Associate Dean Chip Fletcher receives community service award

Right to left: Chip Fletcher, Jay Fidell CEO of Think Tech Hawaii, and Governor John Waihee, who presented the community service award.

Chip Fletcher, climate scientist and SOEST Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, received the community service award from Think Tech Hawaii for his invaluable work on the societal impacts and relevance of climate change. At an awards ceremony this week, Governor John Waihee presented the award to Fletcher.

Fletcher is also a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences and the Vice-Chair of the Honolulu Climate Change Commission.

His research focuses on Pacific paleo-sea level history, beach processes, and modeling the impacts of past, present and future sea level rise on island environments and communities. The results of his work are used by government agencies for administering coastal policy, establishing construction guidelines, and planning resilient infrastructure projects. Data produced by his research team is used by Kauai and Maui counties in their setback ordinance, and is considered in permit decisions by the City of Honolulu and the Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources. With his students, Dr. Fletcher has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles as well as three textbooks.

Model results, published in Scientific Reports, depicting the influence of future sea level scenarios on coastal erosion, seasonal (non-storm) wave overtopping, groundwater inundation, hydrostatic flooding, and storm drain back-flow are included in the State of Hawai‘i Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report . The Hawaii Sea Level Rise Viewer makes these results available to government agencies for policy development, and to the general public for making informed choices regarding climate impacts in Hawai’i. Chip has been cited in local media and frequently gives public talks.