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Kaua‘i County, Hawaii has introduced a Sea Level Rise Constraint District which aims to ensure building developments are resilient to long term sea level rise impacts.

This incorporates sea level rise projections into construction design standards and regulatory policy to manage risks like flooding, due to sea level rise across the island.

Issue

Hawaii faces accelerating climate risks, including shoreline erosion, coastal flooding and long term sea level rise. These hazards pose major challenges for planning and construction, particularly in Kaua’i County where communities and infrastructure sit close to the coast.

Approach

Kaua’i County identified three major hazards driving the area’s vulnerability to sea‑level rise: shoreline erosion, passive flooding, and elevated water levels.

To reduce the impact of these vulnerabilities on new development areas, the University of Hawaii developed a model projecting sea‑level rise impacts through to 2,100 With Esri technology.

This modelled data was then incorporated into an interactive web app which visualises sea‑level rise projections across the entire island.

Impact

A new legal requirement has been introduced which requires new residential buildings (or major renovations) to be elevated two feet above the projected 2,100 sea level, and non residential structures one foot above.

Embedding future sea level projections directly into planning regulations can improve the structural resilience and longevity of buildings significantly strengthening long term community resilience.

The publicly accessible visualisation tool allows stakeholders, including planners and homeowners to easily check whether a property sits within the constraint district and understand the elevation requirements. This has helped streamline decision making and offers greater public transparency to the local community.

As new data emerges on sea level rise projections, the digital nature of the tool allows Kaua’i County to easily update new datasets into the model, allowing policy to evolve with emerging science, helping to create an adaptable, future proof regulatory framework.

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