Water Resources

The Hawaiʻi water code outlines a progressive water management strategy which seeks to protect water as a public trust resource. UHERO has collaborated widely to develop integrated modeling to:  1) help to incorporate public trust uses of water (e.g. springs and groundwater dependent ecosystems) into groundwater sustainable yield; 2) assess the potential impacts of climate change on water resources; and 3) evaluate the costs and benefits of watershed protection in terms of groundwater recharge and other ecosystem services. UHERO is also working on a case study to understand the social impacts of the Red Hill jet fuel spill of 2021 (which will form part of Geography and UHERO graduate student, Tara Sutton’s PhD)