Public Shoreline Access
Inventory
Robert O’Conner and Michael
Lameier, NOAA Fisheries, Pacific
Island Regional Office
The information presented in this presentation was
produced solely for the purpose of the HIGICC
Luncheon Presentation and should not be used or
reproduced for any other purpose.

Public Shoreline Access Inventory
Robert O’Conner and Michael Lameier, NOAA Fisheries, Pacific Island Regional Office

Project Goal
Collect comprehensive shoreline
access information and make it easily
available to the fishing community

Beach Access Rally

Proposed Legislation
House Bill 3265
House Bill 839
Senate Bill 32?
Clean water, natural lands, and
affordable housing fund (resolution)

HB 3265
Chapter 115, Hawaii Revised Statutes
"§115- Public access to shorelines. Notwithstanding
any law to the contrary, the State shall provide public
access to the shoreline. To the extent practicable, the
distance between each access under this section shall
not exceed one-quarter mile.“

HB 839
Appropriates funds for the office of
planning, coastal zone management
program, to survey and map all
existing public access ways to
shoreline areas and nearby public
parking areas.

Public Shoreline Access Inventory
Project Purpose:
Create list
Plan for future
Assess conditions
Publish

Benefits
There will be a digital base map of access ways from
which future surveys and updates can utilize.
Facilitate comparisons to historical access ways and
associated facilities.
Help determine need for additional access and if the
¼ (urban) and ½ mile (rural) recommendations are
being met.
Access data will be made easily available to the
public.
Help determine need for additional warning signs and
facilities.
Illegally blocked public access ways will be identified.
More?

Methods
Research existing data and methods
Contact interested agencies
Conduct pilot study
• Collect data
• Process data
• Create the maps
Gather input from other agencies
Complete for all of City and County
of Honolulu

Definitions
Public rights of way: Any land by which the public
has the right to travel and is used by or is intended for
use by the public primarily to access a public beach,
shore, park, trail, or other public recreational area.
Public recreational area: Coastal recreational areas
including beaches, shores, public parks, public lands,
public trails, and bodies of water open to the public for
recreational use.
Dedicated public parking: Parking intended for use
by the public for the purpose of utilizing a public right
of way, recreational area or public park
Non-dedicated parking: Parking not designated for
use by a particular group or portion of the population.
Shoreline: Highest reaches of the wash of the waves
at highest high tide except during a major storm (ie
hurricane).

Agency Collaboration
State of Hawaii
• DLNR
Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands (OCCL)
DAR
• Division of Business and Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT)
Office of Planning
Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM)
• Land Use Division
• GIS Program
• Land Use Commission
NOAA
• National Ocean Service
Coastal Services Center
• Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM)
Coastal Zone Management Program (CZM)
City and County Honolulu
• Department of Planning (DPP)
• Department of Parks and Recreation
• Department of Design and Construction
County of Maui
• Department of Planning

Background Information

1980 DPR Beach Atlas
To identify desirable
locations for beach
park development
and beach rights-of-
way for the long-
term future.
To estimate land
costs and
approximate
development costs.

Maui Case Study
March 2005
Jointly funded by CZM
and Maui County
Contract awarded to
OceanIT for an estimated
$150K
First Maui inventory
conducted since 1986
Complete shoreline access
inventory (public and private)

Big Island Case Study
June 2006 by UH Hilo, Department of Geography
and Environmental Studies and the Hawai’i
County Planning Department.
Funds provided by the Office of Planning,
Department of Business, Economic Development
and Tourism, State of Hawai`i.
Electronic version financed through Coastal Zone
Management Act of 1972 by Office of Ocean and
Coastal Resource Management, NOS, NOAA,
DOC, through the State of Hawaii Office of
Planning
Last update: November of 2006

Big Island Case Study
“Intended to identify and describe
public access ways to and along the
shoreline of the island of Hawai`i.“

Preparing for Data Collection
Create empty personal geodatabase

Preparing for Data Collection
Assemble necessary base layers for data
collection and import to pgb
• Aerial imagery
• Roads
• Coastline
• Existing access data points
• Geodetic control points layer
• Blank point/line file for data to be
collected

Preparing for Data Collection
GPS enable personal geodatabase
Check out data to ArcPad

Preparing for Data Collection
Build quickforms
Transfer .apr to
Trimble GeoXT GPS
receiver via
ActiveSync
Verify complete data
transfer
Get out of the office
and collect data!

Data Collection

Precision
PDOP HDOP
• 3-D accuracy • Horizontal accuracy
• low value = high • Low value (high
precision precision) needed
• Not important for for canopy or urban
horizontal position setting.

Processing
Check In Data
Post Process (but why?)
Update fields
Associate photographs
www.trimble.com

Identification number
TMK number
Island
Planning region
Parcel Owner
Access type (vertical, horizontal, or both)
Access surface (grass, dirt, gravel, etc)
Access width (in feet)
Shoreline type (sand, rock, cliff, etc)
Restroom, showers, picnic facilities?
Trash receptacles, phone, lifeguard?
Features
Alternative name
District
Sign Condition
Sign Visibility
Sign Wording
Facilities conditions (good, fair, poor)
Other signs
Dedicated Public Parking?
Number of parking stalls
Distance from access to shoreline?
If dedicated parking is available, distance from closest stall to shoreline
If dedicated parking is unavailable, distance from access entrance point to
shoreline
Distance to nearest adjacent access?

Pilot Study

Results
Sites visited: 38
Blocked accesses found: 1
Hours in the field: 24
Disgruntled land owners encountered: 1
Disgruntled dogs encountered: 4

Bamboo Ridge

Moving Forward and Recommendations
Projected time to Accessibility formula
complete data Distance between
collection phase-12-15 public rights-of-ways
weeks, at 2 field days Distinguish between
a week public and private
access
Record overgrown
vegetation on
neighboring properties

Looking to the future
What happens after this project is
complete?
Who will keep the ball rolling?
Prioritize areas?
How do we serve the data?
What about the rest of the state and the
Pacific Territories?

Acknowledgements
City and County of Honolulu
State of Hawaii – Department of Land and
Natural Resources and Division of Aquatic
Resources
County of Maui – Planning Department,
Long Range Division
County of Hawaii
Pacific GPS LLC
ESRI

Robert.oconner@noaa.gov
(808) 944-2263
•Big Island Inventory:
•http://www.hawaii-county.com/planning/spa/index.html
•Maui Inventory
•http://www.co.maui.hi.us/departments/Planning/czmp/intro.htm
•City and County of Honolulu – Dept of Parks and Recreation
•http://www.co.honolulu.hi.us/parks/