Hapua is a river-mouth lagoon on a mixed sand and gravel beach, formed at the river-coast interface where a typically braided, although sometimes meandering, river interacts with a coastal environment that is significantly affected by longshore drift.
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Hapua are often located on paraglacial coastal areas where there is a low level of coastal development and minimal population density.
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Hapua are defined as a narrow shore-parallel extensions of the coastal riverbed.
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Hapua systems are driven by a wide range of dynamic processes that are generally classified as fluvial or marine; changes in the balance between these processes as well as the antecedent barrier conditions can cause shifts in the morphology of the hapua, in particular the barrier.
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Hapua have been identified as establishing in the Canterbury Bight coastal region on the east coast of the South Island.
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Hapua are associated with MSG beaches as the variation in sediment size allows for the barrier to be permeable.
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Hapua are located in areas dominated by longshore drift; because it aids the formation of the barrier behind which the hapua is sited.
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Hapua have a number of characteristics which includes shifts between a variety of morphodynamic states due to changes in the balance between marine and fluvial processes as well as the antecedent barrier conditions.
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Hapua are non-estuarine, there is no tidal inflow however the tide does have an effect on the level of water in the lagoon.
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Hapua located at the mouth of the Rakaia River stretches approximately three kilometres north from where the river-mouth reaches the coast.
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