CIVIC-PG Track A: Community-driven Evaluation and Adoption of Innovative Approaches and Technologies to Enhance Wildfire Resilience on Maui

This Civic Innovation Challenge Planning Grant (CIVIC-PG) supports research on integrating scientific and traditional local knowledge, data, skills, and strategies to enhance community resilience to natural hazards, specifically wildfires. In August 2023, the Hawaiʻi Wildfires (also known as the Maui Wildfires) caused more than 100 deaths and damaged or destroyed around 3,000 buildings, leading to the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century.

The fires inflicted the most significant damage on the historic town of Lāhainā, and to a lesser extent in Upper Kula. Residents of Hawaiʻi, especially those on Maui, believe that the wildfires have provided a unique opportunity to learn important lessons and strengthen the resilience of local communities. Close collaboration between communities, local authorities, and researchers is critical to creating sustainable solutions for coping with climate and environmental instabilities and mitigating the impact of future wildfires.

The on-site activities undertaken by this project promote community-level stewardship of lands through clearance and restoration. It also enables local families, communities, and agencies to improve their capacity to detect, prepare for, respond to and recover from wildfires. Moreover, this pilot project enhances the university’s partnership with underserved communities and non-profit organizations across Hawaiʻi to augment research, training, and communication.

The outcomes of this project benefit a diverse group of stakeholders, including community planners, government agencies, land developers, and residents in fire-prone areas.

By forming a partnership between the university, local communities, and government agencies, this project seeks to build capacity and collaboratively design a model for local land stewardship. It strengthens ecological, social, cultural, and technological resilience to the increasing wildfire risk through: 1) collaboration with community members to integrate diverse approaches, data, and knowledge of land cover/land use changes to improve local-level land management; 2) community education and outreach to organize classes and workshops and deliver informational materials to citizens; 3) piloting fuel reduction and native species restoration; 4) technology integration and communication to rapidly detect wildfires and improve interconnection among community members; and 5) collaboration with local government agencies to design invasive species management plans, develop early warning systems, and improve post-fire recovery efforts.

This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program’s Track A. Climate and Environmental Instability - Building Resilient Communities through Co-Design, Adaption, and Mitigation and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.