FACT SHEET: TYPES OF COASTAL SPACE

What are the different types of space in the coastline or beach area?

There are several different parts to the area commonly thought of as the coastline.
- Dry land runs to the high tide line. For some technical and legal purposes this line is calculated as “mean high water springs” – the average line of a spring high tide.
- Sometimes the strip of the dry land right by the high tide line is publicly owned, either by the Crown or a local authority. These strips of publicly owned land are what people mean when they talk about the Queen’s Chain. They are often about 20 metres wide.
- The area between the high and low tide line is called the foreshore.
- Below the low tide line is the seabed.

FIG 1. http://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/0308/b84bd17deb7ec39343eb.jpeg

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