Project Overview
Commodities
- Vegetables: taro
Practices
- Crop Production: water management
- Education and Training: extension, participatory research
- Sustainable Communities: community planning, food access and security, food sovereignty, local and regional food systems, other
Proposal abstract:
In Hawaii, water holds a central role in agricultural development and environmental preservation. However, the unsustainable practices of the extractive plantation economy, coupled with recent land grabs by wealthy stakeholders, and the expansion of tourism resorts, have led to fragmented watershed management and conflicting interests that undermine effective governance. Thus, this research aims to explore the power dynamics of water stewardship in the Wailua watershed, Kauai, Hawaii, by addressing the following questions:
- What are the power dynamics among various water stakeholders in the Wailua Watershed, and how do these dynamics influence decision-making and resource distribution?
- How can indigenous agricultural practices and ecological knowledge be integrated into watershed management to promote sustainability and resilience in the Wailua Watershed?
- What community-based water management approaches can be developed to improve resource access, advance sustainable agricultural practices, and build long-term food system resilience in the Wailua Watershed?
To address these questions, the project utilizes GIS modeling to visualize power dynamics in water management, incorporates indigenous knowledge into governance strategies, and employs interdisciplinary and mixed-method approaches to analyze the complex interconnections of the water-food-human waste nexus. Outreach efforts include collaboration with interdisciplinary partners such as a local farming NGO (IOW), kalo (taro) producer Adam Asquith, the oral history organization Story for All, and the environmental science institution SEI. These efforts involve conducting participatory workshops with rural and Native Hawaiian farming communities, engaging stakeholders in transparent governance processes, and co-developing solutions grounded in traditional practices. This project holds significant potential to improve water access and distribution, decrease reliance on imported food, and improve waste management practices. By presenting a comprehensive strategy for watershed stewardship, it serves as a replicable model for sustainable water governance and the revitalization of indigenous agricultural practices in other regions confronting post-plantation agricultural development issues.
During the 2025-2026 academic year, I completed extensive foundational work preparing for fieldwork in the Wailua Watershed. Throughout 2025, I conducted comprehensive literature review focusing on political ecology approaches to water governance, power dynamics among stakeholders, Indigenous water knowledge systems, and participatory governance frameworks, which informed the development of my three research questions. Beginning in early 2026, I began identifying key informants across multiple sectors, including state agencies, Indigenous community organizations, agricultural cooperatives, environmental advocacy groups, and local water users, and am developing semi-structured interview protocols that center community voices while remaining attentive to power differentials. However, the research timeline has experienced some delays; while semi-structured interviews are scheduled to begin in June 2026 as planned, the periodic informal interviews, focus groups, and public forums originally scheduled for mid-2026 have been postponed to summer 2026 through summer 2027. This adjustment allows for more thorough stakeholder power mapping analysis before engaging in broader community participatory activities, ensuring that subsequent research phases are well-informed by initial interview findings.
Project objectives from proposal:
Restoring water availability and management offers a transformative opportunity to address interconnected challenges. By validating traditional agricultural practices and laying the groundwork for sustainable agricultural expansion, this initiative aims to create a sustainable future. The project is planned to commence in July 2025 and conclude in June 2028. The proposed project focuses on these eventual outcomes or overall objectives:
- Sustainable Water and Waste Management: Current waste practices misuse potable water, leading to contamination and soil depletion. Relocating waste treatment facilities and adopting regenerative technologies can repurpose waste for agriculture and restore soil health. This project explores, with Native Hawaiians, solutions for sustainable water and waste management.
- Weather and Water Adaptation: Addressing shifting wind and precipitation patterns requires restoring native vegetation, improving water infrastructure efficiency, and developing strategies to strengthen the long-term productivity and stability of local agricultural and watershed systems.
- Food Security and Self-Sufficiency: Kauai's dependency on imported food is unsustainable. By engaging in this project and developing recommendations alongside researchers, Native Hawaiians can revive traditional farming practices, enhance local food production, and reduce reliance on external supplies.
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Community Stewardship: Supporting Native Hawaiian engagement in land and water stewardship is essential to the long-term success of this project. Integrating traditional cultural practices into watershed management builds community capacity, strengthens local agricultural systems, and preserves intergenerational knowledge of land and water care.
To achieve these objectives and outcomes, I ask the following research questions:
- Research Question 1:What are the power dynamics among various water stakeholders in the Wailua Watershed, and how do these dynamics influence decision-making and resource distribution?
- Research Question 2: How can indigenous agricultural practices and ecological knowledge be integrated into watershed management to promote sustainability and resilience in the Wailua Watershed?
- Research Question 3: What water management strategies can be developed to strengthen resource distribution, promote sustainable watershed stewardship, and build long-term agricultural productivity and local food system independence in the Wailua Watershed?
To support these research questions, I employ the following educational objectives:
- Educational Objective 1: Empower Community Participation in Water Quantity and Quality Monitoring using Citizen Science
- Educational Objective 2: Develop and Disseminate Educational Material on Water Management using Focus Groups and Oral Storytelling
- Educational Objective 3: Facilitate Collaborative Governance and Policy Development using Policy Roundtables