On the utility of mean higher high water and mean lower low water datums for Texas inland coastal waters

Tidal datums have been deemed to serve many important purposes. Maritime boundaries, dredging sites, navigation, and some building codes are dependent upon tidal datums. We explore the efficacy of the Mean Higher High Water and Mean Lower Low Water tidal datums in Texas. Here, we question the use of such datums because datums based upon arithmetic averages grossly under(over)-estimate the actual reach of the water and dampen the dominant control of the longterm periodicity in Texas coastal waters.