Bulkhead line is an officially set line along a

shoreline A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

, usually beyond the dry land, to demark a territory allowable to be treated as dry land, to separate the jurisdictions of dry land and water authorities, for construction and

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripar ...

activities, to establish limits to the allowable obstructions to

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the motion, movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navig ...

and other waterfront uses. In particular, it may limit the construction of piers in the absence of an official pierhead line. Various jurisdictions may define it in different ways. A formal definition may read as follows: ''A geographic line along a reach of navigable water that has been adopted by a municipal ordinance and approved by the

Department of Natural Resources This article lists subnational environmental agencies in the United States, by state. Agencies that are responsible for state-level regulating, monitoring, managing, and protecting environmental and public health concerns. The exact duties of ...

, and which allows limited filling between this bulkhead line and the original ordinary high water mark, except where such filling is prohibited by the floodway provisions.''18.10 DEFINITIONS.
from the municipal code of

Wittenberg Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is the fourth-largest town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. It is situated on the River Elbe, north of Leipzig and south-west of the reunified German ...

, Wisconsin(Several municipalities in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

use wording closely approximating this sample.)

References

Coastal geography {{Hydrology-stub