Pacific Islands Climate Outlook Forum focuses on strong El Niño event and regional impacts to the freshwater sector
The Pacific RISA participated in the first session of the Pacific Islands Climate Outlook Forum (PICOF-1) that was held from October 12-16, 2015 in Suva, Fiji, with a special focus on the water resources management sectors of the Pacific islands region. Co-sponsored by the Secretariat of Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), NOAA, and more, the PICOF was hosted by the University of the South Pacific in Suva to bring together national, regional, and international experts on climate services and the water management sector.
Special focus was on what has now been classified as a “strong” El Niño event for the remainder of 2015 and into 2016, which is anticipated to bring drought and shifting sea levels throughout much of the Pacific islands region. Some of the main impacts are:
Frequency of tropical cyclones is above normal. Islands in Micronesia in particular will have a one in three likelihood of experiencing high winds, large waves, and/or extreme rain due to a typhoon.
Below normal rainfall is anticipated, with drought persistence and expansion to continue into next year
Sea levels in the western Pacific will be below or well below normal, and may even continue to fall in the coming weeks
Higher than normal sea surface temperatures and coral bleaching events are widely reported, and low sea levels further increase coral bleaching
Innovative tools for Water Supply Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) a priority for Fiji schools
Pacific island nations are among the most vulnerable to a changing climate as threatened natural resources, like water, are increasingly linked to social and economic development. Climate impacts on fragile freshwater resources, such as extended drier seasons and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, are just some of the exacerbated risks the Pacific is facing, in addition to achieving its own aspirations toward sustainable livelihoods and development. In 2013 the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) through the regional office for Asia and the Pacific office released a report highlighting the gap between the Pacific and the East Asia region in comparison to the world in the provision of basic water and sanitation. The 2013 report underscores the need for Pacific island nations and leaders to prioritize efforts to improve water resources and their sustainable management.
Source: Snapshots; A snapshot of Water and Sanitation in the Pacific 2013 Sub regional analysis and update, UNICEF
As the lead UN agency in the Pacific tasked with the rights of children, UNICEF Pacific in collaboration with Fijian Teachers Association (FTA) have embarked on a pilot initiative that will apply the Three Star Approach, a framework for improved hygiene behavior in water and sanitation in schools. The initiative will help practitioners and educators understand some of the key links between water and health for schools in Fiji. Water Supply Sanitation and Hygiene, commonly known as WASH, is a pressing issue for schools across the Pacific as changing climate conditions impact the availability, quality and quantity of water for sanitation and drinking. In schools where water and sanitation services are lacking, at-risk behavior such as open defecation and poor hygiene are critical factors in water and health.
The situation in Fiji is indicative of the disparity in access to water and sanitation across select countries in the Pacific, many of whom lack accurate and timely data. Using the Three Star Approach, the WASH in-Schools (WinS) Fiji program will look at positive behavior change by 1) ranking schools according to regimented hygiene behavior, 2) supporting sustainable actions for good hygiene, and 3) using schools and communities as change agents. Key to the approach is a clear understanding of the benefits and causal pathways for schools, students, teachers, and communities to think differently about water and health. Cross cutting issues such as the use of schools as disaster evacuation centers are important to the findings of this initiative as most primary school facilities in Fiji are used as evacuation centers during a state of emergency.
Source: UNICEF Pacific, School students in one of fifteen pilot schools as part of the WinS initiative using tap stands to wash hands before lunch.
The initial groundwork will involve working closely with stakeholders to generate collaborative learning experiences for schools, communities, state, and non-state actors and partners involved. In undertaking the data collection for the WinS initiative, UNICEF Pacific has also employed the use of mobile phones using Akvo; a unique data collection and online monitoring tool to collect and display real-time data about water and sanitation in schools. Through applications like Akvo-FLOW, the WinS work has completed its baseline survey of pilot schools and will commence program implementation from February to August, 2015. The collection of real time data through the use of mobile platforms such as tablets, and mobile devices will allow for rapid data gathering and display of key results. It is hoped that this will drastically improve the planning and implementation of the WinS approach through available and transparent data collection and sharing. The results and key findings are expected to be released by late 2015, and it is hoped that the pilot initiative will lead to nationwide action in Fiji on WinS and eventually the Pacific.
For further information contact:
Marc Overmars, UNICEF WASH Specialist
UNICEF Pacific Suva, Fiji Islands
email: movermars@unicef.org
Preliminary information and data on the WinS initiative is available online: http://unicefpacific.akvoapp.org/project/2752/
Local knowledge of climate and winds contributes to building of a Visitor Center at Puʿukohola Heiau National Historic Site
Na makani paio lua o Kawaihae.
The two conflicting winds of Kawaihae: the mumuku wind from the uplands, and the naulu wind, which brings the rains to Kawaihae (Pukui 1983)
Puʿukohola, or Hill of the Humpbacked Whale, is a historic site on the Kona-Kohala coast overlooking Kawaihae Bay on the Big Island of Hawaiʿi. The park, which attracts over 270,000 visitors per year (Ben Saldua, pers. comm., 1/8/14), is made up of Puʿukohola Heiau (temple); smaller and older Mailekini Heiau, which was later converted into a fort; the ruins of submerged Hale-o-Kapuni Heiau, which was believed to be dedicated to the worship of sharks; the John Young Homestead; and the central courtyard or Pelekane. Because of its historical and cultural importance, Puʿukohola Heiau and the surrounding area was designated a National Historic Site in 1972, under the administration of the National Park Service (NPS). The heiau is considered a highly significant cultural site because it is the only structure in the archipelago that is directly linked to the unification of the Hawaiian Islands and the founding of the Hawaiian Kingdom under Kamehameha the Great in the early nineteenth century (Greene 1993; NPS 2004).
Project goals: to provide a modern, structurally-sound, long-term visitor’s facility at Puʿukohola Heiau National Historic Site that would improve the cultural and historic landscape for local community members and practitioners while taking into account the local climate and mumuku winds
One of the key aspects of the project was an in-depth value analysis process that included broad stakeholder engagement with a number of groups and agencies representing the state and local community and Native Hawaiian interests
Variables which were considered included visitor satisfaction, cultural resources, local archaeology, cost, and cultural and physical landscape including the local mumuku winds
Climate issues were one of the key drivers throughout the process and the local winds were taken into consideration for practically every decision – this example of community engagement and local climate knowledge illustrates how climate information is used in everyday decision-making
Figure 1: Pu’ukohala Visitor Center (foreground) and heiau, Kawaihae Bay, Hawai’i. Photo by Laura Brewington.
In 2002, the NPS began planning a complete renovation of the Visitor Center and administrative offices located at Puʿukohola Heiau National Historic Site. In addition to providing a modern, structurally-sound, long-term facility from which visitors could access the Puʿukohola site, the main goal of the project was to improve the cultural and historic landscape for local community members and Native Hawaiian practitioners, who continue to use the heiau and surrounding area for regular events and ceremonies. The site planning and design included extensive stakeholder and partner engagement during all stages of the process. Developers also had to take local climate information into account, particularly regarding the mumuku winds, or enhanced trade winds, which are a constant force in the area (Schroeder 1981). Through extensive stakeholder and partner engagement, the building was specifically designed in order to best combat these strong and consistent winds. The new Visitor Center was opened to the public in 2007. The project was considered to be a success by the Park Service, visitors, and local community members, largely because of the utilization of local cultural and climatological knowledge in the planning and design, as well as the extensive community engagement process.
Regular trade winds are a key feature of the climate in the Hawaiian Islands. The trade winds, which typically flow from the northeast to the southwest, are a result of the larger regional Walker Circulation, in which easterly winds near the ocean surface in the eastern Pacific push air and water toward the west into Indonesia, where moisture is removed from the air through rainfall before the air rises to a higher altitude and circles back to the east, where the cycle begins again (Newman 2013). In Hawaiʿi, the trade winds hit the northeastern or windward sides of the islands and cause rainfall, resulting in the lush and green windward sides, and corresponding drier leeward sides of the islands. In addition to providing natural cooling for local homes, the trade winds are the primary source of rainfall in the state, and help maintain the islands’ vital water supply. However, a recent study showed that Hawaiʿi’s trade winds have decreased in frequency by approximately thirty percent over the past 37 years, from 291 days per year in 1973 to 210 days per year in 2009 (Garza et al. 2012). This trend may be caused by changes in the subtropical high-pressure ridge located to the northeast of the archipelago, a large-scale atmospheric phenomenon that governs Hawaiʿi’s prevailing trade winds (Garza et al. 2012), which could possibly be related to global climate change (Associated Press 2013). The decrease in the trade winds could have serious implications for the Hawaiian Islands, including negatively impacting local agriculture, harming native ecosystems and endangered species, and reducing the state’s limited freshwater supply. In a delicate environment such as the Kawaihae region on the Big Island, where Puʿukohola Heiau is located in one of the driest areas in the state (Cunningham 2009), a change in the trade winds could have far-reaching effects on the local environment.
Figure 2: Clouds provide evidence of the trade winds blowing across Waimea and Mauna Kea from the left, where they encounter naulu winds rising above the leeward Kohala coast, at right. Photo by RDK Herman, Pacific Worlds.
Mason Architects, a Honolulu-based architectural firm that has worked with the NPS since 1998 on numerous construction projects throughout the Islands, was contracted to design and build the new Visitor Center. According to Glenn Mason, President of Mason Architects, one of the main physical drivers of the design of the new Visitor Center was the local mumuku winds. The Kawaihae region of the Big Island has been known for centuries for these strong, steady winds that flow from the uplands to the sea, and clash with the naulu, or sudden shower, winds that flow from the sea to the land and occasionally bring rain (Leopold 1949; NPS 2012; Businger et al. 2012). The land-to-sea mumuku winds are a local extension of the regional trade winds that hit Hawaiʿi Island from the northeast and gain intensity over the island’s central saddle before reaching the Kona-Kohala coast, while the sea-to-land naulu winds are caused by convection, in which heated air flows upslope off the water in the form of a sea breeze (Schroeder 1981; Businger et al. 2012). The naulu winds can occasionally bring rain to the dry region, but more often the strong mumuku winds push back the incoming sea breeze, and the rain will fall just offshore, if it falls at all (Leopold 1949; Schroeder 1981). Puʿukohola Historic Site Superintendent Daniel Kawaiaea, Jr., who was born and raised on Hawaiʿi Island and has spent more than 30 years working on the Puʿukohola site, contributed his vast knowledge of and experience with the local winds and climate to the design of the new Visitor Center. Under the advice of Kawaiaea and his colleagues, Mason Architects designed the building with its side turned to the mumuku winds, which allowed the large front doors to open completely to the heiau and also block the continuously strong winds with a wall. Mason explained, “We wanted it to feel like a pavilion – when you were in it the building disappears and you have a big opening to the heiau, which is the whole point, and the building wouldn’t get in the way of what you were there to look at” (Glenn Mason, pers. comm., 3/8/13).
Figure 3: The land-to-sea mumuku winds travel to the southwest, from Waimea to the Kona-Kohala coast below Kawaihae (Photo by RDK Herman, Pacific Worlds).
In addition to implementing local climate knowledge in the building design, one of the key aspects of the new Visitor Center project was its commitment to broad stakeholder engagement, in which local partner organizations and community members, including representatives of native Hawaiian organizations, were included in key aspects of the planning process. Informal planning began in 2001, when an interpretive planning workshop was conducted at the park to provide direction for facility and interpretive media planning and design (NPS 2004: 3-9). In 2002 a more in-depth value analysis process was undertaken. A number of groups and agencies representing state and local community and Native Hawaiian interests were involved, including the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), Na Aikane o Puʿu Kohola Heiau – Friends of Puʿu Kohola Heiau National Historic Site, the Waimea Hawaiian Civic Club, and the group Na Papa Kanaka o Puʿu Kohola, which has held an annual commemorative ceremony at the heiau every August since 1991.
The value analysis process is a formal, facilitated method of identifying all the possible alternatives, priorities, and concerns in a development project, and weighing the advantages of each, in order to make “a good decision which could be defensible and documented” (Daniel Kawaiaea, pers. comm., 2/27/13). Variables which were considered included visitor satisfaction, cultural resources, local archaeology, cost, cultural and physical landscape including the local mumuku winds, and many others. Because of the importance of the partner and stakeholder engagement process to the NPS, the design and planning of the new Visitor Center was inherently flexible. In fact, Glenn Mason described how a model of the new building had already been created at the very beginning of the project, but after the key priorities and needs were identified through the value analysis process the entire initial design was scrapped and redone, even though the project was already completely budgeted. In Mason’s original concept the Visitor Center was totally open to the air, but in reality the mumuku winds were far too strong and the building would have been unusable, so a late design change was made to open only the front of the building to the heiau, and block the winds with a flat wall. In addition, the impact of the new structure on continued community use of the heiau was considered in the value analysis process. The original planning for the building began from a point selected because it would provide the best views of Pu’ukohola Heiau for visitors. However, the involvement with the community partners later moved the actual site further to the south by about 100 yards, primarily to reduce the visual impact this new facility would have from the perspective of practitioners located within the heiau looking out. The roof alignment, distinctive curved roof design, and use of local stone building materials also aided to minimize this visual impact as well (Daniel Kawaiaea, pers. comm., 2/27/13).
Figure 4: The Visitor Center at Pu’ukohala Heiau National Historic Site looking over Kawaihae Bay. Photo by Mason Architects.
Although many factors had to be taken into account during the design and planning of the new Visitor Center, climate issues were one of the key drivers throughout the process, and information about the local winds was taken into account for practically every decision. NPS representatives like Kawaiaea, local community participants, and others who were familiar with all aspects of the site and the influence of the mumuku winds contributed their decades of experiential data as part of the stakeholder engagement process. According to Mason, “If that had not occurred, we would have had to deal with taking a lot of measurements, or have been quite surprised at the end. But as it was, we were not surprised by things that happened” (Glenn Mason, pers. comm., 3/8/13). This example of community engagement and local climate knowledge illustrates how people make decisions including climate and weather variables all the time, even when not explicitly making decisions about climate. Although climate issues can be controversial and difficult to discuss, participatory engagement methods like the NPS value analysis process can help lead to outcomes that are acceptable, agreed-upon, and community-owned, despite the difficulty of the topic. Kawaiaea stated that stakeholder feedback regarding the community engagement process, as well as the end result, was overwhelmingly positive, since the final design was based on the decisions all participants agreed upon in the meetings.
The Puʿukohola Heiau Visitor Center development project is an excellent example of the importance of community engagement, as well as the successful utilization of local climatological and cultural knowledge in decision-making. The site presented a number of unique challenges – the local mumuku winds and the continued usage of the site by the local and Native Hawaiian communities – but through the NPS commitment to stakeholder engagement, as well as Mason Architects’ trust in incorporating local climate knowledge and experience into their design, those challenges were successfully overcome.
Puʿukohola Heiau, completed in 1971 for Kamehameha I. Photo by Laura Brewington.
E naʿi wale no ʿoukou i koʿu pono, ʿaʿole e pau.
You can seek out all the benefits I have produced and find them without number. – Kamehameha I
Puʿukohola Heiau is a nationally significant site because of its association with both the life of King Kamehameha I, and the political unification of the Hawaiian Islands. Kamehameha I, or Kamehameha the Great, was the first leader in history to unite the entire Hawaiian archipelago.(Pukui 1983)
Kamehameha I, the son of a high chief and a princess, was born on Hawaiʿi Island around 1758 under a prophecy predicting the coming of a powerful leader. By 1790, Kamehameha had inherited land in northern Hawaiʿi Island and gained custody of his family’s war god, Kukaʿilimoku. He had also invaded and conquered Maui, Lanaʿi, and Molokaʿi, but he had trouble conquering all of his home island of Hawaiʿi because of the opposition of his cousin and chief rival, Keoua Kuahuʿula. For guidance, Kamehameha consulted the kahuna (elder or prophet) Kapoukahi. The kahuna prophesized that Kamehameha would unite and rule the islands if he built a large heiau dedicated to the war god Ku on top of Puʿukohola, or the Hill of the Humpbacked Whale.
The heiau was completed in 1791. Kamehameha invited his rival cousin, Keoua Kuahuʿula, to the dedication ceremony. At the ceremony, a fight occurred and Keoua and many of his companions were killed. Because Puʿukohola Heiau is a luakini, or human sacrifice heiau, Keoua’s body was offered as a sacrifice to the war god Ku. This event ended all opposition to Kamehameha on Hawaiʿi Island, and, as prophesized, led to the eventual consolidation of his rule across the entire archipelago and the creation of a unified Hawaiian kingdom and nation for the first time in history. Puʿukohola is the only heiau in the archipelago associated with this significant time period in the history of the Hawaiian Islands, and therefore continues to be a highly important cultural and historical site (Greene 1993).
Businger, S., S. daSilva, K. Stone, I. Ellinwood, and P.W.U. Chinn (2012) Local winds and rains of Hawaiʻi: I Kamaʻāina I Nā Makani A Me Nā Ua. Kahua A‘o. A Learning Foundation. University of Hawaiʿi.
Cunningham, G. (2009) Newsletter of the Pacific Island Network. July – September 2009:17.
Garza, J.A., P.-S. Chu, C.W. Norton, and T.A. Schroeder (2012) Changes of the prevailing trade winds over the islands of Hawaiʿi and the North Pacific. Journal of Geophysical Research, 117, D11109, doi:10.1029/2011JD016888.
Greene, L.W. (1993) A cultural history of three traditional Hawaiian Sites on the west coast of Hawai’i Island. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Denver Service Center. Retrieved from http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/kona/history.htm
Kawaiaea Jr., D. (Feb. 27, 2013) Personal communication.
Leopold, L.B. (1949) The interaction of trade wind and sea breeze, Hawaiʿi. Journal of Meteorology, 6: 312-320.
National Park Service (2004) Environmental assessment: Reestablishment of the historic scene at Puʿukohola Heiau National Historic Site, Hawaiʿi County, Hawaiʿi. Prepared by Tetra Tech, Inc, for Hawaiʿi County.
Newman, M. (2013) Atmospheric Science: Winds of Change. Nature Climate Change, 3: 538-539.
Pukui, M.K. (1983) ʿŌlelo Noʿeau: Hawaiian proverbs & political Sayings. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication No. 71. Bishop Museum Press: Honolulu, Hawaiʿi.
Saldua, B. (Jan. 8, 2014) Personal communication.
Schroeder, T.A. (1981) Characteristics of local winds in northwest Hawaiʿi. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 20: 874-881.
Pacific RISA Research Fellow Laura Brewington and Project Assistant Krista Jaspers recently attended the “Preserving Freshwater Resources and Minimizing the Impacts of Drought” workshop in Pago Pago, American Samoa. The workshop was held on July 17 and 18, 2014 at the Tauese P.F. Sunia Ocean Center, which houses the visitor’s center for the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is conducting a series of activities to enhance scientific and technical capacity to support climate change adaptation in the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS). These activities include the development and delivery of new or enhanced products and services that focus on climate issues critical to the region and respond to unique user needs. Preserving freshwater resources and minimizing the impacts of drought has been identified as an issue of concern. Read More
Preserving freshwater resources and minimizing the impacts of drought in the Republic of the Marshall Islands
Pacific RISA research assistant Duncan McIntosh recently attended the “Pacific Islands Climate Services Dialog: Preserving Freshwater Resources and Minimizing the Impacts of Drought” workshop which was held 23 to 25 April, 2014 in Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is conducting a series of activities to enhance scientific and technical capacity to support climate change adaptation in the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS). These activities include the development and delivery of new or enhanced products and services that focus on climate issues critical to the region and respond to unique user needs.
The Meeting Plenary, International Conference Center, Majuro, RMI (Credit: Dennis Hwang)
To support RMI decision makers who are preparing for and responding to climate conditions that affect fresh water resources, a team of researchers is gathering relevant resources that may provide early warning and descriptions of potential impacts to the RMI area in one place – a web-based “dashboard” with real-time updating. This effort is a collaboration between Pacific Climate Information System (PaCIS), Pacific RISA, the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center (PICSC), and the Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative (PICCC), with support from USGS, University of Guam, Pacific ENSO Applications Center (PEAC), and NOAA. Product development will focus on the collection and aggregation of information from disparate sources and the tailoring and transformation of that information so that it is specific to sector and locale, and targeted to the nature and timing of decisions. Pacific RISA supported the development of the drought dashboard prior to the workshop by conducting interviews with high-level decision makers in RMI who manage freshwater and community during drought, and compiling the results into a report identifying key characteristics of the stakeholders, their climate-sensitive decisions and information needs, and the broader contextual factors that influenced drought management decisions. A semi-structured interview protocol guided discussions with interviewees to identify their main responsibilities and duties, specify key decisions affected by climate variables, determine current understanding of climate impacts and use of climate information, and identify climate information needs for managing drought and fresh water resources. At the workshop, key findings of the Pacific RISA report were presented to the plenary and utilized as a spring board to initiate discussion of climate stories from the local decision-makers’ perspectives.
Pacific RISA uses a multi-method approach of interviews, workshops, and surveys to characterize what climate information decision makers need.
At the workshop in Majuro, local knowledge was combined with specialist technical advice to identify accurate, timely and regionally-relevant content that helps to preserve fresh water resources and minimize the impacts of drought. As a result of the dialogue, the user community is better informed about the current state of knowledge of climate variability and its impacts, and the provider community is better informed about what problems and questions are most relevant and better able to match products and services to user requirements. Click here to view the workshop proceedings.
Dr. Mark Lander and Duncan McIntosh prepare the table for a community mapping exercise.
Coral loss, water supplies, increased temperatures top Hawai‘i and Pacific Region Concerns in 3rd U.S. National Climate Assessment
HONOLULU (May 6th, 2014) – Among major climate change concerns and challenges already being felt in Hawai‘i and the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands are damage to coral reefs, decreasing freshwater supplies, increasing temperatures and greater stresses on native marine and terrestrial ecosystems, according to the 3rd U.S. National Climate Assessmentreleased by the White House today.
Several authors of the Hawai‘i and Pacific Islands section of the national report discussed the regional concerns in a special briefing this morning at the East-West Center in Honolulu. (Watch video of the briefing.) Read More
Invasive species removal in the Ko‘olau Mountains, Hawai‘i
This November, East-West Center Fellows and Pacific RISA researchers Victoria Keener (third from top right) and Laura Brewington (bottom, right) worked with the Ko‘olau Mountains Watershed Partnership on Oahu Island to remove invasive species and replant endemic kawelu grass at Konahuanui, the highest region of the Ko‘olau mountain range.
In Hawai‘i, freshwater and forest resources are inextricably intertwined. Rainfall and fog drip captured by forests supply surface stream water and groundwater from the ridge to the reef, along natural geographic boundaries. For centuries, native Hawaiians practiced a system of governance and land tenure that was based on fundamental watershed units, known as the ahupua‘a. Abolition of the ahupua‘a system in favor of privately and publicly-owned lands disenfranchised many of the islands’ original inhabitants and facilitated extensive livestock grazing that would denude native forests, directly impacting water supply. By the late 19th century, cattle, goats, and deer had almost totally destroyed large areas of forest on every inhabited island. Alarmed by dwindling water supplies, well-meaning foresters attempted to bring groundcover species from elsewhere in the world that would thrive in the eroded, hardened soils, unintentionally leading to widespread invasion of weeds, insects, and disease. Their efforts were compounded by horticulturists who populated nurseries and botanical gardens with introduced species that outcompete the specialized native Hawaiian flora. It’s not only plants and animals that threaten the islands: introduced invertebrates and diseases, like the rosy wolfsnail (Euglandina rosea, pictured below), have decimated endemic highland species archipelago-wide. Over the past two centuries, entire Hawaiian ecosystems have been replaced by invasive species that are once again putting the islands’ freshwater supply at risk. When plants like strawberry guava (Psidium catleianum) and miconia (Miconia calvescens) invade, they convert the complex forest into a simpler ecosystem structure with little to no water-absorbing understory, while using up to 25% more water than native forest plants.[1]
The rosy wolfsnail is a predatory snail that was introduced intentionally to Hawai‘i to control growing populations of the giant African snail, but also attacked the islands’ endemic tree snails, some to extinction. This shell was found at Konahuanui, in the Ko‘olau Mountains Watershed.
Hawai‘i’s changing climate exacerbates these concerns with declining rainfall, higher rates of evapotranspiration, and average annual temperature increases in the last 30 years – especially at elevations half a mile above sea level and more. Higher elevation ecosystems are already under pressure from development and land use changes that force upward range migrations by native species.[2] Currently only 10% of the watershed areas in Hawai‘i are officially protected, but land owners and members of public and private institutions have formed watershed partnerships, like the one pictured above, to preserve freshwater availability in native forests and facilitate adaptation to climate change. Because of the feedbacks present between climate change, species introductions and spread, and freshwater, the 2010 Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) considers upland forests and watersheds to have the greatest potential to mitigate the effects of regional climate change and promote island resilience. On Maui Island, Pacific RISA continues to coordinate with government agencies, the watershed partnerships, and the Maui Invasive Species Committee (MISC) to assist in mapping and modeling efforts at both the species level – to target areas for restoration; and the ecosystem level – to understand biodiversity patterns under future change scenarios for large-scale planning.
Coastal, social and ecological vulnerability – lessons from the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
During her postdoctoral fellowship with the Center for Galapagos Studies at the University of North Carolina, Pacific RISA Fellow Dr. Laura Brewington conducted field research in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, using a methodology that is relevant to Hawaii and other Pacific islands that are vulnerable to climate change and other factors. Mixed methods were used to assess social and ecological vulnerability of coastal environments, and form the baseline for future change detection.
The oil spill caused by the grounding of the tanker the Jessica in January 2001 led to calls for the creation of a management response network in Galapagos for preparation for coastal hazards. One decade later, the two tsunamis altered the configuration of shorelines areas that are home to burgeoning human populations and nesting grounds for endemic species. To anticipate the scale and impacts of climate change, natural hazards, and human use, novel and transferable vulnerability assessment approaches are required – especially in diverse and fragile island settings. Coastal areas are critical transition zones between land and the open ocean, providing essential ecosystem services like shoreline protection, nutrient cycling, fisheries resources, habitat and food, and regulation of nutrients, water, and organisms.
The coastal village of Puerto Villamil, Isabela Island (population 2,500)
Our pilot project in 2013 created a database of linked spatial, social, and environmental indicators of vulnerability for the Galapagos coastline. First we assigned values from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high) to a set of eight vulnerability criteria for 13 focal areas in the archipelago. We chose four local factors (land use, land cover, remoteness, human use intensity) and four external factors (orientation, connectivity, topography, and geomorphology). Criteria were evaluated using a combination of qualitative and quantitative measures, including shoreline surveys, three-dimensional terrain scanning, land cover interpretation using aerial photography, and sediment sampling. To address gaps in the available data and to obtain historical information on these criteria we solicited information from key informants in marine science, conservation, and tourism in Galapagos.
Vulnerability criteria for each study area were entered into a GIS to develop virtual beach models that can be compared among sites for common characteristics. In the four sites where urban development is present we used a set of indicators from census and survey data to assign levels of social and economic vulnerability at the block level, and with satellite imagery classified these areas into meaningful categories that may be associated with vulnerability – such as land cover types, urban development indices, and the presence/absence of invasive species. Moving forward we expect to combine established characteristics of each type of coastal habitat and associated vulnerability with satellite imagery to create a comprehensive vulnerability profile of all beaches in the Galapagos, for use in marine and terrestrial spatial planning and mitigation of environmental hazards. Identifying focal areas for monitoring and management activities is an essential component of the Pacific RISA program, supporting informed decision-making about climate change and other future hazards.
Puerto Villamil from above, using Worldview-2 satellite imagery from 2010 and the census blocks overlaid to indicate regions that exhibit high social and ecological vulnerability characteristics in yellow.
Resilient and sustainable Pacific Island communities using climate information to manage risks and support practical decision-making about climate variability and change.
Pacific Islands Climate Outlook Forum
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Posted on October 26, 2015 by pacrisa
Pacific Islands Climate Outlook Forum focuses on strong El Niño event and regional impacts to the freshwater sector
The Pacific RISA participated in the first session of the Pacific Islands Climate Outlook Forum (PICOF-1) that was held from October 12-16, 2015 in Suva, Fiji, with a special focus on the water resources management sectors of the Pacific islands region. Co-sponsored by the Secretariat of Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), NOAA, and more, the PICOF was hosted by the University of the South Pacific in Suva to bring together national, regional, and international experts on climate services and the water management sector.
Special focus was on what has now been classified as a “strong” El Niño event for the remainder of 2015 and into 2016, which is anticipated to bring drought and shifting sea levels throughout much of the Pacific islands region. Some of the main impacts are:
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WASH in Fiji Schools
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Posted on April 28, 2015 by Laura Brewington
Innovative tools for Water Supply Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) a priority for Fiji schools
Pacific island nations are among the most vulnerable to a changing climate as threatened natural resources, like water, are increasingly linked to social and economic development. Climate impacts on fragile freshwater resources, such as extended drier seasons and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, are just some of the exacerbated risks the Pacific is facing, in addition to achieving its own aspirations toward sustainable livelihoods and development. In 2013 the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) through the regional office for Asia and the Pacific office released a report highlighting the gap between the Pacific and the East Asia region in comparison to the world in the provision of basic water and sanitation. The 2013 report underscores the need for Pacific island nations and leaders to prioritize efforts to improve water resources and their sustainable management.
As the lead UN agency in the Pacific tasked with the rights of children, UNICEF Pacific in collaboration with Fijian Teachers Association (FTA) have embarked on a pilot initiative that will apply the Three Star Approach, a framework for improved hygiene behavior in water and sanitation in schools. The initiative will help practitioners and educators understand some of the key links between water and health for schools in Fiji. Water Supply Sanitation and Hygiene, commonly known as WASH, is a pressing issue for schools across the Pacific as changing climate conditions impact the availability, quality and quantity of water for sanitation and drinking. In schools where water and sanitation services are lacking, at-risk behavior such as open defecation and poor hygiene are critical factors in water and health.
The situation in Fiji is indicative of the disparity in access to water and sanitation across select countries in the Pacific, many of whom lack accurate and timely data. Using the Three Star Approach, the WASH in-Schools (WinS) Fiji program will look at positive behavior change by 1) ranking schools according to regimented hygiene behavior, 2) supporting sustainable actions for good hygiene, and 3) using schools and communities as change agents. Key to the approach is a clear understanding of the benefits and causal pathways for schools, students, teachers, and communities to think differently about water and health. Cross cutting issues such as the use of schools as disaster evacuation centers are important to the findings of this initiative as most primary school facilities in Fiji are used as evacuation centers during a state of emergency.
The initial groundwork will involve working closely with stakeholders to generate collaborative learning experiences for schools, communities, state, and non-state actors and partners involved. In undertaking the data collection for the WinS initiative, UNICEF Pacific has also employed the use of mobile phones using Akvo; a unique data collection and online monitoring tool to collect and display real-time data about water and sanitation in schools. Through applications like Akvo-FLOW, the WinS work has completed its baseline survey of pilot schools and will commence program implementation from February to August, 2015. The collection of real time data through the use of mobile platforms such as tablets, and mobile devices will allow for rapid data gathering and display of key results. It is hoped that this will drastically improve the planning and implementation of the WinS approach through available and transparent data collection and sharing. The results and key findings are expected to be released by late 2015, and it is hoped that the pilot initiative will lead to nationwide action in Fiji on WinS and eventually the Pacific.
For further information contact:
Marc Overmars, UNICEF WASH Specialist
UNICEF Pacific Suva, Fiji Islands
email: movermars@unicef.org
Preliminary information and data on the WinS initiative is available online: http://unicefpacific.akvoapp.org/project/2752/
Puʿukohola Heiau
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Posted on September 12, 2014 by Laura Brewington
Local knowledge of climate and winds contributes to building of a Visitor Center at Puʿukohola Heiau National Historic Site
Na makani paio lua o Kawaihae.
The two conflicting winds of Kawaihae: the mumuku wind from the uplands, and the naulu wind, which brings the rains to Kawaihae (Pukui 1983)
Puʿukohola, or Hill of the Humpbacked Whale, is a historic site on the Kona-Kohala coast overlooking Kawaihae Bay on the Big Island of Hawaiʿi. The park, which attracts over 270,000 visitors per year (Ben Saldua, pers. comm., 1/8/14), is made up of Puʿukohola Heiau (temple); smaller and older Mailekini Heiau, which was later converted into a fort; the ruins of submerged Hale-o-Kapuni Heiau, which was believed to be dedicated to the worship of sharks; the John Young Homestead; and the central courtyard or Pelekane. Because of its historical and cultural importance, Puʿukohola Heiau and the surrounding area was designated a National Historic Site in 1972, under the administration of the National Park Service (NPS). The heiau is considered a highly significant cultural site because it is the only structure in the archipelago that is directly linked to the unification of the Hawaiian Islands and the founding of the Hawaiian Kingdom under Kamehameha the Great in the early nineteenth century (Greene 1993; NPS 2004).
In 2002, the NPS began planning a complete renovation of the Visitor Center and administrative offices located at Puʿukohola Heiau National Historic Site. In addition to providing a modern, structurally-sound, long-term facility from which visitors could access the Puʿukohola site, the main goal of the project was to improve the cultural and historic landscape for local community members and Native Hawaiian practitioners, who continue to use the heiau and surrounding area for regular events and ceremonies. The site planning and design included extensive stakeholder and partner engagement during all stages of the process. Developers also had to take local climate information into account, particularly regarding the mumuku winds, or enhanced trade winds, which are a constant force in the area (Schroeder 1981). Through extensive stakeholder and partner engagement, the building was specifically designed in order to best combat these strong and consistent winds. The new Visitor Center was opened to the public in 2007. The project was considered to be a success by the Park Service, visitors, and local community members, largely because of the utilization of local cultural and climatological knowledge in the planning and design, as well as the extensive community engagement process.
Regular trade winds are a key feature of the climate in the Hawaiian Islands. The trade winds, which typically flow from the northeast to the southwest, are a result of the larger regional Walker Circulation, in which easterly winds near the ocean surface in the eastern Pacific push air and water toward the west into Indonesia, where moisture is removed from the air through rainfall before the air rises to a higher altitude and circles back to the east, where the cycle begins again (Newman 2013). In Hawaiʿi, the trade winds hit the northeastern or windward sides of the islands and cause rainfall, resulting in the lush and green windward sides, and corresponding drier leeward sides of the islands. In addition to providing natural cooling for local homes, the trade winds are the primary source of rainfall in the state, and help maintain the islands’ vital water supply. However, a recent study showed that Hawaiʿi’s trade winds have decreased in frequency by approximately thirty percent over the past 37 years, from 291 days per year in 1973 to 210 days per year in 2009 (Garza et al. 2012). This trend may be caused by changes in the subtropical high-pressure ridge located to the northeast of the archipelago, a large-scale atmospheric phenomenon that governs Hawaiʿi’s prevailing trade winds (Garza et al. 2012), which could possibly be related to global climate change (Associated Press 2013). The decrease in the trade winds could have serious implications for the Hawaiian Islands, including negatively impacting local agriculture, harming native ecosystems and endangered species, and reducing the state’s limited freshwater supply. In a delicate environment such as the Kawaihae region on the Big Island, where Puʿukohola Heiau is located in one of the driest areas in the state (Cunningham 2009), a change in the trade winds could have far-reaching effects on the local environment.
Mason Architects, a Honolulu-based architectural firm that has worked with the NPS since 1998 on numerous construction projects throughout the Islands, was contracted to design and build the new Visitor Center. According to Glenn Mason, President of Mason Architects, one of the main physical drivers of the design of the new Visitor Center was the local mumuku winds. The Kawaihae region of the Big Island has been known for centuries for these strong, steady winds that flow from the uplands to the sea, and clash with the naulu, or sudden shower, winds that flow from the sea to the land and occasionally bring rain (Leopold 1949; NPS 2012; Businger et al. 2012). The land-to-sea mumuku winds are a local extension of the regional trade winds that hit Hawaiʿi Island from the northeast and gain intensity over the island’s central saddle before reaching the Kona-Kohala coast, while the sea-to-land naulu winds are caused by convection, in which heated air flows upslope off the water in the form of a sea breeze (Schroeder 1981; Businger et al. 2012). The naulu winds can occasionally bring rain to the dry region, but more often the strong mumuku winds push back the incoming sea breeze, and the rain will fall just offshore, if it falls at all (Leopold 1949; Schroeder 1981). Puʿukohola Historic Site Superintendent Daniel Kawaiaea, Jr., who was born and raised on Hawaiʿi Island and has spent more than 30 years working on the Puʿukohola site, contributed his vast knowledge of and experience with the local winds and climate to the design of the new Visitor Center. Under the advice of Kawaiaea and his colleagues, Mason Architects designed the building with its side turned to the mumuku winds, which allowed the large front doors to open completely to the heiau and also block the continuously strong winds with a wall. Mason explained, “We wanted it to feel like a pavilion – when you were in it the building disappears and you have a big opening to the heiau, which is the whole point, and the building wouldn’t get in the way of what you were there to look at” (Glenn Mason, pers. comm., 3/8/13).
In addition to implementing local climate knowledge in the building design, one of the key aspects of the new Visitor Center project was its commitment to broad stakeholder engagement, in which local partner organizations and community members, including representatives of native Hawaiian organizations, were included in key aspects of the planning process. Informal planning began in 2001, when an interpretive planning workshop was conducted at the park to provide direction for facility and interpretive media planning and design (NPS 2004: 3-9). In 2002 a more in-depth value analysis process was undertaken. A number of groups and agencies representing state and local community and Native Hawaiian interests were involved, including the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), Na Aikane o Puʿu Kohola Heiau – Friends of Puʿu Kohola Heiau National Historic Site, the Waimea Hawaiian Civic Club, and the group Na Papa Kanaka o Puʿu Kohola, which has held an annual commemorative ceremony at the heiau every August since 1991.
The value analysis process is a formal, facilitated method of identifying all the possible alternatives, priorities, and concerns in a development project, and weighing the advantages of each, in order to make “a good decision which could be defensible and documented” (Daniel Kawaiaea, pers. comm., 2/27/13). Variables which were considered included visitor satisfaction, cultural resources, local archaeology, cost, cultural and physical landscape including the local mumuku winds, and many others. Because of the importance of the partner and stakeholder engagement process to the NPS, the design and planning of the new Visitor Center was inherently flexible. In fact, Glenn Mason described how a model of the new building had already been created at the very beginning of the project, but after the key priorities and needs were identified through the value analysis process the entire initial design was scrapped and redone, even though the project was already completely budgeted. In Mason’s original concept the Visitor Center was totally open to the air, but in reality the mumuku winds were far too strong and the building would have been unusable, so a late design change was made to open only the front of the building to the heiau, and block the winds with a flat wall. In addition, the impact of the new structure on continued community use of the heiau was considered in the value analysis process. The original planning for the building began from a point selected because it would provide the best views of Pu’ukohola Heiau for visitors. However, the involvement with the community partners later moved the actual site further to the south by about 100 yards, primarily to reduce the visual impact this new facility would have from the perspective of practitioners located within the heiau looking out. The roof alignment, distinctive curved roof design, and use of local stone building materials also aided to minimize this visual impact as well (Daniel Kawaiaea, pers. comm., 2/27/13).
Although many factors had to be taken into account during the design and planning of the new Visitor Center, climate issues were one of the key drivers throughout the process, and information about the local winds was taken into account for practically every decision. NPS representatives like Kawaiaea, local community participants, and others who were familiar with all aspects of the site and the influence of the mumuku winds contributed their decades of experiential data as part of the stakeholder engagement process. According to Mason, “If that had not occurred, we would have had to deal with taking a lot of measurements, or have been quite surprised at the end. But as it was, we were not surprised by things that happened” (Glenn Mason, pers. comm., 3/8/13). This example of community engagement and local climate knowledge illustrates how people make decisions including climate and weather variables all the time, even when not explicitly making decisions about climate. Although climate issues can be controversial and difficult to discuss, participatory engagement methods like the NPS value analysis process can help lead to outcomes that are acceptable, agreed-upon, and community-owned, despite the difficulty of the topic. Kawaiaea stated that stakeholder feedback regarding the community engagement process, as well as the end result, was overwhelmingly positive, since the final design was based on the decisions all participants agreed upon in the meetings.
The Puʿukohola Heiau Visitor Center development project is an excellent example of the importance of community engagement, as well as the successful utilization of local climatological and cultural knowledge in decision-making. The site presented a number of unique challenges – the local mumuku winds and the continued usage of the site by the local and Native Hawaiian communities – but through the NPS commitment to stakeholder engagement, as well as Mason Architects’ trust in incorporating local climate knowledge and experience into their design, those challenges were successfully overcome.
E naʿi wale no ʿoukou i koʿu pono, ʿaʿole e pau.
You can seek out all the benefits I have produced and find them without number. – Kamehameha I
Puʿukohola Heiau is a nationally significant site because of its association with both the life of King Kamehameha I, and the political unification of the Hawaiian Islands. Kamehameha I, or Kamehameha the Great, was the first leader in history to unite the entire Hawaiian archipelago.(Pukui 1983)
Kamehameha I, the son of a high chief and a princess, was born on Hawaiʿi Island around 1758 under a prophecy predicting the coming of a powerful leader. By 1790, Kamehameha had inherited land in northern Hawaiʿi Island and gained custody of his family’s war god, Kukaʿilimoku. He had also invaded and conquered Maui, Lanaʿi, and Molokaʿi, but he had trouble conquering all of his home island of Hawaiʿi because of the opposition of his cousin and chief rival, Keoua Kuahuʿula. For guidance, Kamehameha consulted the kahuna (elder or prophet) Kapoukahi. The kahuna prophesized that Kamehameha would unite and rule the islands if he built a large heiau dedicated to the war god Ku on top of Puʿukohola, or the Hill of the Humpbacked Whale.
The heiau was completed in 1791. Kamehameha invited his rival cousin, Keoua Kuahuʿula, to the dedication ceremony. At the ceremony, a fight occurred and Keoua and many of his companions were killed. Because Puʿukohola Heiau is a luakini, or human sacrifice heiau, Keoua’s body was offered as a sacrifice to the war god Ku. This event ended all opposition to Kamehameha on Hawaiʿi Island, and, as prophesized, led to the eventual consolidation of his rule across the entire archipelago and the creation of a unified Hawaiian kingdom and nation for the first time in history. Puʿukohola is the only heiau in the archipelago associated with this significant time period in the history of the Hawaiian Islands, and therefore continues to be a highly important cultural and historical site (Greene 1993).
References
Associated Press (June 3, 2013) Trade winds drop, and Hawaii gets muggy. Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/trade-winds-drop-hawaii-gets-muggy-080531040.html
Businger, S., S. daSilva, K. Stone, I. Ellinwood, and P.W.U. Chinn (2012) Local winds and rains of Hawaiʻi: I Kamaʻāina I Nā Makani A Me Nā Ua. Kahua A‘o. A Learning Foundation. University of Hawaiʿi.
Cunningham, G. (2009) Newsletter of the Pacific Island Network. July – September 2009:17.
Garza, J.A., P.-S. Chu, C.W. Norton, and T.A. Schroeder (2012) Changes of the prevailing trade winds over the islands of Hawaiʿi and the North Pacific. Journal of Geophysical Research, 117, D11109, doi:10.1029/2011JD016888.
Greene, L.W. (1993) A cultural history of three traditional Hawaiian Sites on the west coast of Hawai’i Island. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Denver Service Center. Retrieved from http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/kona/history.htm
Kawaiaea Jr., D. (Feb. 27, 2013) Personal communication.
Leopold, L.B. (1949) The interaction of trade wind and sea breeze, Hawaiʿi. Journal of Meteorology, 6: 312-320.
Mason, G. (Mar. 8, 2013) Personal communication.
National Park Service (2014) Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site, Hawai’i: History and culture. Retrieved from http://www.nps.gov/puhe/historyculture/index.htm
National Park Service (2014) Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site, Hawai’I Island, Hawai’i. Retrieved from http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/cultural_diversity/Puukohola_Heiau_National_Historic_Site.html
National Park Service (2012) The two conflicting winds of Kawaihae. The National Parks of the Pacific Islands. Retrieved from http://pacificislandparks.com/2012/07/12/the-two-conflicting-winds-of-kawaihae/
National Park Service (2004) Environmental assessment: Reestablishment of the historic scene at Puʿukohola Heiau National Historic Site, Hawaiʿi County, Hawaiʿi. Prepared by Tetra Tech, Inc, for Hawaiʿi County.
Newman, M. (2013) Atmospheric Science: Winds of Change. Nature Climate Change, 3: 538-539.
Pacific Worlds (2006) Kawaihae – Land – Winds. Retrieved from http://www.pacificworlds.com/kawaihae/land/winds.cfm
Pukui, M.K. (1983) ʿŌlelo Noʿeau: Hawaiian proverbs & political Sayings. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication No. 71. Bishop Museum Press: Honolulu, Hawaiʿi.
Saldua, B. (Jan. 8, 2014) Personal communication.
Schroeder, T.A. (1981) Characteristics of local winds in northwest Hawaiʿi. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 20: 874-881.
Freshwater and Drought in American Sāmoa
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Posted on August 12, 2014 by pacrisa
Pacific RISA Research Fellow Laura Brewington and Project Assistant Krista Jaspers recently attended the “Preserving Freshwater Resources and Minimizing the Impacts of Drought” workshop in Pago Pago, American Samoa. The workshop was held on July 17 and 18, 2014 at the Tauese P.F. Sunia Ocean Center, which houses the visitor’s center for the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is conducting a series of activities to enhance scientific and technical capacity to support climate change adaptation in the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS). These activities include the development and delivery of new or enhanced products and services that focus on climate issues critical to the region and respond to unique user needs. Preserving freshwater resources and minimizing the impacts of drought has been identified as an issue of concern. Read More
Freshwater and Drought in RMI
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Posted on May 30, 2014 by pacrisa
Preserving freshwater resources and minimizing the impacts of drought in the Republic of the Marshall Islands
Pacific RISA research assistant Duncan McIntosh recently attended the “Pacific Islands Climate Services Dialog: Preserving Freshwater Resources and Minimizing the Impacts of Drought” workshop which was held 23 to 25 April, 2014 in Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is conducting a series of activities to enhance scientific and technical capacity to support climate change adaptation in the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS). These activities include the development and delivery of new or enhanced products and services that focus on climate issues critical to the region and respond to unique user needs.
To support RMI decision makers who are preparing for and responding to climate conditions that affect fresh water resources, a team of researchers is gathering relevant resources that may provide early warning and descriptions of potential impacts to the RMI area in one place – a web-based “dashboard” with real-time updating. This effort is a collaboration between Pacific Climate Information System (PaCIS), Pacific RISA, the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center (PICSC), and the Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative (PICCC), with support from USGS, University of Guam, Pacific ENSO Applications Center (PEAC), and NOAA. Product development will focus on the collection and aggregation of information from disparate sources and the tailoring and transformation of that information so that it is specific to sector and locale, and targeted to the nature and timing of decisions. Pacific RISA supported the development of the drought dashboard prior to the workshop by conducting interviews with high-level decision makers in RMI who manage freshwater and community during drought, and compiling the results into a report identifying key characteristics of the stakeholders, their climate-sensitive decisions and information needs, and the broader contextual factors that influenced drought management decisions. A semi-structured interview protocol guided discussions with interviewees to identify their main responsibilities and duties, specify key decisions affected by climate variables, determine current understanding of climate impacts and use of climate information, and identify climate information needs for managing drought and fresh water resources. At the workshop, key findings of the Pacific RISA report were presented to the plenary and utilized as a spring board to initiate discussion of climate stories from the local decision-makers’ perspectives.
At the workshop in Majuro, local knowledge was combined with specialist technical advice to identify accurate, timely and regionally-relevant content that helps to preserve fresh water resources and minimize the impacts of drought. As a result of the dialogue, the user community is better informed about the current state of knowledge of climate variability and its impacts, and the provider community is better informed about what problems and questions are most relevant and better able to match products and services to user requirements. Click here to view the workshop proceedings.
Third US National Climate Assessment
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Posted on May 7, 2014 by pacrisa
Coral loss, water supplies, increased temperatures top Hawai‘i and Pacific Region Concerns in 3rd U.S. National Climate Assessment
HONOLULU (May 6th, 2014) – Among major climate change concerns and challenges already being felt in Hawai‘i and the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands are damage to coral reefs, decreasing freshwater supplies, increasing temperatures and greater stresses on native marine and terrestrial ecosystems, according to the 3rd U.S. National Climate Assessment released by the White House today.
Several authors of the Hawai‘i and Pacific Islands section of the national report discussed the regional concerns in a special briefing this morning at the East-West Center in Honolulu. (Watch video of the briefing.) Read More
Invasive Species in Hawai‘i
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Posted on November 27, 2013 by pacrisa
Invasive species removal in the Ko‘olau Mountains, Hawai‘i
This November, East-West Center Fellows and Pacific RISA researchers Victoria Keener (third from top right) and Laura Brewington (bottom, right) worked with the Ko‘olau Mountains Watershed Partnership on Oahu Island to remove invasive species and replant endemic kawelu grass at Konahuanui, the highest region of the Ko‘olau mountain range.
In Hawai‘i, freshwater and forest resources are inextricably intertwined. Rainfall and fog drip captured by forests supply surface stream water and groundwater from the ridge to the reef, along natural geographic boundaries. For centuries, native Hawaiians practiced a system of governance and land tenure that was based on fundamental watershed units, known as the ahupua‘a. Abolition of the ahupua‘a system in favor of privately and publicly-owned lands disenfranchised many of the islands’ original inhabitants and facilitated extensive livestock grazing that would denude native forests, directly impacting water supply. By the late 19th century, cattle, goats, and deer had almost totally destroyed large areas of forest on every inhabited island. Alarmed by dwindling water supplies, well-meaning foresters attempted to bring groundcover species from elsewhere in the world that would thrive in the eroded, hardened soils, unintentionally leading to widespread invasion of weeds, insects, and disease. Their efforts were compounded by horticulturists who populated nurseries and botanical gardens with introduced species that outcompete the specialized native Hawaiian flora. It’s not only plants and animals that threaten the islands: introduced invertebrates and diseases, like the rosy wolfsnail (Euglandina rosea, pictured below), have decimated endemic highland species archipelago-wide. Over the past two centuries, entire Hawaiian ecosystems have been replaced by invasive species that are once again putting the islands’ freshwater supply at risk. When plants like strawberry guava (Psidium catleianum) and miconia (Miconia calvescens) invade, they convert the complex forest into a simpler ecosystem structure with little to no water-absorbing understory, while using up to 25% more water than native forest plants.[1]
The rosy wolfsnail is a predatory snail that was introduced intentionally to Hawai‘i to control growing populations of the giant African snail, but also attacked the islands’ endemic tree snails, some to extinction. This shell was found at Konahuanui, in the Ko‘olau Mountains Watershed.
Hawai‘i’s changing climate exacerbates these concerns with declining rainfall, higher rates of evapotranspiration, and average annual temperature increases in the last 30 years – especially at elevations half a mile above sea level and more. Higher elevation ecosystems are already under pressure from development and land use changes that force upward range migrations by native species.[2] Currently only 10% of the watershed areas in Hawai‘i are officially protected, but land owners and members of public and private institutions have formed watershed partnerships, like the one pictured above, to preserve freshwater availability in native forests and facilitate adaptation to climate change. Because of the feedbacks present between climate change, species introductions and spread, and freshwater, the 2010 Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) considers upland forests and watersheds to have the greatest potential to mitigate the effects of regional climate change and promote island resilience. On Maui Island, Pacific RISA continues to coordinate with government agencies, the watershed partnerships, and the Maui Invasive Species Committee (MISC) to assist in mapping and modeling efforts at both the species level – to target areas for restoration; and the ecosystem level – to understand biodiversity patterns under future change scenarios for large-scale planning.
Find the Ko‘olau Mountains Watershed Partnership on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Koolau-Mountains-Watershed-Partnership-KMWP/114315495268556?ref=br_tf
For more information on Hawai‘i watershed management and invasive species, see:
[1] Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment: 2012
[2] Hawai‘i Statewide Assessment of Forest Conditions and Trends: 2010
Lessons from the Galapagos
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Posted on October 9, 2013 by pacrisa
Coastal, social and ecological vulnerability – lessons from the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
During her postdoctoral fellowship with the Center for Galapagos Studies at the University of North Carolina, Pacific RISA Fellow Dr. Laura Brewington conducted field research in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, using a methodology that is relevant to Hawaii and other Pacific islands that are vulnerable to climate change and other factors. Mixed methods were used to assess social and ecological vulnerability of coastal environments, and form the baseline for future change detection.
The oil spill caused by the grounding of the tanker the Jessica in January 2001 led to calls for the creation of a management response network in Galapagos for preparation for coastal hazards. One decade later, the two tsunamis altered the configuration of shorelines areas that are home to burgeoning human populations and nesting grounds for endemic species. To anticipate the scale and impacts of climate change, natural hazards, and human use, novel and transferable vulnerability assessment approaches are required – especially in diverse and fragile island settings. Coastal areas are critical transition zones between land and the open ocean, providing essential ecosystem services like shoreline protection, nutrient cycling, fisheries resources, habitat and food, and regulation of nutrients, water, and organisms.
The coastal village of Puerto Villamil, Isabela Island (population 2,500)
Our pilot project in 2013 created a database of linked spatial, social, and environmental indicators of vulnerability for the Galapagos coastline. First we assigned values from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high) to a set of eight vulnerability criteria for 13 focal areas in the archipelago. We chose four local factors (land use, land cover, remoteness, human use intensity) and four external factors (orientation, connectivity, topography, and geomorphology). Criteria were evaluated using a combination of qualitative and quantitative measures, including shoreline surveys, three-dimensional terrain scanning, land cover interpretation using aerial photography, and sediment sampling. To address gaps in the available data and to obtain historical information on these criteria we solicited information from key informants in marine science, conservation, and tourism in Galapagos.
Vulnerability criteria for each study area were entered into a GIS to develop virtual beach models that can be compared among sites for common characteristics. In the four sites where urban development is present we used a set of indicators from census and survey data to assign levels of social and economic vulnerability at the block level, and with satellite imagery classified these areas into meaningful categories that may be associated with vulnerability – such as land cover types, urban development indices, and the presence/absence of invasive species. Moving forward we expect to combine established characteristics of each type of coastal habitat and associated vulnerability with satellite imagery to create a comprehensive vulnerability profile of all beaches in the Galapagos, for use in marine and terrestrial spatial planning and mitigation of environmental hazards. Identifying focal areas for monitoring and management activities is an essential component of the Pacific RISA program, supporting informed decision-making about climate change and other future hazards.
Puerto Villamil from above, using Worldview-2 satellite imagery from 2010 and the census blocks overlaid to indicate regions that exhibit high social and ecological vulnerability characteristics in yellow.
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Resilient and sustainable Pacific Island communities using climate information to manage risks and support practical decision-making about climate variability and change.
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