Many thanks to the KIRC staff for allowing me access to the island, especially Kui
Gapero the cultural division manager for hooking me up with understanding of the
island on a cultural level, and Carmella Noneza the KIRC’s GIS/IT manager for assisting
me in not only acquiring the data for this project, but motivating me to pursue a career
in GIS. Sarah Mclane for guiding all of us students through 150 and 180 and giving us
the knowledge to succeed in this field. Finally thanks to you for reading this whole
presentation, hope you take away some knowledge from this project, Aloha!
It was only a year ago that I first set foot on Kahoolawe. We have all heard the
stories, maybe even be old enough to remember the shaking that would pulse
through Maui when a bomb or rocket would detonate on island. What was left
behind after the goats, and ranching, the bombing, and the cleanup was a
remote desolate shell of her former self. Even so I consider myself lucky to be
chosen to go to this island just for the opportunity to give back. Using this GIS
course as my way, my medium of showing my respect and hopefully healing the
wounds of Kahoolawe.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The methods I plan on using to save as many site as possible include unifying,
and intersecting Data layers provided from the KIRC, our teacher, and the data I have
gone out to island to collect to try and not only portray the danger these site are in, but
maybe how we can fix or at least slow the damage being caused to the sites.
Problem Statement
The “Problem” I present wasn’t show much hard to find, as it was hard
to pick “which one”. There was so many problems that I feel GIS could help fix
on Kahoolawe. The one problem I settled on was the “saving” of cultural sites
located on island.
While there are over 3000 unique features and sites around the island as
far as cultural and archeological sites, there are varying degrees of importance,
and even more important varying degrees of danger that certain sites may be in.
Dangers to a “site” may include things like wind and water erosion; in
many areas all of the topsoil has run off leaving the “hardpan” under it exposed.
This hardpan does nothing to stop wind and rain water so as it continues to
build up it can and has literally wash away entire sites. Another danger is the
Unexploded Ordinance (UXO) left over after the military’s’ use of the island. The
multi-million dollar clean up still left approximately 33% of the land uncleared,
and only 10% of the island able to be used heavily (able to dig, use heavy
machinery, etc), also 100% of the coastline was left uncleared. A final danger is
funding, as the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission is slowing using up the
last of their money without any relief in sight. As per the laws currently, the
island cannot be used for any commercial purpose therefore has no real way of
producing income for itself yet.
Methodology
From top left heading clockwise:
-Sailors Hat
-Astrological / Birthing Stone
-Petroglyphs
-The Hardpan
Results, Discussion & Implications
I realize that this task is monumental to say the least, but I view myself as just
cog in a greater machine. If we can all take this knowledge provided from the GIS field
and use it to eventually save not only these sites but in the process Kahoolawe as a
whole.
As the famous patriot for the island George Helm once said, "There is man and
there is environment. One does not supersede the other. The breath in man is the breath
of Papa. Man is merely the caretaker of the land that maintains his life and nourishes his
soul. Therefore, the ʻâina is sacred. The church of life is not in a building, it is the open
sky, the surrounding ocean, the beautiful soil...." (Helm) That kind of sums up my
purpose here, we are not made to own the land but to take care of it, and learn from it.
The island of Kahoolawe has been to a rough history, it has been everything
from a place to store goats, a penal colony, ranch land, a military training site (or place
of illegal occupation depending on the viewpoint); all the way to war-torn shadow of an
island (or the possible re-birth place of a Kingdom depending on the viewpoint). As a
Veteran of the United States Navy, I understand the need of a training area to hone a
fleet’s skill to perform as the “World’s Greatest Navy”. As a Hawaiian by blood, I also
understand the plight of using a once sacred island as a plaything just to see things go
BOOM!
But way more important than the other two things that I am, is that I
understand what is done is done. You cannot go back in time and stop what happened,
and wasting time and Mana on kicking a dead horse is unnecessary. What we can and
should do is find and use technology (like GIS) to help heal the island.
Results I hope to find are to try and lay out a “battle-plan” to possibly stop or
slow the erosion so that either more generations can enjoy or learn about/from these
sites or further action can be taken to save the sites permanently. The main thing is to
provide a learning place for the future.
The things I hope to achieve doing this project are, to raise awareness about the
island. Everyone in Hawaii knows about the island but do they know the real dangers it
is in? Also with increased awareness is get the attention of the law makers. Without their
help in funding, these programs that rely on that money would quickly fade into pages
of history along with the island as a whole. The future generations will never get the
chance to do what I did; set foot on the island, gain knowledge from the island, and
most importantly give back to the island.
•(ESRI) "ArcGIS | Main." ArcGIS | Main. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.
•"George Helm." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.
•Burlingame, Burl. "Man of Song Died Pursuing Sovereignty." Honolulu Star-
Bulletin Local News. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.
Saving Kaho`olaweBy Brandon Kaimiola Speelman
GIS 180 – Ecosystem Management
References
Figure 2: UXO Clearance Map. As you can see with 33% of the island inaccessible due to
explosives; majority of these areas haven’t even searched for Archeological/ Cultural sites, let
alone know if they are in danger from erosion
Figure 1: This Central Map shows a “hillshade” as the base layer, with the more than 3000 different Archeological and Cultural sites
scattered around the island. At the corners you will see zoomed in areas of concentrations of sites that are of interest to be studied
and/or in danger of being destroyed.
Figure 4 – This map shows the `Ili boundaries, Road system, and
riverbeds over a “visible light” spectrum basemap.
Figure 3 – For this map, I used multi-band imagery that shows the vegetation of the island in a
pink hue; while the desolate “hardpan” is tinted green. Also I dropped in the points that I
actually took while on island including:
Basecamp – our base of operations
Sailors Hat – a site used by the U.S. Navy where they detonated 500 tons of TNT to study blast
effects, and leave a gaping crater in the island
Petroglyphs- just a small sample of the artwork left behind by the ancient Hawaiians
Navigators Seat- the one place in the state where you can see every island in the chain except
Kauai and Ni`ihau
Lua Makika- a site in the main crater of the island where the KIRC is starting a nursery to
hopefully restore native plants to the island
Gulch Start- the very beginning of a gulch that is washing away tons of earth every rainfall, and
posing a threat to those Petroglyphs south of it.
Astrological/Birthing Stone- a large flat bell stone with carvings and other man-made features
that’s unique to not only the state but the entire Pacific; is also teetering on the edge of the
aforementioned Gulch.
Photo by: Tony Novak-Clifford