Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy

The Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy (ICAP) facilitates a sustainable, climate-conscious future for Hawaiʻi, the Pacific, and global island communities.  The Center produces innovative, interdisciplinary research and real-world solutions to island decision-makers in the public and private sectors.  As a focal point for University of Hawaiʻi climate expertise, the Center serves as a two-way conduit between the university and island communities to catalyze climate change adaptation and resiliency.

An Interdisciplinary Endeavor

ICAP is a diverse body that coordinates research, education, and policy recommendations through a team of academic specialists in UH Mānoa’s Planning, Ocean Science, Hawaiian Studies departments and the Law School. While these institutions are the primary source for Center-related research and work product, the Center encourages participation and topic-specific contributions, and specifically solicits the expertise of various researchers and faculty, from all departments on the UH campus in order to achieve its mission and provide top-notch climate data and solution-sets.

• Science. Affiliate faculty and graduate students at SOEST and other departments provide updated climate data and models for inclusion in Center work product. Additionally, the Center coordinates specific research projects requested and/or contracted by island communities via outreach efforts. Facing an uncertain climate future that likely includes sea-level rise, precipitation changes, and heightened storm vulnerability, island community sustainability and resiliency requires a range of scientific and engineering tools. For example, rainfall pattern changes are likely to impact negatively aquifer recharge, increase the frequency and intensity of flooding, disrupt food security, and raise public health issues related to climate change. Strong scientific data and models can help improve the capability of communities to predict and better accommodate shifting climate patterns and reduce negative long-term impacts.
• Policy. The Center Director, students, and participating fellows at the Law School translate scientific research and modeling with regard to climate change into policy white papers, and also recommend science-based implementation strategies for laws currently on the books. These efforts may include: assisting the Hawaiʻi Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Task Force in development of an effective and equitable regulatory framework to achieve state emissions reduction targets under Act 234 and auditing Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes and County Codes to identify laws that intersect with climate issues.
• Planning. Affiliates at DURP and related departments bring a climate-critical eye to planning and infrastructure projects, enhance island resiliency via model adaptive projects, and engage in public-private partnerships with foundations and green technology groups to test and refine adaptation and hazard mitigation strategies. DURP also investigates the potential for a graduate-level Island Policy curriculum and certificate program via interdisciplinary Center offerings.
• Indigenous Environmental Knowledge. Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge brings a perspective often overlooked in contemporary initiatives for addressing climate change. That perspective includes the environmental knowledge developed by the people who have inhabited these islands for millennia. Faculty and students of both Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies and Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian language bring a capacity for research into Hawaiian language and other indigenous sources of information to assist in integrating data found, articulating ancestral wisdom that has relevance to the mission of the Center and can complement efforts made by other partners.

A Vital Addition to the UH Community

ICAP makes a significant contribution to UH’s educational and scholarly mission by educating a new generation of climate-conscious leaders. The Center builds upon the University of Hawaiʻi’s strong tradition of sustainability scholarship and education, to significantly enhance UH Mānoa’s institutional excellence in the areas of Law, Planning, Earth and Ocean Science, and Climate Change.
 

Contact

Maxine Burkett
Associate Professor of Law
Director, Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy
(808) 956-2865
burkettm@hawaii.edu