Ala Wai Watershed Collaboration

Hawaiʻi Green Growth, along with a contractor from the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program, gathered data for each pin in a stakeholder engagement process during the summer of 2021. Pins are anticipated to be updated on an annual basis. The mapped pins reflect community-driven progress in advancing the sustainability and resiliency of the Ala Wai Watershed through multiple pathways: restoration; civic engagement/volunteer efforts; education; technology/innovation; and technical analysis/monitoring. Each pin is color coded to reflect the partner’s work in one of these categories, and a key can be found in the first element of the index’s table of contents. To learn more about a specific partner or project, click on their pin to prompt a pop-up window with additional information.

This instrument prioritizes locally relevant measures of success, practical implementation considerations, and design economics. Distinct from other project assessment rubrics, this tool seeks to broaden the user’s understanding of our responsibility to steward the environment and each other by developing mainstream planning perspectives through local and indigenous knowledge systems. The Mālama Implementation Tool is currently being utilized in a feasibility study of eight AWWC partner-led projects throughout the watershed.

The tool additionally reflects the six goals of the Aloha+ Challenge through its 28 measures of success. Each measure has been cross-walked against the Aloha+ Challenge targets, and once a user completes their project assessment, the tool creates a visual report of which Aloha+ goals their plans make progress on. Scoring well with this tool should indicate project features such as high levels of community engagement, support for green job opportunities and the transition to a circular economy, and an emphasis on the application of Hawaiian cultural values and knowledge, all of which work towards Hawaiʻi’s statewide sustainability commitments.