Aloha! My name is Rachael Han and you are invited to take part in a research study. I am a research assistant at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, where I work in the Coastal Hydraulics Engineering Resilience (CHER) lab under Oceana Puananilei Francis. Our website is www.cherlab.org.

What am I being asked to do?
If you participate in this project, you will be asked to fill out a survey identifying coastal roads you use regularly, characterizing your road usage, ranking 21 adaptation options, and answering 3 short answer questions..

Taking part in this study is your choice.
Your participation in this project is completely voluntary. You may stop participating at any time. If you stop being in the study, there will be no penalty or loss to you. Your choice to participate or not participate will not affect your rights to services at UH campuses.

Why is this study being done?
The purpose of this project is to evaluate stakeholder perceptions of coastal road adaptation options in Maui County. The motivation for this work is to adapt coastal county roads for future coastal hazard scenarios, which is necessary for US federal funding. A stakeholder analysis is a necessary part of this investigation. I am asking you to participate because you have been identified as a stakeholder of Maui County.

What are the benefits to participating in this study?
Taking part in this study will help increase government funding for Maui County infrastructure; promote community-supported and ‘āina-based adaptation strategies; improve willingness from government agencies to use more nature-based shoreline mitigation methods; improve coastal road conditions in Maui County; and increase your personal involvement with Maui County decision-making.

What will happen if I decide to take part in this study?
The survey will consist of identifying coastal roads you use regularly, characterizing your road usage, ranking 21 adaptation options, and answering 2 short answer questions. It will take 15 minutes. The survey questions will include questions like, “What factors are the most important to you in coastal adaptation efforts for Maui County?" and “Are there any adaptation options you prefer over the ones provided?” The survey is in the following section upon completion of this consent form. You will be one of about 250 people that will complete this survey.

What are the risks of taking part in this study?
I believe there is little risk to you for participating in this research project. If you become stressed or uncomfortable, you can skip the question or take a break. You can also stop taking the survey or you can withdraw from the project altogether. However, complete surveys will really help guide us towards weighing each adaptation option, since community input is essential.

Confidentiality and Privacy:
I will not ask you for any personal information, such as your name or address. I will only ask your affiliation to Maui County and region you reside in for data analysis. Please do not include any personal information in your survey responses. I will keep all study data secure in a locked filing cabinet in a locked office/encrypted on a password protected computer. Only my University of Hawai‘i supervisor, Oceana and I will have access to the information. Other agencies that have legal permission have the right to review research records. The University of Hawai'i Human Studies Program has the right to review research records for this study.

Future Research Studies:
Identifiers will be removed from your identifiable private information. Even after removing identifiers, the data from this study will not be used or distributed for future research studies.

Questions: If you have any questions about this study, please email me at rxhan@hawaii.edu. You may also contact my supervisor, Dr. Oceana Francis, at (808) 956-6555 and oceanaf@hawaii.edu. You may contact the UH Human Studies Program at (808) 956-5007 or uhirb@hawaii.edu to discuss problems, concerns and questions, obtain information, or offer input with an informed individual who is unaffiliated with the specific research protocol. Please visit http://go.hawaii.edu/jRd for more information on your rights as a research participant.

To Access the Survey: Please confirm your consent for this survey in the question below. After doing so, continue on to the next section of this Google Form to access the survey.

Please print or save a copy of this page for your reference.

Mahalo!