New York-New Jersey metropolitan region is an immense natural area of world-class importance – and the world's leading metropolitan area as well as the most densely settled corner of North American continent. But until now this astonishing natural treasure – which survives and thrives even after 400 years of phenomenal economic growth – has not even had a name.

Now it has both a name and a book!

Announcing the publication of RegionBuilder's first project: H2O: Highlands to Ocean – A First Look at the Landscapes and Waterscapes of the New York /New Jersey Metropolitan Area

H2O: Highlands to Ocean, serves as an introduction to the “State of the H2O Region,” the young, post-glacial, water-sculpted landscapes and waterscapes – mountains, wetlands, and estuaries – that lie between the Highlands and the Atlantic Ocean. H2O presents 14 spectacular and outstanding landscapes that anchor the H2O Region, and reports on 14 "regional indicators" that range from peregrine falcons and striped bass to sprawl and global climate change.

H2O, as the book’s foreword proclaims, is a "clarion call" that also expresses an "infectious optimism for the future." H2O clearly shows that the area's open land and water, even where threatened, is still so extensive and magnificent that anyone living anywhere within the H2O Region, whether in a city high-rise or a mountaintop cabin, has two addresses – a street address and a place in this larger landscape.

Welcome to the H2O Region and to H2O: Highlands to Ocean.