Water Boundaries

A comprehensive guide to all legal and technical aspects of water boundaries.

Water Boundaries is a single-source guide to all critical legal and technical water boundary issues. An indispensable resource for surveyors, political geographers, public land managers, attorneys, developers, real estate professionals, and students in these and other related fields, this book provides:

• In-depth discussions of the legal issues surrounding all types of water boundaries
• The full range of modern methods of precise water boundary location
• Detailed technical specifications for mean high water line surveys
• Relevant algorithms and mathematical formulas
• Illustrative real-world case studies.

Water boundaries are perhaps the oldest and most widely used of man's boundaries. Yet, despite this long history of usage, water boundaries are probably the most frequently and bitterly contested boundaries in today's society. Because shorelines and bodies of water are dynamic rather than static, knotty technical and legal disagreements over water boundaries invariably crop up. Recent land use practices have created a growing demand for precisely located and legally defensible water boundaries. As a consequence, the need for a single-source professional reference such as this has never been greater.

Water Boundaries is a comprehensive reference devoted exclusively to this highly specialized area. Written for surveyors and engineers, as well as legal and real estate professionals, it provides in-depth discussions of the legal issues surrounding each type of water boundary while describing the full range of modern methods for precisely locating them.

This volume covers all types of water boundaries, including division lines between private uplands and public submerged lands in both tidal and nontidal waters, lateral division lines between adjacent riparian ownerships, boundaries between state and federal waters, and offshore international boundaries.

For technical specialists, the author provides detailed specifications for mean high water line surveys, as well as all relevant mathematics, including formulas for calculating tidal data and predicting optimum placement of tide gauges, analytical techniques for estimating high water in nontidal bodies of water, and the use of coordinate geometry in constructing equidistant and median lines.

Technical and nontechnical readers alike will appreciate the many illustrative real-world case studies scattered throughout the book.

Water Boundaries is an indispensable resource for surveyors, public land managers, attorneys, developers, and real estate professionals, and for all those involved in land planning, offshore mineral extraction, and other related fields.

GEORGE M. COLE is a registered land surveyor and civil engineer, specializing in riparian and maritime boundaries and geodesy. Mr. Cole was first exposed to water boundaries while serving as an officer of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. He subsequently served as the Florida State Cadastral Surveyor and as owner/manager of a surveying and engineering consulting firm specializing in water boundaries. Currently, he coordinates consultant contracting for the Florida Department of Transportation. Mr. Cole received a BS from Tulane University and an MS from Florida State University. A prolific writer, he is the author of several surveying texts, and his numerous articles have appeared in both professional journals and law reviews.