Sea Levels and Coastal Boundaries

Authoritative reference on the many laws, regulations, and guidelines related to public and private water boundaries

Sea Levels and Coastal Boundaries is a comprehensive resource for making critical decisions regarding the issue of coastal boundaries, planning, and regulation amidst climate change and rising sea levels, providing guidance in understanding of how sea level is changing, how society has defined the boundaries between public waters and bordering uplands as well as national offshore boundaries, and how such boundaries are defined and located. This book defines boundaries in public trust tidal waters, non-tidal waters, and boundaries for riparian and littoral rights and describes practices for determining boundaries where shorelines have been altered due to sea level change in the short and long term.

Included case law examples and exhibits cover complex legal issues such as navigability, riparian rights, and interstate compact agreements. The text also contributes to the issues of justice, safeguarding the environment, and related topics by providing clarity on the protection of public domain waters as well as private property rights.

Written by a leading surveying expert with decades of experience in the field of riparian and littoral boundaries, Sea Levels and Coastal Boundaries includes information on:

• High and low water marks, tidal boundaries, and the legal status of artificial water bodies such as reservoirs and canals
• Waters in the public trust, covering their general criteria, navigability-in-fact versus navigability-in-law, and non-navigable coves and tributaries
• Boundary definitions of public trust tidal waters in various jurisdictions, covering Anglo-American Common Law, North-Atlantic Low Water States, and Civil Law
• U.S. national and state maritime boundaries, covering boundaries including bays, entrance points (headlands), and obstructed entrances

Sea Levels and Coastal Boundaries is an essential reference for attorneys, surveyors, engineers, coastal planners, oceanographers, land developers, and others dealing with coastal or riparian lands or sea levels in their respective careers, as well as students in related programs of study.