Silver Jackets: Many Partners, One team

SILVER JACKETS

Many Partners, One Team

 

For More Information Contact

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Honolulu District, Email, 808-835-4203

Hawai'i Silver Jackets Interagency Collaboration Team

The Hawai’i Silver Jackets Interagency Collaboration Team was formally established in August 2021. The Team is focused on actions to implement the vision, mission and goals of the 2020 Hawai’i Ocean Resources Management Plan (ORMP).

VISION STATEMENT

The vision for Hawai‘i’s resources is a healthy island ecosystem that fosters social and economic sustainability through the preservation and restoration of Hawai‘i’s unique cultural and environmental values.

MISSION STATEMENT

The ORMP supports collaboration to address Hawai‘i’s resource management issues and encourages holistic stewardship from land to sea.

ORMP GUIDING PERSPECTIVES OR PRINCIPLES

  • Connect Land and Sea
  • Preserve our Ocean Heritage
  • Promote Collaboration and Stewardship
  • Adapt to Changing Conditions

DEVELOPMENT AND COASTAL HAZARDS FOCUS AREA GOAL

Develop a statewide integrated shoreline management strategy to address the compounding impacts to Hawai’i’s shorelines of coastal development, climate change and sea level rise, erosion and other chronic coastal hazards.

PROPOSED COMPONENTS FOR GOAL SUCCESS

The following projects and initiatives are proposed actions to be considered by the Focus Area I Action Team as well as the Hawaiʼi Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation Commission and may be further refined. These components are not ordered or prioritized unless otherwise noted.

  • Inventory and analyze critical infrastructure assets along the shoreline threatened by chronic and episodic coastal hazards and future sea level rise projections. Conduct vulnerability assessments and assess options for protection, accommodation, and retreat of public infrastructure as sea levels rise.
  • Identify suitable geographic scale for shoreline adaptation planning based on coastal processes.
  • Determine barriers to proactive shoreline adaptation and actionable policy strategies to surmount them.
  • Examine barriers to beach nourishment, including impacts to coastal habitats (offshore sand sources, sandy beach ecosystems), cost, and regulatory requirements (i.e. dewatering of sand).
  • Study the feasibility of utilizing ‘nature-based solutions’ on Hawaiʼi's high-energy shorelines to manage and mitigate erosion.
  • Study the impacts of sea level rise projections on cultural and archeological resources, such as gathering sites, loko i’a, fishponds or fish traps, heiau, place of worship, shrine, and ki’i pohaku, petroglyphs.
  • Incorporate a managed retreat or strategic relocation analysis in all action team projects/studies to help develop criteria for this adaptation strategy as identified in Assessing the Feasibility and
  • Implications of Managed Retreat Strategies for Vulnerable Coastal Areas in Hawai’i

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers supports state-led Silver Jackets Teams through its Flood Risk Management Program.