Definitions & Key Terms
Key Terms
Adaptive Recovery
A framework for rebuilding that incorporates flexibility to respond to future climate, social, and economic changes. Adaptive recovery treats reconstruction as opportunity to address pre-existing vulnerabilities rather than replicate them.
Cultural Resilience
The capacity of a community to preserve and adapt its cultural identity, traditions, and social structures under adversity. In Lahaina, cultural resilience shapes recovery efforts honoring the town's significance as former royal capital and continuing center of Native Hawaiian life.
Disaster Gentrification
The process by which post-disaster recovery disproportionately benefits external actors, displacing existing communities. Common patterns include land speculation, rising property values during reconstruction, and prioritization of tourism infrastructure over resident housing.
Integrated Water Systems
A holistic approach combining flood control, ecological preservation, drought resilience, and community accessibility. For Lahaina, this means leveraging both natural systems (streams, wetlands, groundwater) and engineered infrastructure (storage, distribution, capture) to restore hydrological continuity.
Permeable Frameworks
Urban systems managing water through distributed infiltration, retention, and conveyance rather than centralized pipe-and-pump infrastructure.
Node-Based Planning
An urban design strategy creating interconnected spaces serving as catalysts for community cohesion. Nodes in Lahaina's recovery include water infrastructure, housing clusters, schools, health facilities, and cultural hubs distributed across the rebuilt town.
Post-Disaster Urbanism
The study and design of cities following catastrophic events, examining how disasters expose systemic vulnerabilities and how reconstruction can restructure the conditions that produced them.
Resilient Housing
Housing designed to withstand environmental stressors and adapt to future risks, including fire-resistant construction, elevated foundations in flood-prone zones, and modular designs addressing both immediate displacement and long-term sustainability.
Slow Mobility Networks
Transportation systems prioritizing pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit over private vehicles, integrating with water-sensitive infrastructure to create adaptive frameworks functioning under both normal and emergency conditions.
Social Cohesion
The strength of relationships and solidarity within a community, fostered through inclusive planning, community-driven interventions, and spatial organization around shared civic spaces.
Vulnerability Cycles
Recurring patterns of risk and recovery failure caused by systemic weaknesses in infrastructure, planning, and governance. Breaking these cycles requires addressing root causes rather than treating each disaster as isolated.
Hawaiian Terms
Ahupuaʻa
Traditional Hawaiian land division extending from mountains (mauka) to sea (makai), integrating natural water systems for agriculture, community sustenance, and ecological balance. The ahupuaʻa organized land as continuous hydrological and social unit, with resource management distributed across elevation zones.
Hale
Traditional Hawaiian house. The module's structural hierarchy directly maps to traditional hale construction as defined in Maui County's Indigenous Hawaiian Architecture regulations.
Makai
Toward the ocean; the seaward direction.
Mauka
Toward the mountain; the inland direction.