A boardwalk (board walk, boarded path, promenade) is a constructed pedestrian walkway, often alongside a beach, as walking paths through a park, or in some other tourist area built with wood boards. They can be built over bogs and wetlands and above fragile ecosystems, usually to protect nature. They are frequently found in close proximity to piers.
Boardwalks along intertidal zones are known as foreshoreways in Australia. A boardwalk along a river is often known as a riverwalk and a boardwalk along an oceanfront is often known as an oceanway. Aside from their obvious pedestrian usage, boardwalks have been used to create commercial districts and enable commerce along waterfronts where conventional streets would have been more expensive because of a beach or other waterfront feature