Abstract
The Hawaii Coastal Use Mapping Project is an innovative partnership between NOAA's National Marine Protected Areas Center, NOAA's Pacific Islands Regional Office, the Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources, and NOAA's Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center. The project was designed to enhance ocean management by gathering geospatial data on human uses of the nearshore ocean environment in the Kawaihae-Keahole region of Hawaii Island. It has provided an unprecedented, comprehensive, consistent and spatially explicit picture of human uses for management agencies, policy makers and stakeholders interested in sound and equitable ocean governance. Using participatory GIS concepts and applications, the mapping project generated spatial data and map products illustrating patterns, intensity, and qualitative information on both extractive and non-extractive/recreational uses. The resulting datasets depict patterns of ocean use on a broad scale appropriate for a variety of ocean planning and management needs. Specifically, the data will be used by DAR and The Nature Conservancy in a Conservation Action Planning process engaging local stakeholders in resource management and protection.