Abstract

The 2023 wildfire in Lahaina revealed critical vulnerabilities in infrastructure, water management, and disaster preparedness. Lack of water to control the fires, poor accessibility to certain areas of the city and other dysfunctionalities ended in one of the most catastrophic events in Hawaiian history.

Currently there is no clear route map for the rebuilding of the city nor its adaptation to climate events and their increasing frequency and violence. This thesis proposes recovery through a multi-scale plan that includes the major urban systems, the relation of the urban fabric with the coast and the hinterland, and a sequence of strategic nodes to serve the communities. It integrates water systems, slow mobility, and human-centered infrastructure to create a resilient and adaptive framework for Lahaina’s long-term redevelopment.

By holistically targeting these systemic weaknesses through scalable site-specific interventions, the model challenges conventional fragmented disaster recovery paradigms and sets a new footprint for urban resilience, adaptation and post-disaster recovery.

Sources & Notes

• PBS FRONTLINE, “Maui’s Deadly Firestorm,” December 17, 2024, documentary examining the causes of the wildfire and infrastructure failures.
• U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, Lahaina Census-Designated Place, 2019-2023, demographic and housing data.
• On the ahupuaʻa system: Kamanamaikalani Beamer, No Mākou Ka Mana: Liberating the Nation (Honolulu: Kamehameha Publishing, 2014).
• Recovery status: Maui County Office of Recovery, Status Reports, 2024-2025; FEMA disaster assistance records.