Using Participatory Mapping Techniques to Characterize Coastal Uses in West Maui

Jamie Carter
NOAA Pacific Services Center, Honolulu, HI
Christine Feinholz
I.M. Systems Group, Honolulu, HI
Kalisi Fa`anunu Mausio
NOAA Pacific Islands Regional Office, Honolulu, HI

Participatory and Place-Based GIS
Tuesday March 6, 2012 - 1:30 to 2:45 pm

Coral reefs in Hawaii are facing increasing pressures from a growing variety of ocean uses, as well as increased coastal development and watershed impacts. The Maui Coastal Use Mapping Project is a first step to improving regional coastal and watershed management activities. This project leveraged participatory mapping methods developed at NOAA’s Marine Protected Areas Center to interactively and digitally map coastal uses with the participation of the public. The Maui Coastal Use Mapping Project documents human coastal and marine uses in the area extending from the Honolua watershed to the Wahikuli watershed and from the coast to the state jurisdictional boundary of three nautical miles out to sea. In September 2011, three full-day workshops were held at the Lahaina Senior Center in Maui with 47 local stakeholders to map coastal uses in this region. Seventeen extractive and non-extractive activities were mapped throughout the region, and the results are presented online for use by federal, local and state governments, NGO’s and the general public. The Maui Coastal Use Mapping Project is a partnership of the Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR), NOAA Fisheries, Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO), and NOAA’s National Ocean Service, Pacific Services Center (PSC). This is a project of the Hawaii Coral Program’s Local Action Strategies (LAS), with funding from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP).