By Staff Reports
(Kaua’i)– The University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program (Hawai‘i Sea Grant), UH Mānoa Department of Urban and Regional Planning (DURP), and the County of Kaua‘i Planning Department (Kaua‘i County) are partnering to launch the West Kaua’i Community Vulnerability Assessment (WKCVA). Anyone who lives or works on the west side is encouraged to participate.
This project will use a community-based process to assess West Kaua‘i’s vulnerability to hazards such as sea-level rise, and explore and identify potential solutions.
Community members are intimately familiar with the areas where they live, work and play, and have witnessed the changes that have occurred over time. To ensure this critical information is included in the community plans that are being developed, Hawai‘i Sea Grant, DURP, and Kaua‘i County are organizing a kickoff meeting on July 31at the historic Waimea Theater.
Dr. Daniele Spirandelli, coastal sustainability faculty with Hawai‘i Sea Grant and assistant professor at DURP who is leading the project, noted “some of the potential impacts from future sea-level rise raise serious concerns, but the solutions are not impossible, and the time to plan is now.”
Dr. Makena Coffman, director of the Institute of Sustainability and Resilience at UH Mānoa, said “Kaua‘i has been a leader in proactively addressing climate change and coastal development setbacks in Hawai‘i, and there is much more to do. This is an exciting opportunity to engage in collective decision-making on how to reduce community vulnerability to a rapidly changing environment.”
At this event there will be a free screening of “Miss South Pacific: Beauty and the Sea,” a documentary which focuses on the Miss South Pacific pageant and the impacts of climate change on the contestants’ islands. The film is produced by Kaua‘i producer Teresa Tico. Free movie snack packs (hot dog, popcorn, drink) will be given away, and climate experts from Hawai‘i Sea Grant will be on hand to answer any questions.
After the kickoff meeting a series of community meetings and field trips will be organized for the west Kaua‘i community to share the latest scientific data and climate projections and gather input from the community. While the state of Hawai‘i is generating important information on hazards associated with climate change, the deep, longstanding understanding of these changes is the piece that is often missing.