<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /></head><body style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif'>
<p>That old chestnut again...</p>
<p>There seems to be an open discussion about how far up a river the natural=coastline should go. The wiki suggests the coastline should be the high water line going up to the tidal limit (often a lock or a wier) but this can be a substantial distance inland. This is AIUI the general scientific approach.</p>
<p>There has been some discussion in the past about letting the coastline cut across the river at some convenient point, possibly because it "looks better" or "seems more natural" or "is less work."</p>
<p>I looked at a few rivers along the south coast to see how they had been tagged and it seems most have the coastline up to the tidal limit. However the coastline around the mouth of the Dart has recently been modified to cut across the mouth, and Salcombe Harbour is also mapped this way.</p>
<p>Is there a consensus for a particular definition of "coastline" in tidal estuaries? Should we try to keep a consistent paradigm, or doesn't it matter?</p>
<p><br /></p>
</body></html>