natural shores at similar distances from the ocean. Landscaping alternatives to a suburban yard are described, and target states representing more natural restoration options are identified along three segments of the New Jersey shore. Residential lots considered compatible with restoration goals for developed shores have natural landscaping, dunes, and vegetation that provides a visual buffer to suburban features. The target states for residential lots range in their landscaping techniques because alternatives must be suggested that fall along a continuum between fully developed and natural.