Creating a Community-based Hilo Bay Resilience and Watershed Management Plan

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Consultant Contract

The Department of Research and Development has contracted wiht Lynker Corporation to fulfill the scope of work outlined in Request for Proposals #4702, Addendum #1, and Addendum #2.

Project Overview

This project is made possible through a $2,000,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, with funding from the Department of Defense. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Award Award ID 0318.24.080571, U.S Department of Defense FC R 506 CFDA 12.017, Date of Award, August 13, 2024.

The Creating a Community-based Hilo Bay Resilience and Watershed Management Plan project aims to develop a plan that not only addresses the ongoing issue of water quality in Hilo Bay, but also creates a data-informed roadmap for stewarding the State's largest watershed area. While the emphasis is on nature-based solutions, all alternatives for ensuring coastal resilience will be considered.

This three-year planning project will also feature community engagement activities. A Stakeholder Advisory Committee of Hilo Bay community members, nonprofit organizations, educators, scientists, and regulatory agencies are guiding the process and will co-create meaningful public engagement opportunities.

Click image below to open the map.

Project Description

Create a coastal hazard community resilience and watershed management plan that recommends nature-based solutions for mitigating flooding, sea-level rise, and climate change coastal events that affect residents, businesses, infrastructure, cultural practices, and natural resources. The plan, which will affect the Hilo Bay Watershed and the coastal area along Hilo Bay, will propose solutions that align with community needs and values, preferred implementation schedules; magnitude of cost estimates; potential funding sources and financing methods; impact goals, and evaluation measures.

Project Abstract

This community-based project will develop an implementable plan intended to provide nature-based solutions that will enhance community resilience along the Hilo Bay coastline and within the Hilo Bay Watershed area. Coastal hazards to be addressed include flooding events, hurricanes, storm surges, tsunamis, the uncontrolled spread of invasive species and pathogens, and other climate change events. Solutions will protect existing community assets including residences, schools, traditional gathering places, cultural sites of significance, transportation infrastructure, businesses, parks, and open spaces. Proposed solutions will also protect the Watershed's unique ecosystem, and critical habitats for endemic, endangered marine species, flora and fauna.

Project Status

Final award and notice to proceed from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) was received in mid-August. See the Grant and Award Timeline graphic below.
Planning Consultant RFP Number 4702 Published December 27, 2024.
- Addendum 1 to RFP 4702 published January 15, 2025, extended proposal deadline to March 10, 2025.
- Addendum 2 to RFP 4720 published March 10, 2025, extended proposal deadline to April 14, 2025.
April 21 - April 25, 2025: RFP 4720 Proposal Review
April 30, 2025: Proposal Review Completed
June 10, 2025: Received amendment approval from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to extend the award Period of Performance to November 30, 2027.
September 11, 2025: Contract executed.
Coming soon: First Community Advisory Committee meeting.

Community Advisory Committee

A volunteer advisory committee comprised of community members, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and government agencies are providing R&D, the County, and the planning team throughout the progress of this project.

The following committee members - individuals and organizations - have provided permission to list their names on this site. Many more are involved.

Big Island Resource Conservation and Development Council
Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance
Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center (PACRC), University of Hawaiʻi Hilo
State of Hawaiʻi Department of Health, Surface Water Protection Branch
Three Mountain Alliance
Steven Bergfeld, Hawaiʻi Branch Manager, State of Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife
Toni Bissen, Executive Director, Pūʻā Foundation - Punahoa Heritage Forest
Dr. Steven Colbert, Associate Professor, University of Hawai'i at Hilo, Marine Science Department
Rhiannon Tereariʻi Chandler ʻIao
Beth Dykstra, County of Hawaiʻi, Department of Research & Development
Kiko Johnston-Kitazawa
Huihui Kanahele-Mossman, PhD, Executive Director, Edith Kanaka'ole Foundation
Eric Kapono
Cherie Kauahi
Stan Lawrence, CEO, Orchid Land Surfboards, Inc.
Erik Lash, County of Hawaiʻi
Tim Lloyd, Big Island Genki Ball Project. E.M. Awareness
Scott Miyashiro, Program Specialist, Hawaiʻi State Department of Health - Surface Water Protection Branch
Robert Nishimoto
Susie Osborne, Hoʻoulu Lāhui
Emma Yuen
Sharon Ziegler-Chong, Associate Director, Land and Ocean Conservation Futures University of Hawaiʻi System. Office of the Vice President of Research & Innovation

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

NFWF 2023 COASTAL RESLIENCE FUND PROGRAM PRIORITIES

All projects under this program must demonstrate dual benefits to both coastal communities and habitats. The NCRF supports projects that will result in the creation and/or restoration of natural systems to increase the resilience of communities from coastal hazards and improve habitats for fish and wildlife species.

Award decisions will be made based on regional circumstances and needs, but all proposals must address the following priorities:

Nature-Based Solutions: Projects must focus on identifying or implementing natural, nature-based or hybrid solutions, such as restoring coastal marshes, reconnecting floodplains, rebuilding dunes or other natural buffers, or installing living shorelines (hereinafter “nature-based solutions”).
Community Resilience Benefit: Projects must show clear benefits in terms of reducing current and projected threats to communities from natural coastal hazards, including, but not limited to: sea-level rise, lake-level change, coastal erosion, increased frequency and intensity of storms, and impacts from other chronic or episodic factors (e.g., nuisance flooding during high tides, permafrost melt) (hereinafter collectively “coastal hazards”).
Fish and Wildlife Benefit: Projects must help to improve habitats for fish and wildlife species. Proposals should be as specific as possible in identifying the anticipated benefits to habitats and species that will result from the project proposed.

Further priority will be given to projects that demonstrate:

Community Impact and Engagement: Projects that provide risk reduction or job creation benefits to underserved or tribal (both federally recognized tribes and those tribes that are not federally recognized) communities and directly engage community members in project design and implementation will be prioritized for funding. Projects that are informed by Indigenous Traditional Knowledge (ITK), promote tribal co-stewardship, and/or that protect or enhance habitat for subsistence species or contribute to tribal food security are also encouraged. Projects should engage community-level partners (e.g., community-based or tribal organizations, community leaders, municipalities, NGOs, local installation representatives) to help design, implement, and maintain projects; secure maximum benefits for communities; and ensure sustainability and long-term maintenance post-grant award. Projects that are community-led, incorporate outreach to communities, foster community engagement, and pursue collaborative management leading to measurable conservation benefits are encouraged.
Innovation, Transferability and Sustainability: NFWF encourages projects that seek to re-shape our thinking on what constitutes coastal community resilience to climate impacts as experienced across different geographies, including approaches that use innovative and sustainable approaches for addressing coastal hazards; in consideration of future climate risks, and that are transferable, scalable and catalytic. Projects will be prioritized if they include specific plans for adaptively managing and/or transferring and scaling the resilience approaches developed through the project to ensure broader impact and integration into other government plans, programs, or policies in the community or region.

NFWF Coastal Resilience Resources:

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Coastal Resilience Evaluation and Siting Tool (CREST). CREST is used to make informed decisions about the siting of coastal restoration and resilience projects.

See the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's 2020 Hawaiʻi Coastal Resilience Assessment, prepared by the UNC Asheville National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center, Asheville, NC.

Hilo Bay Watershed - Previous Studies, Proposals, and Plans

The new Community-based Hilo Bay Resilience and Watershed Management Plan will build on the considerable work already completed by community, educational, and agency partners.

Guiding Documents for the Community-Based Hilo Bay Resilience and Watershed Management Plan project:

Watershed Maps and Water Body Conditions

Atlas of Hawaiian watersheds and their aquatic resources, Hilo Region, Bishop Museum

EPA How's My Waterway -Water Body Conditions along Hilo Bay

Bishop Museum - Atlas of Hawaiian Watersheds and Their Aquatic Resources - Hilo Region, 2008

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - National Levee Database

Hawaiʻi Ocean and Coastal Resilience

Hawaiʻi Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report, 2022 Update. Hawaiʻi State Climate Commission.
Hawaiian Islands National Shoreline Management Study - Institute for Water Resources, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Honolulu District
Hawaiʻi Regional Sediment Management Needs Assessment - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center, July 2014
Coastal Lands Program, Department of Land and Natural Resources Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands
Coastal Hazards, State of Hawaiʻi Office of Planning and Sustainable Development
Statewide Coastal Highway Program Report Final 8/21/2019, Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation Highways Division. The objective of this project is to develop a scientifically rigorous methodology to assess and rank the susceptibility of State of Hawaiʻi coastal roads to erosion and structural degradation due to ocean hazards such as waves, currents, tides and sea level rise.
SNAPP Science for Nature and People Partnership Coastal Protection Toolkit. This 3 part toolkit from WCS and SNAPP’s Improving Coastal Health working group offers users tools and strategies for pollution assessment and monitoring and methods for the collection of in-situ water quality data to help safeguard coastal climate strongholds.
A guide for pollution assessment and monitoring in coastal ecosystems

Hawaiʻi Natural Resource Protection Plans

The Hawaiʻi Ocean Resources Management Plan, 2020, Hawaiʻi Coastal Zone Management
Hawaiʻi Coastal and Estuarine-Land Conservation Plan, Hawaiʻi Coastal Zone Management
Hawaiʻi Coral Reef Strategy 2030: Ecosystem Planning Priorities in the Main Hawaiian Islands, Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources
Hawaiʻi State Wildlife Action Plan, Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Wildlife Program
30 X 30 Watershed Initiative, Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife
Hawaiʻi Forest Action Plan, Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife
Hawaiʻi Fish Habitat Partnership Strategic Plan, 2010
Hawaiʻi State Wildlife Action Plan, Department of Land and Natural Resources
National Endangered Species Act (ESA) Critical Habitat Mapper (v1.0) by the National Marine Fisheries Service
He‘eia National Estuarine Research Reserve Management Plan 2016–2021

Water Quality Plans

Wastewater

Water Supply

Agriculture

Best Management Practices

Department of Hawaiian Home Lands

Department of Hawaiian Home Lands King's Landing Kuleana Homestead Settlement Plan - Final Environmental Assessment, October 2024

Downtown Hilo

Community Disaster Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plans

Invasive Species

January 2022 Hawaiʻi Interagency Biosecurity Plan (2017–2027) Progress Report, Hawaiʻi Invasive Species Council

Economic Development Infrastructure

Environmental Services

Economic benefits of hydrologic services from watershed protection and restoration, UHERO, 2020
Hawaiʻi Coral Ecological Services and Functions Assessment Tool (CAT), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2024. The goal of the CAT is to provide a numeric value of the ecological worth of individual corals that would be impacted by a proposed activity. The Corps can then use this value to assess the need for avoidance, minimization, and/or compensation to offset the loss of impacted corals.

Indigenous Knowledge

The Hawaiian Ahupua‘a Land Use System: Its Biological Resource Zones and the Challenge for Silvicultural Restoration, Bishop Museum.
Lehia Project, Kelii William Ioane Legacy Foundation. The foundation’s focus is to establish practices that reconnect the kanaka with the ʻāina by preserving and protecting the cultural, historical, and archeological heritage and life of King’s Landing, Lehia and Puʻumaile Park as well as provide proper management protocols of land and water resources in these areas in order to sustain future growth.
Loko Iʻa Needs Assessment, Hui Mālama Loko I‘a 2020
Hawaiʻi Climate Data Portal - Cultural Resources

Through interesting conversations Jason Scott Lee learns about Hawaiʻi’s fragile fresh water supply and discovers connections to our upland forest environment.

Watershed Planning Resources

USDA Forest Service

Hawaiʻi Department of Health

Hawaiʻi Department of Health Clean Water Branch Watershed Program Webpage. Hawaiʻi island watersheds with DOH-approved watershed-based plans. Watersheds with a TMDL are noted; the full TMDL reports are available on the Clean Water Branch’s Integrated Report and TMDL webpage.
- Pelekane Bay Watershed Management Plan (2005)
- Waiʻulaʻula Watershed Management Plan (2011)
Hawaiʻi Nonpoint Source Management Plan, 2021-2025, State of Hawaiʻi Department of Health
Hawaiʻi Administrative Rules HAR-11-54 Water Quality Standards, State of Hawaiʻi Department of Health
Sanitary Surveys in Hawaiʻi: A Framework, 2003, prepared for U.S. EPA Region IX and Hawaiʻi Department of Health

Department of Land and Natural Resources

State of Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife 30 x 30 Watershed Initiative and the Aloha+ Dashboard: Tracking Progress in the Protection of Watershed Forests

Hawaiʻi Coastal Zone Management

Hawaiʻi Watershed Guidance - A report prepared for the Hawai`i Office of Planning Coastal Zone Management by Tetra Tech EM, Inc. August 2010

Watershed Management Plans in Hawaiʻi

Watershed Management Organizations

National and International Publications and Organizations

Managing Watersheds for Coral Reefs and Public Health: A Vibrant Oceans Initiative Whitepaper. This paper presents innovative solutions that incentivize the large-scale, sustained action required to both improve water quality in watersheds and prevent water quality impacts on coral reef ecosystems. The solutions use holistic approaches to integrated watershed management that bridge social and ecological systems and provide important co-benefits to human well-being.

Climate Resilient Sanitation Coalition (CRSC)

Cultural and Social History

Nature-based Solutions Guidance

Nature-based solutions are actions to protect, sustainably manage, or restore natural or modified ecosystems to address societal challenges, simultaneously providing benefits for people and the environment.

United Nations Environment Assembly. 2020. Resolution adopted by the United Nations Environment Assembly on 2 March 2022—Nature-based solutions for supporting sustainable development, UNEP/EA.5/Res.5.