Despite development, channelization, dredging, capping, and filling, the defining characteristic of a tideflat–its unusual extreme flatness–persists. By ascending a mere 30 vertical feet up an observation tower, pedestrians reach a sweeping, panoramic view of the entire 6 square miles of the Tideflats. Although the tides no longer perform the historic horizontal movement they made before the flats were converted to deep shipping channels raised on piers, they still leave traces on rocks, piers, riprap, docks, and coastal inlets.
Characteristic: flatness
“True flatness is only achieved in the wild. Tidal flats can achieve .05% slope, versus the urban definition of flat, which is exaggerated forty-fold.”
-Keller and Brown, “Intertidal Urbanism”