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and tidal constituents. This chapter aims to produce the tidal lines and littoral zone
for use in marine cadastre procedures and practices. Based on the analysis, it can
be concluded that the LAT is consistent and can potentially be used for marine
cadastre reference level in order to improve the effectiveness of implementing the
marine cadastre.
1 Introduction
The littoral zone is the region that lies between the lines of high tide and low tide.
The physical location of the coastline is commonly referred to as the line of
intersection between a specified tidal datum and the terrain. The exact tidal datum
used for this purpose will lead to a different realization of the coastline (Quadros
and Collier
2008b
). Marine cadastre is an administration system with a 3D marine
parcel administration controlled by legal and systematic technical arrangement of
marine parcel right, restriction and responsibility elements for marine space
activities covering marine natural resources, marine industry, tourism and national
sea park, and wild life conservation (Ashraf et al.
2013
).
Mean Sea Level (MSL) is normally used as a reference level for various land
development applications while a low water level is applied as the reference level.
The vertical datum used as a reference level in the marine environment is called
chart datum. A chart datum is usually related to the mean of low ocean surfaces,
such as Mean Lower Low Water Spring (MLLWS), Mean Lower Low Water
(MLLW), Mean Low Water (MLW), Low Water (LW), Mean Low Water Spring
(MLWS) or Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT) and not all countries in the world is
using the same level as chart datum for their marine administration.
Malaysia is a federal state with marine jurisdiction and management respon-
sibility split between the states and the federal government. Following the
Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance, No. 7 1969, now loosened and replaced
by Territorial Water Act 2012, territorial water shall be constructed as a reference
to such part of the sea that is adjacent to control the coast there of not exceeding
three nautical miles measured from low water mark. In this situation, the states
control up to three nautical miles from low water mark whilst the federal gov-
ernment has jurisdiction and management responsibility from the said three nau-
tical miles limit to the outer edge of the EEZ and continental shelf. Through this
specific jurisdiction by United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
(UNCLOS), Malaysia enacted numerous acts related to the sea zone (Ashraf et al.
2011
). According to Malaysia National Land Code, the limit of Land Cadastre
administration is referred to the level of Highest Astronomical Tide (HAT). This
description will create an uncertainty of jurisdiction of space between HAT and to
the shoreline.
Based on the above mentioned acts, the determination of LAT as the reference
level for marine cadastre is crucial. This study is an attempt to present the tidal
