This capstone project is the culmination of one semester of dedicated research, but also three years of growth in the UH MLA program, and I owe my deepest gratitude to those who have supported my journey.
To my committee chair, Phoebe White, thank you for always pushing me to my best ability and inspiring me to new horizons. To my committee member Clay Trauernicht, thank you for your truly endless expertise, guidance and enthusiasm.
To my professors Simon Bussiere, Andy Kaufmann, Charlie Palanza and Judith Stilgenbauer, thank you for your guidance in honing my craft, constant support, and deepening my understanding of landscape architecture.
To Yumi Miyata of Waiʻanae Mountains Watershed Partnership, Leah Bremer of UHero, Elizabeth Pickett of Hawaiʻi Wildfire Management Organization, Mariah Gaoiran of Mālama Learning Center, Emily Schlickmann of UC Davis, Jo and the gang at Mōhala i ka Wai, thank you for your invaluable advice, time, and insight towards active e orts of wildfire adaptation and restoration.
To my family, my friends, thank you for still wanting to talk to me post-capstone, I promise I will be around more (until the next big project). To Bryan, thank you for the hugs, the confidence, for picking me up when this felt like an impossible process… I love you, thank you.
Mākaha 2018 Fire, C. Trauernicht (2018)
PROJECT METHODOLOGY
Project methodology of this capstone involves historical research, mapping, precedent research and analysis, site selection and analysis, and site design. Historical Research
Documenting agricultural land use history in Hawai‘i in colonial context is imperative in informing the after-e ects of increased Wildland Urban Interface (WUI: defined as ‘the zone of transition between unoccupied land and human development) from lack of post-plantation land restoration. Using GIS data, presence of wildfire, wildfire risk, WUI, and land use over time will be mapped to inform site selection and land process. Existing design precedents for wildfire adaptation are primarily focused on protecting individual homes. However, there is ample research describing the risks of wildfire in the landscape that can be adapted diagramatically. Selection of design sites will be largely dependent on identification of high wildfire risk sites, landscape typology, plant community, vulnerability, abundance of WUI and opportunity to create design intervention. Site design will utilize productive, multi-dimensional landscape design solutions for WUI edge conditions that can serve as a toolkit for other vulnerable sites throughout the Hawaiian Islands.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Existing literature on the topic of dry fuels, the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), and the linkages to fire prone landscapes is extensive. Initial research began with identifying the rapid growth of the WUI and its relation to wildfire risk (Radelo et al, 2018). This identifies the necessity of landscape interventions in the management of WUI. Precedents for preemptive wildfire adaptation strategies are present in the form of fuel breaks, prescribed burns, controlled grazing, and vegetation management (Schlickman et al, 2023). The field of landscape architecture is largely focused on community planning and residential landscapes with regard to fire adaptation and prevention. A case study from Design Workshop (2018) on Home Ignition Zoning was analyzed to understand scale and approach for community safety standards.
There is a noticeable gap between academic literature and design implementation for fire mitigation strategies, with most precedent being calls to action or student projects (Ren et al, 2018). Two major organizations pioneering change and fire education in Hawaiʻi are Hawaiʻi Wildfire Management Organization (HWMO) and Pacific Fire Exchange (PFX). They have accumulated a broad list of publications and resources that are accessible to the public.
INTRODUCTION:
Colonial Land Management and Emergence of Wildland Urban Interface + Fire in Hawai’i
Since the early 19th century, the cultural and physical landscape of Hawaiʻi has been altered by settler colonialism (Hixson, 2013). New England missionaries strategically hired labor from Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and other countries to work in harsh conditions, and established a plantation empire in Hawaiʻi. Cash crops such as sugar, pineapple and co ee dominated Hawaii’s economy for centuries (Nakamura, 2020), bringing major profits for plantation owners.
During and after WWII, American economic expansion in Hawaiʻi grew increasingly focused on tourism. Workers rights and standard conditions were also improving, causing the plantation industry to dwindle. With no necessary procedure in place for plantation farmers to rehabilitate land post-farming, plantation land was essentially abandoned when no longer profitable. Across the Northwestern Hawaiian islands, these fallow lands have become major environmental and safety
hazards. Invasive grasses and plant species act as vast dry fuel during wildfire events, resulting in the damage of cherished communities.
Many communities throughout the islands are adjacent to abandoned plantation areas, and thus adjacent to fire-risk and environmental hazard. This capstone seeks to document necessary research and potential design methods in reforming these abandoned lands, so that natural resources and communities are in greater equilibrium, thus acknowledging colonial influence and taking a step toward the future. Understanding the temporality of Hawaiʻi’s landscape and motives of those who have stewarded it can inform the design of more equitable, sustainable, and safe spaces.
Global acts of imperialism have direct and most often intentional e ects on a nation, as well as ripple e ects that can be seen for generations. Increased wildfire occurrence in Hawaiʻi is an example of a ripple e ect, with its causation stemming from actions for economic gain in the form of capitalism and government destabilization. Imperial capitalist actions include labor exploitation, natural resource exploitation, territory acquisition, extractive economics, and more. It would be remiss to describe the origins of increased wildfire occurrence in Hawaiʻi without describing local imperial capitalist action, specifically in the case of the American occupation of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the legacy of the sugarcane industry.
On January 17, 1893, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was illegally overthrown (Lagaso, 2017). Thirteen caucasian business men staged a coup d’état against Queen Liliʻuokalani and her kingdom, their ultimate goal being annexation of Hawaiʻi to the United States. This overthrow did not come out of the blue, and its reason had been accumulating for decades.
In 1778, Captain Cook landed on Kauaʻi, igniting a European-style production economy and the sandalwood trade. In 1820, the first American missionaries landed in Kawaihae, Kailua-Kona, Island of Hawaiʻi. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions charged their
missionaries ‘...to aim at making people of every class wise good and happy.’ (HHF, 2020). By 1850, eighteen mission stations had been established: six on Hawaiʻi, four on Maui, four on Oʻahu, three on Kaua‘i and one on Moloka‘i. Also by 1850, 75% of all business in Hawaiʻi was conducted by American businessmen. Business types included agricultural production such as sugarcane, pineapple, ranching, co ee, and more. By 1840, the Native Hawaiian population dwindled by 84%, due to the introduction of infectious disease brought by European and American influence.
Native Hawaiian cultural practices were largely suppressed as Christian missionaries gained political influence.
After decimating the indigenous population, plantation owners imported labor from China, Philippines, Japan, and Korea. In the 1848 Great Māhele, King Kamehameha III (whose cabinet was comprised of foreign-born ministers) was persuaded to divide land in such a way that introduced and institutionalized the private ownership or leasing of land tracts, a development which would prove to be indispensable to the continued growth of the sugar growing industry (UHWO, 2024).
The first annexation attempt of Hawaiʻi was in 1854, which failed as Kamehameha IV ended negotiations. The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 allowed for duty-free importation of Hawaiian sugar.
In exchange, the United States was granted land for a naval base, which later became Pearl Harbor.
The wealth gained from this new treaty was largely concentrated in the hands of a few of the corporations descended from missionary families, known as “The Big Five.” These corporations, Castle & Cooke, Alexander & Baldwin, C. Brewer & Co., American Factors, and Theo H. Davies & Co., not only controlled the sugar industry, but had a hand in most of Hawaii’s economic matters. Furthermore, these elites enjoyed a close relationship with the Hawaiian monarchy (Akiboh, 2024). In 1887, King Kālakaua was stripped of most of his ruling power when he was forced, at gunpoint, to accept the Bayonet Constitution.
This constitution was formed by the ‘Hawaiian League’, American settlers and businessmen who sought to annex Hawaiʻi in American business interest. In the face of economic downturn after an imposed tari act in 1893, Queen Liliʻuokalani attempted to enact a new constitution, one that would place more power with the monarchy instead of the American and European-dominated legislature. In response, the Hawaiian League with the support of the U.S. Marines, enacted a coup d’état to illegally overthrow the Hawaiian Monarchy. In order to prevent the bloodshed of her people, Queen Liliʻuokalani protested yet surrendered, stating:
“I Liliuokalani, by the Grace of God and under the Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen, do hereby solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself and the Constitutional Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom by certain persons claiming to have established a Provisional Government of and for this Kingdom… Now, to avoid any collision of armed forces and perhaps loss of life, I do, under this protest, and impelled by said forces, yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon the facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representative and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.”
Aftermath of the Overthrow + Sugarcane Industry
The aftermath, which followed the overthrow, worked in the favor of American interest and actively against Native Hawaiians and the working class. Multiple facets of Hawaiian culture were made illegal (e.g. Hawaiian language in schools in 1896), American military occupation of Hawaiʻi increased because of the islands’ strategic location in the Pacific, and business e orts continued to contribute greatly to the American economy from agriculture in the early 20th century, to tourism in the late 20th century to present day. Industrial production of sugar began at Kōloa Plantation on Kaua‘i in 1840, and continued to thrive post-annexation. In an excerpt from UHWO, the strife of Native Hawaiian plantation workers is described: ‘Native Hawaiians, who had been accustomed to working only for their chiefs and only on a temporary basis as a “labor tax” or ‘Auhau Hana, naturally had di culty in adjusting to the back-breaking work of clearing the land, digging irrigation ditches, planting, fertilizing, weeding, and harvesting the cane, for an alien planter and on a daily ten to twelve hour shift. A song of the day captures the feelings of these first Hawaiian laborers:
MANA NO
Nonoke au i ka maki ko, I ka mahi ko.
Ua ‘eha ke kua, kakahe ka hou, Poho, Poho.
A ‘ai‘e au i ka hale ku‘ai,
A ‘ai‘e au i ka hale ku‘ai.
A noho ho‘i he pua mana no,
A noho ho‘i he pua mana no.
A ha‘alele au i ka‘imi dala, Dala poho.
E noho no e hana ma ka la,
Ka‘ai o ka la.
Ia ha‘i ka waiwai e luhi ai,
Ia ha‘i ka waiwai e luhi ai,
E noho au he pua mana no,
E noho au he pua mana no.
SURE A POOR MAN
I labored on a sugar plantation,
Growing sugarcane.
My back ached, my sweat poured,
All for nothing.
I fell in debt to the plantation store,
I fell in debt to the plantation store.
And remained a poor man,
And remained a poor man.
I decided to quit working for money,
Money to lose.
Far better work day by day,
Grow my own daily food.
No more laboring so others get rich, No more laboring so others get rich.
Just go on being a poor man, Just go on being a poor man.’
(UHWO, 2024)
Sugarcane Industry
In 1841, the first Native Hawaiian labor strike from sugar plantations was recorded. After this strike and the decimation of the Native Hawaiian population (largely via infectious disease), plantation owners decided to import labor from China, Philippines, Japan, Puerto Rico and Korea. These plantation workers endured harsh labor contracts and conditions, and began to settle their families throughout the islands, contributing to present day Hawaiʻi demographics. People as well as natural ecosystems su ered through the plantation era:
‘Hawaii’s forests also showed signs of wear from sugar by 1880. Cattle and goats had already decimated the kula lands on Haleakala’s slopes above Makawao on Maui and the forested regions around Waimea and the Kohala Mountains on Hawai`i island. The heavy demand for firewood to power the larger mills culled the forests of valuable wood above plantation districts where cattle had not yet encroached, extending farther the areas already denuded of forests.’ (Maclennan, 2014). Native ecosystems and traditional agricultural systems were lost, streams were channelized for irrigation and development, natural resources were extracted, moved around and exploited
for the benefit of the plantation. The decline of the sugar industry began in 1900 when Hawaiʻi became a United States territory, due in part to the country’s enforced labor laws. Gradual closure of sugar plantations across the islands led to the displacement of families often to the continental U.S., with their primary income now gone. With no requirement for land rehabilitation after plantation closure, former plantation lands became
Waimanalo Sugar Plantation, 1890-1899? Hawai
Wildland Urban Interface in Hawaiʻi
Abandoned agriculture and plantation lands lacked viable nutrition for native plants, and invasive fodder species moved in: species such as haole koa, guinea grass, and bu elgrass. These plants have a low moisture content, and spread seeds easily. This means that if there is any sort of ignition source within the limits of these past plantation fields, wildlife can run rampant. This land typology is often referred to as the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), defined as ‘the zone of transition between unoccupied land and human development. It is the line, area or zone where structures and other human development meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuels. (FEMA, 2024).’
WUI is a recognized land type globally, and has become rampant in Hawaiʻi due to these abandoned plantation lands. One of the most tragic and recent examples of a widespread fire as a result of unmanaged WUI, is the Lahaina fire of August, 2023. The source of the fire began in one of these unmanaged, fallow WUI plots on a hill north of downtown, and the ‘geographic spread and density of the nonnative grasses were key elements to creating a fast-moving, uncontrollable fire’ (Piper et al, 2023).
Fire: Hawaiʻi Context
In Hawaiʻi, fire is included as an increased threat from climate change alongside sea level rise, drought, intense storm events, etc. Despite public shock over the Lahaina fire tragedy, fire experts and o cials have been aware of the threat of wildfire in the Hawaiian Islands (Anselm, 2023). High hurricane winds can exacerbate the wildfire issue, but preemptive planning and design could still mitigate damage and loss of life; fingers typically point back to unmanaged WUI plots.
Historically, early Hawaiians used fire as an agricultural resource. Like many indigenous communities, fire was used to clear fallow or post-production farmland or ranges of pili (Heteropogon contortus) grass for regeneration and soil nutrient enrichment (NPS, 2024). This practice continued until the arrival of American-European settlers who instilled extractive agricultural practices. As far as naturally-occurring processes, wildfires in Hawai‘i were once limited to those caused by active volcanic eruptions and infrequent dry lightning strikes. Nearly all fires in Hawai‘i today are human-caused and they often pose threats to communities and natural and cultural resources.
Having evolved in the absence of frequent fires, Hawai‘i’s native ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to fire disturbance (PFX, 2024). Over the past decade, Hawai‘i has experienced an average of >1,000 ignitions burning >20,000 acres each year across the main inhabited islands (PFX, 2024).
Mākaha 2018 Fire, C. Trauernicht (2018)
Why is designing with fire important?
Increase in Frequency:
•Global fire alerts have increase by 13% compared to 2019 (as of 2020)
•From 1979 to 2013, the global fire season length increased on average by 19%
•Estimated 14% increase in occurence of extreme fires globally by 2030, 30% by 2050, and 50% by 2100
Socio-Economic Impact:
•In the U.S., 9,600 homes were lost to wildfire in 2020
•In the U.S., 17,900 total structures were lost to wildfire in 2020
Environmental Impact:
•In the last 30 years, climate change is estimated to have doubled the total forest area burned in the western United States
•Expansion of the Wildland Urban Interface
Mililani Mauka fire of 2023 burned through native forest
PC: Spectrum News
Lahaina wildfire tragedy of 2023 during Hurricane Dora saw over 100 lives lost
PC: Hawaii Rotary District
Fire in Hawaiʻi:
What can landscape architects control?
We have seen decades worth of deadly fires (HWMO, 2013) that are only increasing in severity and frequency. Landscape architecture has a unique role in the reimagining of these spaces as safer, potentially productive landscapes. Landscape Architects are trained in bridging the gap between people, and environmentoften arguing that this gap should not exist. Examining the edge conditions and interior of the WUI can prevent damage to ecosystems, communities, and produce a new, mutualistic environment. This capstone o ers an alternative to the existing WUI condition in Hawai‘i, and an opportunity to move in a holistic, sustainable direction.
Grass-Fire Cycle of the Pacific Islands
The WUI condition in Hawaiʻi are a key part of what is called the Grass-Fire Cycle, common throughout the Pacific. The cycle starts with a grass-dominated landscape that is encroaching on native woodland. Once a fire starts, grass carry the fire into the native woodland, causing damage or killing native species. Postfire, these grasses are still super competitive, and will resprout quickly, especially after heavy rains, perpetuating the grassland state. When another fire happens again, it is intensified with more grassland and less native woodland, further encroaching on the woodland space, causing more damage. Recurrent fires therefore reduce the size of remnant forests, further increasing the area of grasslands.
Adapted from: The Grass Fire on Pacific Islands, PFX Fact Sheet
PROJECT APPROACH
Opportunities to design for a safer, more sustainable WUI are seemingly endless. One could argue that “anything” is better than the existing landscape - so long that it is less flammable, invasive, fallow, non-engaging and unproductive. There is danger, however, in this mindset.
For example, developing housing in these areas without appropriate management of dry fuel grasslands could simply increase tragedy in wildfire events. What is ideal in this landscape is typically site-dependent, and heightened risks and opportunities should be weighed.
What is ideal in this landscape is typically site-dependent, and heightened risks and opportunities should be weighed. Risks could include: dry fuel cover for its ability to feed fire, steep slope as fire moves much faster uphill than downhill (NWCG, 2024), and proximity to community boundaries, to protect livelihoods. Opportunities could include: proximity to water to design with natural firebreaks, design potential to establish native habitat, and to enhance community stewardship of food and utility gardens. Investigation of these risks and opportunities was conducted via mapping research. Hawaiʻi sees similar conditions of WUI across the islands. Choosing one site for this capstone has the potential to act as a catalyst project for other sites with similar landscape typologies throughout the islands. Oʻahu was selected as a starting point for deciding a site to research, because of its dense population, and therefore increased room for human error (aka ignition).
Mākaha 2018 Fire, C. Trauernicht (2018)
Thesis Statement:
Wildfire has an increasing global presence despite attempts to suppress it out of existence. By designing with fire, Hawai‘i’s vast dry fuel patches can be reimagined as cultivated, habitable landscapes.
Keywords:
Pyrocene: a term coined by Stephen Pyne that describes a new epoch defined by the anthropogenic use of fire and an increase of fire events
Wildland-urban interface (WUI): the space between wildland and the built environment
Dry Fuel: wildland vegetation, such as grasses, shrubs and trees with low moisture content
Fuel reduction: the removal or reduction of vegetation and combustible material
SITE MAPPING + ANALYSIS
The initial presence of invasive, dry graslands/Wildland Urban Interface in Hawaii is largely due to abandoned plantation lands that had no form of rehabilitation. When sugarcane, pineapple, co ee, ranching, etc moved in, lands were cleared, streams were diverted, and then the economy shifted away from plantations toward tourism, these farms were abandoned, left fallow, and invasive species such as guinea grass, bu el grass, and haole koa (which were brought in for ranching) moved in. The Lahaina wildfire was exacerbated by hurricane weather, but unmanaged grasslands certainly played a role in how unmanageable this fire was. Mapping this phenomnenon can depict where priority should be taken, by identifying highest risk areas and opportunities.
Hawaiʻi: 1920 Agriculture
Post-plantation WUI cover is widespread, evident from this map is 1920s sugarcane and pineapple plantation land.
Hawaiʻi: Wildfire Risk
High wildfire risk throughout the islands gives favor to the leeward sides of the islands, because of their dry conditions.
Hawaiʻi: Agriculture and Wildfire Risk
Overlap of previous plantation land and high wildfire risk are not dissimilar, building the argument that the plantation era has contributed to WUI cover.
Oʻahu: 1920 Agriculture
Like neighboring islands, Oʻahu has a rich plantation history. This map depicts sugarcane and pineapple plantation cover at the height of the era, in 1920. More plantation lands means more future potential for invasive species cover.
Oʻahu: Wildfire Risk
Wildfire risk on Oʻahu di ers largely depending the “side” (e.g. windward or leeward) of the island. The leeward (west) side of the island sees heightened fire risk largely due to lower precipitation levels (DLNR, 2010).
Oʻahu: Watershed Partnerships
In considering critical risk areas and post-design implementation and management, Watershed Partnership areas were mapped in combination with Critical Ecosystems.
Oʻahu: Past Fires
Including the timeline of recent fire history, it is apparent that large fires have occurred largely on the leeward side of the island, and could require more attention.
Oʻahu: Wildfire Risk, Past Fires and 1920 Ag
Overlaying these maps has similar e ects as overlaying the Hawaiian Islands maps of 1920 Agriculture and Wildfire Risk. They are not dissimilar, and provide a starting point for addressing areas of most concern.
Oʻahu: Site Selection
Mākaha Ahupuaʻa was selected as the site of this capstone project, due to its high wildfire risk, past large fires occurrences, and presence of WUI.
Mākaha: Wildfire Risk
Essentially the entirety of Mākaha Valley has high wildfire risk, covering every corner of the developed area and community.
Mākaha: Past Fires
Mākaha has seen multiple large fires in the past. The worst of which was most recent, in 2018. Due to suspected arson, brush fires burned up and over Mākaha Valley, into Makua Keaʻau Valley. Nearly 9,000 acres were burned, several homes and a farm were lost, and 180 acres of native dry forest were burned (HNN, 2018).
Historic Mākaha: 1899
Backtracking to understand how Mākaha’s current landscape came to be, there is evidence of multiple forms of agricultural land use. In 1899, Mākaha saw multiple forms of farming - Co ee, ranching, and sugarcane.
Historic Mākaha: 1938
By 1938, sugarcane covered most of the bottom of the valley.
Historic Mākaha: 1969
Land use transitioned to resort development by 1969, with developers trying to make Mākaha the Waikīkī of the west side.
Mākaha: 1899-Present Day
Mākaha has been part of the two largest economic drivers throughout Hawaii’s colonial history: agriculture and tourism.
Present Day Mākaha
Today, Mākaha is home to about 10,000 people, 3,200 households and has the 7th highest Kānaka Maoli population in Hawaiʻi per census tract. Is it also home to Hawaii’s most thoroughly restored heiau, and has a rich surfing and fishing history.
Mākaha: Government Land Use
Land ownership in Mākaha ahupuaʻa is largely owned by the county, due to the Board of Water Supply’s acquisition of land for rights to Glover Tunnel in 1972. This aquisition was by BWS, from developer Chin Ho, whose plans to turn Mākaha into a tourism haven did not fluorish. BWS was interested in Glover Tunnel, which is a water source dug into a mountain dike just below Kaneʻaki Heiau to source water during the plantation area. Chin Ho aquired the land when plantation owners left in the early-mid 20th century. When BWS asked to aquire Glover Tunnel from Chin Ho, he requested they purchase all of his land in the ahupuaʻa, as it was no longer fruitful for him.
Mākaha: Critical Risk Areas
Understanding the most vulnerable areas of Mākaha Valley/Mākaha ahupuaʻa can inform catalyst site design areas. Areas that have high wildfire risk or are within past fire perimeters that encroach on critical habitat space could be addressed first. Community adjacency is a given, as all of Mākaha’s community spaces are within high wildfire risk area.
Mākaha: Slope Analysis
Slope assessment of the area is critical, as fire tends to climb hills faster than it travels downhill or on a flat slope. Past Mākaha fires have climbed up and over ridge lines into neighboring valleys.
Mākaha: Vegetation Cover
Inventory of vegetation cover can inform the presence of native, alien grassland areas and therefore WUI, as has been extracted in the following maps.
Mākaha: Native Forest
Despite native forest remaining in high elevation areas, fire is able to traverse steep slopes and threaten these areas. The 2018 fire in Mākaha burned significant portions of pristine Wiliwili forest.
Mākaha: Invasive Dry Fuel Cover
Dry fuel cover of the area, and essentially where WUI conditions lie within Mākaha. This is the basis of where site selection can begin, as the purpose of this capstone is to design solutions to this dry fuel landscape.
Mākaha:
Wildland Urban Interface
A simplified version of the previous map, depicting where WUI conditions exist within Mākaha ahupuaʻa.
Mākaha: Slope, Fire Risk and Dry Fuel Cover
In spatial analysis of key factors of slope, wildfire risk, past fire perimeters, and dry fuel cover, patterns begin to emerge of critical risk areas. These risk areas can inform areas for catalyst site selection.
Mākaha: Highest Risk Areas
Based on site analysis, three vital components for design site selection were established, those being community boundary, slope steeper than 15%, and dense dry fuel, all within the perimeter of high wildfire risk area.
Mākaha: Highest Risk Areas + Site Selection
Analyzing overlap for previously listed components, a catalyst site transect were selected based on the land typologies of community adjacency, water adjacency and steep slope. Land typologies were selected in order to protect the community, discourage fire climb of slopes, and expand upon existing natural firebreaks.
Analysis to Goals
Considering the results of site analysis, determined project goals are to limit the grass fire cycle, through ecosystem restoration and active land stewardship, to create cultivated spaces that help slow the spread of fire, while remaining beneficial when no fire is occurring. These goals are meant to both mitigate the intensity and spread of fire, while also contributing to a mutualistic relationship with the communities (human and ecological) of the area.
PRECEDENT STUDIES
In determining potential design strategies the the select Mākaha transect, site visits to existing restoration e orts on the leeward side of Oahu and design precedent research were conducted. Learning from local experts on practical applications for wildfire mitigation in the landscape were invaluable, both in relation to this capstone subject and because design precedent for wildfire adaptation is sparse, particularly in the Pacific.
Mākaha Transect Conditions
Existing conditions for the Mākaha site transect are extremely consistent in their nature as Wildland Urban Interface. Invasive, fine grassland fuel such as guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus) and bu elgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris) dominant the landscape, with invasive trees such as haole koa (Leucaena leucocephala) and kiawe (Prosopis pallida). These areas have burned before, yet came back full force as the same landscape type, reinforcing the grass-fire cycle.
Waiʻanae Mountains Watershed Partnership
For over a decade, the WMWP has undertaken a shaded break project alongside a fire break in the Waiʻanae Kai Forest Reserve. Intense management has helped transform this area from weedy grasses to a native-dominant shaded break. Planting strategies compete with weeds, to eventually push them out. Partnerships between WMWP and local high schools make projects like this possible - providing workforce and education. Precedent drawings from this site visit can be seen on p. 99-101.
Mālama Learning Center
Mālama Learning Center is a non-profit organization that brings art, science, conservation, and culture together to promote sustainable living throughout Hawai‘i (MLC, 2024). MLC has multiple restoration sites - I had the privelege of participating in mālama ʻāina with them at their Palēhua site for erosion control and restoration. The goals of test plots at this location are to restore native Hawaiian plants to the lands, degraded over time by non-native species, wildfires, and other human-caused disturbances (MLC, 2024). Replacing grasses and eroded land with native plants attracts pollinators to the area, creating a mesic pollinator corridor.
Mōhala i ka Wai
Mōhala i ka wai, meaning unfolded by the water, is a community-based organization committed to protecting the water resources and the watersheds of the Wai‘anae moku. MIKW is focused on conservation and environmental quality. The Måkaha Valley Lo‘i Restoration project will be developed as a Hawaiian farm and cultural learning center, using ‘āina based handson learning to cultivate native wetland and dryland plantings and restore historic sites. A proposed riparian bu er zone along the section of the Mākaha Stream bordering the mala would preserve the stream’s quality and act as a wildfire bu er. (BWS, 2015)
Consistent examples of design intervention for preemptive wildfire adaptation in public or private land management included implementation of fuel breaks, vegetation management, prescribed burning, and controlled grazing. Prescribed burning is one example of early precedent of fire use in ancient Hawaiʻi, when indigenous agricultural practitioners would burn land for clearing and nutrient enrichment.
Home Ignition Zone
Some landscape architecture firms, like Design Workshop, have adopted principles of vegetation management pertaining to wildfire resilience. This design framework delineates how vegetation should be planted, pruned, and reduced in certain perimeters surrounding homes for fire safety.
As described on p. 88-89, the WMWP has undertaken a shaded break project alongside a fire break in the Waiʻanae Kai Forest Reserve. Intense management has helped transform this area from weedy grasses to a native-dominant shaded break. Phasing including clearing of weeds, replanting with native species, and intensive management to ensure weeds don’t return, turn this landscape into a native shaded break that has a fighting chance of surviving in competition with invasive species. Planting arrangement and species selection helps slow fire spread when it occurs, compared to fine, combustible invasive dry fuels.
Precedent Takeaways
Takeaways for potential design strategies from these precedents include understanding of labor necessity, a need to suppress and replace groundcover weeds, and that slowing fire with native, denser, and higher moisture plants is better than encouraging fire with dry plants.
Standard Landscape Management Strategies
Structure and Community PlanningGreen Corridors
•Labor intensive, constant supervision
•Prescribed burn unsuitable for Hawaiʻi microclimate WUI conditions
•Fire breaks e ectively implemented at top and bottom of ridges
•Controlled grazing ideal for initial phase of clearing vegetation
•Vegetation management strategies in continental U.S. does not necessarily apply in Hawaiʻi
•Instead of extreme spacing of vegetation, we have a need for groundcover species replacement
•Still vital to minimize vegetation surrounding the home
•Replacement of low moisture, pervasive weeds with native plants can slow fire spread
•Short term labor intensive, long term sustainable
•Multi-use landscape of fire mitigation and native ecosystem rehabilitation
DESIGN APPROACH
Taking precedent research into considerations, how can preemptive wildfire design be best implemented, following the landscape typologies of community adjacency, water proximity, and steep slope?
Diagramming the risks associated with each landscape typology during a wildfire event.
Diagramming potential solutions to associated risks, while considering additional benefits such as food sources, pollinator diversity, and habitat restoration.
Wildfire Design Toolkit
Through the format of a toolkit, strategies to consider when managing vegetation including fuel removal either by people or grazers, the latter of which can greatly reduce labor. Vegetation arrangement through shaded breaks and groundcover competition which smother grasses and weeds, and species selection where we can replace fine, dry fuel with coarse, woody, dense fuel. Fire Defense refers to the action of cutting fire o with no fuel, which can be done through breaks and look like soil strips, water, and roads. Access roads act as a fire break as well as provide pedestrian and emergency access - usually di cult to do without on steep slopes. Immediate intensive veg management adjacent to homes can ensure vegetation does not light up right next to the home. Additional benefits possible in designing with fire can include food forests for community access and stewardship, access to biocultural resources for food crafts and tools, and creating pollinator corridors, specifically in the often forgotten mesic climate regions.
Considering Firefighters: the First Line of Defense
It is no question that firefighters are modern heros. Every time a wildfire occurs, they risk their lives to protect their community. In Hawaiʻi, the Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) is the primary responder for wildfires on lands managed by DOFAW, which accounts for 26% of the land statewide. DOFAW co-responds with county fire departments and federal agencies to an additional 32% which is determined by Mutual Aid Agreements and Memoranda of Agreement or Understanding. Thus, DOFAW is responsible for fire response for nearly 60% of the land statewide (DLNR, 2023). Proposed wildfire mitigation designs will advocate for firefighters to have better access to tricky slope conditions, propose planting strategies slow fire spread to gain control of the situation, and propose strategies overall that mitigate the severity of fire conditions to alleviate struggles that firefighters face.
Species Selection
One of the key strategies for enuring longevity of a less fire-prone landscape is through species selection. Comparing the behvior of certain native species again invasives can help disrupt the grassfire cycle by outcompeting invasive grasses. Taking trees for example, on the left is Haole Koa which is common in the WUI here. Haole Koa reacts extremely “well” to fire, and has the ability to reproduce post fires from huge amounts of seed dispersal. Comparing it with a native tree like Milo, Milo is able to shade out sun-loving grasses and has high moisture retention and doesnt burn as easily.
Looking at a shrubs and grasses, guinea grass is a fine fuel, is highly combustible, and spreads quickly. Plants like ʻaʻaliʻi can compete with it during a fire event by also spreading quickly, have quick seed establishment post fire, and act as a wind break.
Looking at groundcovers and grass, bu elgrass behaves very similarly to guinea grass during fires with high seed dispersal and combustion, whereas a plant like ʻuala can provide food and outcompete weeds with its ability to spread quickly. Essentially plant selection is about what can outcompete grassy weeds both during and after fire conditions.
Species Selection for Plant Palette
In determining appropriate species for the plant palette of this capstone, I created a web with selection factors. Factors include fire tolerance (ability to regenerate or survive in the event of fire), drought tolerance, wind tolerance, weed competition, biocultural value, pollinator friendliness, and goat palatability - in case grazers and used in an already established landscape and will eat around the beneficial plants for the weeds.
Plants were selected with a preference given to native plants, and organized on their compatibility with my project’s landscape typologies of food forest adjacent to community, blue/green firebreak in a stream, and green or pollinator corridor on a steep slope.
Mākaha Transect Design Phasing
Beginning to apply all of this research to design opportunity, the following pages depict the selected site transect in Mākaha ahupuaʻa. The site includes the typologies of community, stream and slope. Currently, when fires occur in this area, conditions are explosive, with seemingly endless dry fuel that borders on community and ridge top Wiliwili forest. The depicted existing wildfire condition drawing is not dissimilar to the real conditions of the 2018 fire.
The first phase of proposed intervention is about clearing existing vegetation, and implementing fire defense tools. Fuel removal can largely be done by grazers who can move between areas once cleared. Home landscaping in community perimeters, access roads from community to slope, and fire breaks at ridge top and bottom would be implemented.
In terms of design in these areas, using species selection and vegetation arrangement can ensure longevity of plantings, while adding additional benefits of pollinator corridors, biocultural resources and food forests.
During a wildfire event, this design proposal with help protect the community, and limit fire’s ability to move and grow. This design strategy is not meant to extinguish fires necessarily, but slow spread and intensity.
Design Phasing: Community Site
The reality of this design proposal is management-heavy. Using grazers can greatly reduce labor costs and e orts, while providing soil nutrients. To give a sense of scale, the following diagrams will zoom into each proposed site, organized by implementation phasing from existing conditions, to established.
The first site is community-adjacent. With current conditions, fire can spread rapidly and despite their being a small stream next to the area, embers can easily jump the stream. Fire embers account for 90% of destroyed homes in wildfire events, not close contact with the body of the fire.
The beginning of design phasing is initial vegetation clearing, by both grazers and human labor when possible. Moving forward beginning with the home should be prioritized, to minimize vegetation adjacent to the home.
As vegetation is continued to be cleared, it is important to replace that vegetation with the project’s plant palette to ensure grasses dont grow back. Access from the community to the proposed design area can also begin.
This routine continues, and as plants establish maintenance is needed to ensure weeds dont come back and compete with these new plants.
The end result for the community area is a stewarded food forest prioritized for community access, with a range of food and utility plant resources.
Design Phasing: Stream Site
The second site zoom-in is stream adjacent. The surrounding vegetation does not match a wetland or stream condition at all. In current fire conditions, embers can easily jump a thin stream and perpetuate fire extents.
Phase one of vegetation clearing can happen on both sides of stream, so that stream manipulation can begin. Widening the stream will discourage fire expansion, and create a natural floodplain for wetland plants.
As the stream widens, wetland species can be planted to encourage stream stabilization, sediment capture and water filtration.
In its established state, the stream edges become a stewarded riparian habitat, with a naturalized floodplain and plants that have biocultural function.
Design Phasing: Slope Site
The third and final site is upslope, toward existing conditions that fire really loves- a steep slope with fine fuel. Continuous dry fuel allows fire to travel quickly upslope because of “preheating” from rising heat. Fire also moves in the other direction, just at a slower pace.
Initial clearing begins at the bottom of the slope, to utilize an existing firebreak (Kili Drive).
Clearing moves up with planting following to help erosion control and weed suppression. Goats can easily traverse hillsides so they could be used more than people in this landscape typology. An access path for pedestrians and emergency vehicles also begins construction.
Clearing, planting and establishment continue until a Native-Dominant Green Corridor is established. Utility plants with biocultural function populate the landscape, providing a mesic transition space for pollinators and people. Patchy planting strategies are utilized to compete with weeds, provide wind breaks, and slow fire.
What’s Next?/Conclusion
To conclude, preemptive wildfire in Hawaiʻi is unique and should be treated as such. Landscape design can be used as a tool for wildfire intensity mitgation, and to therefore alleviate tragedy and pressure on firefighters.
Designing against the invasive, grassy nature of Hawaii’s WUI requires heavy management, but the nature of these proposed designs could become self-sustaining overtime.
Further development that could come from this capstone could include looking at areas around the Hawaiian Islands with similar landscape typologies to Makaha, i.e. community adjacency, stream conditions, and steep slopes. From what I understand, these areas are plentiful. I hope that this project can be of use to those working on the ground working on wildfire adaptation projects. Policy reform is also a next step, with a goal of funding allocations for long-term projects and sta .
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