There’s broad acceptance of the fact that climate change is in the here and now, rather than some distant, or even near, future. If it can’t be avoided, the best defense would be learning to live with it, and plans are emerging for just that coping strategy.
In its 271-page report, the University of Hawaii Community Design Center suggests some mitigations for Oahu’s highly urbanized south shore. These include everything from transit alternatives such as water taxis to promenades that extend over waterways that would reach farther inland.
Much of the document is devoted to reimagining the flood-prone Ala Wai Canal zone, in ways that don’t quite mesh with planning done so far. For example, the UH blueprint would have the Waikiki district revert, at least partially, to its original marshy form, with the existing golf course transforming into wetlands.
This contrasts starkly with the hardened barriers, such as a floodwall along the canal, that have been proposed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Anticipating sea-level rise and other effects of climate change, such as the increasing intensity and frequency of storms, is now in the mainstream for Hawaii planners. This is further heightened by the policy positioning of the Biden administration, which has just rolled out an infrastructure wishlist funding climate-oriented improvements.
Attention is being paid to the impacts of seawalls on shoreline erosion patterns, and to the critical need for relocating substantial stretches of coastal roads inland.
These are pressures keenly felt along the Windward Coast — and in Makaha, residents have pressed for moving Farrington Highway away from the beach, rather than the temporary fix of replacing two existing bridges near the shore.
Meanwhile, state legislators have advanced measures such as Senate Concurrent Resolution 44, which would declare a “climate emergency” and urge state agencies to facilitate investments aimed at reducing carbon emissions, as part of mobilization for other climate goals. These aims seem almost an afterthought at this stage, but reinforcing resolve certainly can’t hurt.
And surely it’s clear that solutions will have to include out-of-the-box thinking, such as UH has proposed. It’s time to envision a Hawaii that no longer fights off its watery environment, but embraces it.
