Professor of landscape architecture Judith Stilgenbauer and her UHCDC team have completed a two-year, state-funded applied research, analysis and proof-concept design project, South Shore Promenade and Coastal Open Space Network Study: Resilience and Connectivity by Design (link to screen-view PDF).

This 450-page report serves as a visionary educational tool aimed at fostering dialogue about future planning along the south shore of the primary urban center of Honolulu, which stretches from Diamond Head to Pearl Harbor. More broadly, the project intends to further the contemporary local and global discourse on climate-resilient, adaptive urban waterfront development in tropical island settings. The work visualizes possible long-term sea level rise scenarios and speculative, nature-based living shoreline design solutions.

The project’s four guiding principles, which form the basis for the structure of the research and carry throughout the multi-scalar planning and design proposals—balanced in mutually beneficial ways—include: climate-change resilience, ecosystem performance, connectivity, and placemaking.

The project has recently been featured by UH News, Honolulu Star Advertiser, Hawaii News Now, Hawaii Public Radio, Associated Press, U.S. News & World Report, The Telegraph, and other news outlets.