The city Department of Planning and Permitting says it’s kicked off a nearly $400,000 pilot project to study the impacts of climate change and sea level rise on Oahu’s prime tourist zone.
In August, DPP says it started the study — “Adapt Waikiki 2050” — to essentially look at the toll taken on the island’s global, beachfront destination, which annually generates billions of dollars in tourism revenue to the island as well as the state.
According to DPP, the study will be run by three engineering and construction management firms: Tetra Tech, the lead
consultant, as well as
Honolulu-based SSFM International Inc. and Workshop Green LLC.
The city’s consultant contract is for $399,557, while the project is planned for completion by late 2025, DPP says.
The goal of “Adapt Waikiki 2050” is to create “a unified outlook for city infrastructure in light of anticipated impacts by climate change and sea level rise,” DPP says. The plan will note current impacts observed in the Waikiki area “during king tides and episodic heavy rain events as a starting point for understanding future projected conditions due to sea level rise.”
The work will be overseen by the city’s One Water Panel — composed of directors and staff from nine city departments including DPP, the Department of Environmental Services, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency — as “a demonstration/pilot project for coordinating long-range infrastructure adaptation across agencies,” DPP says.
Eventually, the “Adapt Waikiki 2050” plan will make recommendations to the city.
The project might uncover gaps in regulatory procedures and processes and institutional capacity needed to better meet current state and county guidance for sea level rise adaptation, according to DPP. If so, recommendations would be made for further study or actions.
DPP says it expects to have a project website up in a couple of months.
Coinciding with DPP’s study of Waikiki, the Honolulu City Council is also considering potential legislation over sea level rise and its impacts on the island’s 30,000-room tourist destination as well.
On Aug. 31, Council Chair Tommy Waters introduced Resolution 207, which seeks to amend the city’s Land Use Ordinance in order to have greater regulation over the inspection and maintenance of Waikiki’s shoreline hotels.
If adopted in bill form, the resolution — which is still undergoing Council scrutiny — will require hotels built on a shoreline lot in the Waikiki Special District to have a structural inspection performed within three years of the bill’s adoption and then every four years thereafter.
The resolution states that Waikiki’s oceanfront hotels — being older than ones built outside Waikiki — would be the focus. To that end, owners of Waikiki shoreline hotels would have to arrange for structural
inspections to be performed, and owners would be responsible for all
costs associated with
those inspections.
Licensed architects and engineers would also need to be part of the “visual examination” of the affected hotels.
If structural problems are discovered, Resolution 207 would allow DPP’s director to “prescribe timelines and penalties with respect to compliance.”
According to Waters, his resolution urges public safety first with regard to a changing global climate.
“Sea level rise isn’t a distant threat; it’s happening now, and we must take tangible steps to ensure that impacted areas like Waikiki remain safe and thriving,” Waters said Oct. 18 during the Council’s Executive
Management Committee meeting.
But hoteliers opposed the resolution as it would impose greater costs.
Sean Dee, Outrigger Hospitality Group’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said Resolution 207 also “duplicates existing practices for hotel owners and narrowly targets hotels in Waikiki.”
He added that Outrigger properties undergo “major renovations” every seven to 10 years — work that typically costs the company
$50 million to $100 million.
“It’s frequent,” Dee said of renovations to company hotels. “And they start with assessment of the structural integrity: the foundations, the pilings, the basements. And that’s just something that’s a normal part of the process.”
Meanwhile, an expert on the subject of sea level rise endorsed Resolution 207.
Chip Fletcher, a geologist and climate scientist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said Waikiki — and much of urban Honolulu — is experiencing rising salt water that, on a daily basis, has an overwhelmingly corrosive effect on man-made structures and buried
utilities.
“In fact, the water table under Waikiki actually goes up and down with tides because it is directly connected to the ocean,” Fletcher said at the meeting. “And that salt water in the ground is flooding into the basements of buildings all across Waikiki, even as we speak, with every high tide; it’s a very common problem, and it threatens the integrity of the foundations of these buildings.”
