Waikiki has little room for a beach.

Seawalls built along nearly the entire length of Waikiki — some legal, some not, some falling apart — have hastened the erosion of sand while protecting the hotels and other structures behind them. King tides and relentlessly rising sea levels exacerbate the problem.

If nothing is done, experts warn, Waikiki will lose the beaches that attract millions of tourists and brought in $2.2 billion in (pre-pandemic) visitor spending annually. So it’s only fitting that the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) has embarked on a new plan to beat back the forces of nature and a century of ineffective planning to save those sandy, lucrative shores.

This week it took public testimony on plans to improve and maintain Fort DeRussy Beach, Halekulani Beach, Royal Hawaiian Beach and Kuhio Beach — four of the eight beach sectors identified in DLNR’s Environmental Impact Statement Preparation Notice (EISPN).

It’s the latest in a long line of government attempts, going back to the early 1900s, to solve this intractable problem. In 1917, seawalls along the shoreline were banned, a prohibition that was widely ignored. Groins and similar structures were installed to rebuild the beach. Restrictions on construction along the beach were proposed. Over the course of 50 years, starting in about 1930, an estimated 400,000 cubic yards of sand was placed on Waikiki Beach.

More recently, the famous shoreline has seen a new groin fronting the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and a sandbag project at Kuhio Beach. Other projects and planning are continuing.

While conventional wisdom calls for removing seawalls and allowing beaches to migrate inland, tearing down hotels along Waikiki Beach is not a practical option — even if, as climate scientists warn, it could be the inevitable one. The solutions here will require engineering.

You still can offer your suggestions on how to approach the problem by reviewing the EISPN (downloadable at 808ne.ws/waikikibeach) and sending written comments to Andy Bohlander of Sea Engineering at abohlander@seaengineering.com. The deadline is Friday.

The comments will help develop the as-yet-preliminary concepts in the EISPN, so this would be a good time for the public to weigh in. After all, while the project will benefit the tourist trade, Waikiki’s beaches — past, present and future — still belong to all of us.