Prepared through Variation 1 to the BOP RPS in order to give effect to requirements of NZCPS2010. The Environment Bay of Plenty Regional Council is required under the Resource Management Act and the National Coastal Policy Statement, to define the landward edge of the coastal environment and the areas of high natural character within that environment.The base datasets used in this project were of varying accuracies and from a variety of sources, including the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, relevant Local Authorities, Government agencies and Boffa Miskell internal resources. Detailed information on the datasets obtained is included in the appendices. On evaluation of the spatial accuracies of the data available, the mapping scale chosen to undertake this project was 1:50,000. This scale is sufficient for a regional project, how the resulting lines depicting the Zone of Coastal Dominance and Zone of Coastal Influence should not be used at scales below this i.e. at property level.The coastal environment has been identified using the following criteria, to include:(a) The coastal marine area and islands within the coastal marine area;(b) Areas where coastal processes, influences or qualities are significant including coastal lakes, lagoon, tidal estuaries, salt marshes, coastal wetlands, and their margins;(c) Areas at risk from coastal hazards(e) Coastal vegetation and the habitat of indigenous coastal species including migratory birds(f) Elements and features that contribute to the natural character, landscape, visual qualities or amenity values;(g) Items of cultural and historic heritage in the coastal marine area or on the coastal;(h) Inter-related coastal marine and terrestrial systems, including the intertidal zone; and(i) Physical resources and built facilities, including infrastructure, that have modified the coastal environment.