Geography

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and increasingly variable rainfall are negatively impacting natural and cultural resources and agricultural production systems in Hawai‘i. To effectively manage resources in the face of these changes, stewards and producers now require accurate, timely, and site-specific climate data and information. However, access to such data as well as the ability to interpret available data remain limited for many sectors. In response to various needs, a team of scientists working with the Pacific Drought Knowledge Exchange (PDKE) has developed two open-source decision-support tools (DSTs) through a collaborative, user-informed process aimed at closing longstanding gaps in local climate services. This paper introduces these new tools highlighting how they were co-designed to support resource management and producer needs in Hawaiʻi. The first DST is the automated Climate Change, Climate Variability, and Drought Portfolio tool which provides customized site-specific, fine-scale climate data and information summaries to end users. The second DST is the Hawai‘i Rangeland Information Portal (H-RIP), which is designed to deliver near-real-time and near-future, site-specific drought and forage production information to ranchers in Hawai‘i. These tools leverage the latest gridded climate products available on the Hawaiʻi Climate Data Portal (HCDP) thus providing the highest quality and most up-to-date information available for the state. Both tools were intentionally designed and co-produced with end-users to meet the practical needs of resource managers by providing site-specific information through intuitive, web-based platforms. These DSTs improve climate data accessibility and usability and significantly strengthen the state's overall climate service infrastructure. Collectively, these platforms represent scalable models for enhancing adaptive capacity and resilience through data-driven planning and locally relevant and data informed decision making. © 2026 Longman, Ford, Heu, Geis, Frazier, Giardina, Potemra, Cleveland and Marra.

Publication Title

Frontiers in Climate

Publication Date

2026

Volume

8

First Page

1

Last Page

16

ISSN

2624-9553

DOI

10.3389/fclim.2026.1768549

Keywords

climate portfolio, climate services, co-production, decision support, forage production, Hawai‘i

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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