A Resilient Ecological Development of Ala Wai Golf Course: Symbiosis Between Buildings, Communities and Urban Waterways

Abstract

Between the years 2050, 2075, and 2100, the rising seas will encroach and overtake Oahu's low-lying coastal communities, such as Waikiki. Nature will take over the artificial lands that compose Oahu's present shoreline. Envision where existing street corridors, once populated with pedestrian movement and cars' hustle and bustles, return to becoming streams and canals. Such an image sparks a resemblance with that of Venice, Italy—a city which exists side-by-side, in a complex relationship with water and its tempering heights. With sea level rise threats looming soon, discussions point toward abandoning coastal environments and relocating to higher ground. This project aims to nullify the concept of retreat and abandonment by opting to envision a future where ecology, density, and users can coexist with flooding. The selected site context of this project is the Ala Wai Canal which is a 2-mile drainage channel enabling the construction of Waikiki. Currently, the Ala Wai Canal cannot handle the 100-year flood event (an extreme rain event with a 1-percent chance of occurring each year). The immense hydromodification that happened during the canal’s construction eradicated the native ecosystem and created poor drainage conditions in its wake. Of the lands surrounding the canal, the Ala Wai Golf Course is the focus site of this project. Its landscape has a natural ability to hold water and perform ecological remediation to improving the water quality of the Ala Wai Canal. In its present state, the 146-acre site is vastly underutilized when, in fact, it can be reimagined to answer rising concerns for ecological health, flood resilience, and increased density in the next few decades. Therefore, the purpose of this proposal is to reimagine the Ala Wai Golf Course as a sponge park that phases into an ecologically flood adaptive neighborhood where residences can prosper despite changing water levels.