Technical Memorandum Report No. 46
Compilation and Analysis of Water Quality Rights and Responsibilities in Hawaii
Hiroshi Yamauchi and George M. Hudes
February 1976
ABSTRACT
The ahupua’a of ancient Hawaii was a watershed-based institutional community. Water was of cardinal importance as a basis for, and object of, the organization and administration of these largely self-sufficient communities. The concepts and doctrines of ahupua’a management, some of them recently given reinvigorated legal standing by the 1973 “Hanapepe” decision of the Hawaii Supreme Court, will be inventoried and restated. The objective of this restatement is an evaluation of ahupua’a water resource management concepts for resolving current issues of competing resource demands and institutional jurisdictions. The restatement should offer an alternative of legal status for water resources management priorities and institutional jurisdictions, with water resources themselves serving as the political–economic foundation. Research, which will include literature searches and interviews with knowledgeable informants, will be conducted in three phases: Phase I, Ahupua’a Restatement; Phase II, Contemporary Water Resources Conflicts, Inventory, and Typology Development; Phase III, Evaluation of Ahupua’a Applicability Today.