Glossary
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
A
a‘a: a lava flow whose surface is broken into rough angular fragments.
accrete: to cause to adhere or become attached.
ahupua‘a: land division usually extending from the uplands to the sea.
akule: big-eyed or goggle-eyed scad fish (Trachurops crumenophthalmus).
ali‘i: chief, chiefess, officer, ruler, monarch, peer, headman, noble, aristocrat, king, queen, or commander.
alluvial: relating to, composed of, or found in clay, silt, sand, gravel, or similar detrital material deposited by running water.
alluvium: general term for sediments of gravel, sand, silt, clay, or other particulate rock material deposited by flowing water, usually in the beds of rivers and streams, on a flood plain, on a delta, or at the base of a mountain.
amphidromous: referring to the migratory behavior of fishes moving from fresh water to the sea and vice versa, not for breeding purposes but occurring regularly at some stage of the life cycle (such as feeding or overwintering).
aquifer: a water-bearing stratum of permeable rock, sand, or gravel.
attributes: a characteristic of a map feature. Attributes of a river might include its name, length, average depth, and so on.
‘aumākua: family or personal gods, deified ancestors who might assume the shape of sharks, owls, hawks, ‘elepaio, ‘iwi, mudhens, octopuses, eels, mice, rats, dogs, caterpillars, rocks, cowries, clouds, or plants. A symbiotic relationship existed between people and ‘aumākua, so they did not harm or eat ‘aumākua.
‘auwai: irrigation ditches built by Hawaiians that aided water conservation.
B
bathypelagic zone: ocean depths between 2,000 and 12,000 feet.
benthic cover: the surface of the sea bottom.
biomass: the amount of living matter (as in a unit area or volume of habitat).
biota: the plants and animals of a specific region or period.
by-catch: non-target organisms that are caught in fishing or other harvest operations and are usually discarded.
C
caldera: a large, basin-shaped volcanic depression; typically formed by the collapse of the central part of a volcano or by explosions of extraordinary violence.
census tract: a small, relatively permanent statistical subdivision of a county delineated by a local committee of census data users for the purpose of presenting data. Census tract boundaries normally follow visible features, but may follow governmental unit boundaries and other non-visible features in some instances; they always nest within counties. Designed to be relatively homogeneous units with respect to population characteristics, economic status, and living conditions at the time of establishment, census tracts average about 4,000 inhabitants. They may be split by any sub-county geographic entity.
cetacean: any of an order (Cetacea) of aquatic, mostly marine mammals that includes the whales, dolphins, porpoises, and related forms.
colluvium: loose or incoherent deposits, usually at the foot of a slope or cliff.
conservation district: an area designated by the State of Hawai‘i for the purpose of conserving, protecting, and preserving the important natural and cultural resources of the state through appropriate management and use to promote their longterm sustainability and the public health, safety, and welfare. Conservation districts include terrestrial and marine environments, with special emphasis on coastal areas and beaches, and marine lands out to the seaward extent of the State's jurisdiction (3 miles).
critical habitat: under the Endangered Species Act, critical habitat is an area essential to the conservation of a listed species, though the area need not actually be occupied by the species at the time it is designated.
D
demographic: relating to the characteristics of human populations, such as size, growth, density, and distribution.
dike: a tabular or sheetlike body of igneous rock that cuts across the structure of adjacent rocks into which it intrudes.
E
eddies: circular currents of water or air running contrary to the main current.
‘elepaio: a species of flycatcher with subspecies on Hawai‘i.
ecosystem: the complex of living organisms, their physical environment, and all their interrelationships in a particular unit of space.
e mālama i ka wai: cherish the water.
El Niño / Southern Oscillation (ENSO): An irregular cycle of warming and cooling of the sea surface temperatures of the tropical Pacific Ocean. The cycle has a length of about four years, and is a natural part of the Earth's climate system. The oceanic warming and cooling is accompanied by changes in air pressure above the Pacific Ocean (the "Southern Oscillation"). These changes in the Pacific Ocean's temperatures and the atmosphere above it affect the global climate system, and therefore can affect the climate in regions far away from the Pacific.
endangered species: a species that has been recognized by the federal government, and listed under the Endangered Species Act, as in danger of becoming extinct throughout all or a significant portion of its range.
endemic: belonging to a particular geographic region; a genetically unique life form. In this ecological characterization "endemic" is meant to distinguish plants and animals that occur only in the Hawaiian Islands from plants and animals that occur elsewhere in the Pacific.
epipelagic zone: the part of the oceanic zone into which enough light penetrates for photosynthesis to occur.
erosion: removal and displacement of rock and soil debris from their original location by natural processes such as rain, wind, and landslides. Wear and transportation of the eroded material is caused by running water, waves, or wind, which cause rock fragments to pound or grind other rocks to powder or sand.
estuarine: of, relating to, or formed in an estuary.
estuary: partly enclosed coastal body of water in which river water is mixed with seawater. In a general sense, the estuarine environment is defined by salinity boundaries rather than by geographic boundaries.
F
feature class: the conceptual representation of a geographic feature. When referring to geographic features, feature classes include point, line, area, and surface. In a geodatabase, an object class that stores features and has a geometry field type.
feature dataset: a collection of feature classes in a geodatabase that share the same spatial reference. Because the feature classes share the same spatial reference, they can participate in topological relationships with each other such as in a geometric network.
feral: not domesticated; wild.
freshwater lens: a layer of fresh water that floats on the saline groundwater, resulting from the natural process of rainwater infiltrating into the ground and aquifer.
friable: characteristic of a rock or mineral that crumbles naturally or is easily broken, pulverized, or reduced to powder.
G
geodatabase: a geographic database that provides services for managing geographic data. A geodatabase is hosted inside a relational database management system. A geodatabase may contain feature datasets.
groundwater: the supply of water found beneath the surface, usually in aquifers, which can supply wells and springs.
H
habitat complexity: offering a variety of habitat types owing to variations in coral structure, such as ridges, tunnels, and shelves.
haku: lord, master, overseer, employer, owner, possessor, proprietor.
haole: white person, American, Englishman, Caucasian; American, English; formerly, any foreigner.
Hawaiian Homelands: lands held in trust for Native Hawaiians by the State of Hawai‘i, pursuant to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, as amended.
he‘e nalu: wave sliding (surfing).
heiau: pre-Christian place of worship, shrine. Some heiau were elaborately constructed stone platforms, and others were simple earth terraces. Many are preserved today.
herbivore: a plant-eating animal.
herbivorous: feeding on plants.
hermaphroditic: having both male and female reproductive organs.
ho‘oilo: winter, rainy season.
hot spot: localized melting region deep beneath the earth's surface, below the earth's crust, whose existence is inferred from the volcanic activity above it. Generally hot spots are a few hundred miles in diameter and persistent over tens of millions of years.
I
igneous rock: formed by the solidification of hot, molten magma.
‘iliahi: all Hawaiian kinds of sandal wood (Santalum spp.), including shrubs and trees.
indigenous: having originated in and being produced, growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular region or environment.
intermittent stream: a stream that flows only when it receives water from rainfall runoff or springs, or from some surface source such as melting snow.
invasive species: species that are not native to an area and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. (See also nonnative species.)
ipu: the bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria, also L. vulgaris), a wide-spreading vine, with large-angled or lobed leaves, white, night blooming flowers, and smooth green and mottled or white fruits varying widely in shape and size. The plant is a native of tropical Asia or Africa. Hawaiians have long used ipu gourds as receptacles, to hold water or food, or for rattles for dances.
K
ka po‘e: the people, population.
kāhala: amberjack or yellowtail.
kahunas: priest, sorcerer, magician, wizard, minister, expert in any profession.
kānāwai: law, code, rule, statute, decree, or edict.
Kāne: the leading of the four great Hawaiian gods.
kapa: tapa, a cloth made from wauke or mamaki bark.
kapu: taboo, prohibition; special privilege or exemption from ordinary taboo; forbidden; sacred, holy.
kolekole: rawness; raw, as meat; inflamed; red, as a raw wound or as red earth.
konohiki: headman of an ahupua‘a land division under the chief; land or fishing rights under the control of the konohiki.
Kumulipo: origin, genesis, source of life, mystery; name of the Hawaiian creation chant.
L
larvae: the early form of an animal (such as a frog or sea urchin) which at birth or hatching is fundamentally unlike its parent and must metamorphose before assuming adult characteristics.
lava flows: a lateral and surficial outpouring of molten lava from a vent, crack, or break in surface rocks. Lava flow also refers to the solidified body of rock that is so formed.
layer file: a collection of similar geographic features: such as rivers, lakes, counties, or cities: of a particular area or place for display on a map. A layer references geographic data stored in a data source, such as a feature class, and defines how to display it. For example, major streams will be drawn with a thick blue line and its minor tributaries with a thin blue line.
lava tube: a tunnel formed when the surface of a lava flow cools and solidifies while the still-molten interior flows through and drains away.
leeward: being the side toward which the wind is blowing, as opposed to the windward (wind-facing) side.
littoral system: marine ecological realm that experiences the effects of tidal and longshore currents and breaking waves to a depth of 5 to 10 meters (16 to 33 feet) below the low tide level, depending on the intensity of storm waves. The zone is characterized by abundant dissolved oxygen, sunlight, nutrients, and generally high wave energies and water motion.
limu: a general name for all kinds of plants living under water, both fresh and salt, also algae growing in any damp place.
littorine: of or occurring on or near the shore.
lo‘i: irrigated terrace, especially for taro; paddy.
luakini: large heiau (temple) where ruling chiefs prayed and human sacrifices were offered.
M
Madden-Julian Oscillation: Tropical rainfall exhibits strong variability on time scales shorter than the seasonal El Niño / Southern Oscillation (ENSO). These fluctuations in tropical rainfall often go through an entire cycle in 30-60 days, and are referred to as the Madden-Julian Oscillation or intraseasonal oscillations. The intraseasonal oscillations are a naturally occurring component of our coupled ocean-atmosphere system. They significantly affect the atmospheric circulation throughout the global Tropics and subtropics, and also strongly affect the wintertime jet stream and atmospheric circulation features over the North Pacific and western North America. As a result, they have an important impact on storminess and temperatures over the United States. During the summer these oscillations have a modulating effect on hurricane activity in both the Pacific and Atlantic basins.
magma: naturally occurring, molten rock material generated deep within the earth and capable of intrusion into other solid rock material.
mahele: portion, division, section, zone, etc.; the land division of 1848, known as the great mahele.
ma‘i ‘ōku‘u: foreign diseases; ma‘i: sickness, illness, disease; ‘o ku‘u: squat, haunches, crouch; disease at the time of Kamehameha I, perhaps cholera, and perhaps so called because it was dysenteric.
maka‘āinana: commoner, populace, people in general; citizen, subject.
mālama ‘āina: care of the land, land stewardship; m a lama: to take care of, tend, care for, preserve, protect, maintain; ‘ a ina: land, earth.
mana: supernatural or divine power, miraculous power; divinely powerful, spiritual.
mantle: the zone of the earth below the crust and above the core.
mass wasting: the down-slope movement of rock and regolith near the Earth's surface, mainly due to the force of gravity. This important part of the erosional process moves material from higher elevations to lower elevations where transporting agents like streams can then pick up the material and move it to even lower elevations. Mass-wasting processes are occurring continuously on all slopes. Some mass-wasting processes act very slowly, while others occur very suddenly, often with disastrous results.
mauka: inland, upland, toward the mountain; shoreward (if at sea).
mesic: neither wet (hydric) nor dry (xeric); intermediate in moisture, without extremes.
mesopelagic zone: of or relating to oceanic depths from about 600 feet to 3000 feet (200 to 1000 meters).
metadata: information about a dataset. Metadata for geographical data may include the source of the data; its creation date and format; its projection, scale, resolution, and accuracy; and its reliability with regard to some standard.
mo‘o: lizard, reptile of any kind, dragon, serpent; water spirit.
mo‘olelo: story, tale, myth, history, tradition, literature, legend, journal, log, yarn, fable, essay, chronicle, record, article; minutes, as of a meeting.
moku: district, island, islet, section, forest, grove.
N
native: originally living, growing, or produced in a certain geographical region. See also endemic.
Natural Area Reserve: a natural area set aside for preservation under the Natural Area Reserve (NAR) System of the State of Hawai‘i's Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Fish and Wildlife. The mission of the NAR system is to protect the state's most unique ecosystems. Access to Natural Area Reserves is somewhat restricted; visitors may use the areas for educational or scientific purposes but must obtain a permit before visiting.
nitrogen-fixing: any natural or industrial process that causes free nitrogen, which is a relatively inert gas plentiful in air, to combine chemically with other elements to form more reactive nitrogen compounds such as ammonia, nitrates, or nitrites.
non-native species: those species that do not naturally occur in the Hawaiian Islands and have arrived either accidentally or intentionally through biological control efforts, aquaculture imports, etc. These species have also been referred to as alien, exotic, adventive, or introduced species.
nonpoint source pollution: pollutants that are not discharged or emitted from a specific "point" source, such as a pipe or smokestack. Nonpoint-source water pollutants are often carried from dispersed, diverse sources into water channels by rain-induced runoff.
O
‘ohana: family, relative, kin group; related.
‘ono: delicious, tasty, savory; to relish, crave; deliciousness, flavor, savor.
P
Pacific Decadal Oscillation: A long-lived El Niño-like pattern of Pacific climate variability. While the two climate oscillations have similar spatial climate fingerprints, they have very different behavior in time. Two main characteristics distinguish Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) from El Niño / Southern Oscillation (ENSO): first, in the 20th century, PDO "events" persisted for 20 to 30 years, while typical ENSO events persisted for 6 to 18 months; second, the climatic fingerprints of the PDO are most visible in the North Pacific / North American sector, while secondary signatures exist in the tropics; the opposite is true for ENSO.
Pacific Plate: the largest of the seven major moving segments of the earth's crust. The Pacific Plate comprises most of the rock beneath the Pacific Ocean and contains the hot spot that has formed the Hawaiian Islands.
pantheon: the officially recognized gods of a people.
pāpio: juvenile stage of the ulua fish.
pelagic: of, relating to, living or occurring in the open sea.
pelagic zone: ecological realm that includes the entire ocean water column. Of all the inhabited Earth environments, the pelagic zone has the largest volume, 1,370,000,000 cubic kilometers (330,000,000 cubic miles), and the greatest vertical range, 11,000 meters (36,000 feet).
perched groundwater: unconfined groundwater, separated from an underlying body of groundwater by an unsaturated zone of low permeability.
perennial stream: a stream that flows (contains water) throughout the year under normal or unaltered conditions.
potable water: water that is suitable for human consumption.
Preservation Boundary: a boundary established by the City and County of Honolulu, in each of O‘ahu's eight planning regions, to protect undeveloped lands that form an important part of the region's open space but that are not valued primarily for agricultural uses. Lands enclosed within the preservation boundary include important wildlife habitat; areas necessary for protection of watersheds, water resources, and water supplies; archaeological or historic sites; significant landforms or landscapes over which significant views are available; and development-related hazard areas.
primary production: the biomass produced through photosynthesis and chemosynthesis in a community or group of communities.
pyroclastics: material that is formed by fragmentation as a result of volcanic or igneous action.
R
rain shadow: the dry region on the leeward (wind-sheltered) side of a mountain range, where rainfall is noticeably less than on the windward (wind-facing) side.
raster dataset: a spatial data model made of rows and columns of cells. Each cell contains attribute values and location coordinates. Groups of cells that share the same value represent geographic features. Useful for storing data that varies continuously such as in an aerial photograph, satellite image, or elevation surface.
reservoir: an open-air storage area (usually formed by masonry or earthwork) where water is collected and kept in quantity so that it may be drawn off for use.
rift zone: area on continents where a trough bounded by normal faults is forming; the site of crustal extension, similar to that which occurs at mid-oceanic ridges.
S
scarp: a cliff or steep slope that occurs along the margin of a plateau or of a relatively flat terrain.
seamount: a submarine mountain rising 1,000 meters or more above the sea floor.
semi-diurnal: occurring twice a day.
sensitive species: any species of plant or animal experiencing general or localized population decline.
sessile organism: an organism (animal), such as a barnacle or a coral polyp, that is permanently attached to a substrate or base and not free to move about.
shapefile: a vector data storage format for storing the location, shape, and attributes of geographic features. A shapefile is stored in a folder and contains one feature class.
shield volcano: a gently sloping volcano in the shape of a flattened dome and built almost exclusively of lava flows.
spatial data: the locations and shapes of geographic features with descriptions of each.
species: subdivision of biological classification composed of related organisms that share common characteristics and can interbreed.
species diversity: the variety of species in a sample, community, or area.
stakeholder: one who has an interest in and is affected by the outcome of a process.
strandings: instances when marine animals come ashore alive under abnormal circumstances, are injured close to shore, or wash ashore dead, whether individually or in groups.
subsidence: sinking or falling to the bottom.
surface water: all water naturally open to the atmosphere (including rivers, lakes, reservoirs, ponds, streams, impoundments, seas, and estuaries).
Sustainable Communities Plan: a community-oriented plan, developed by the City and County of Honolulu, Department of Planning and Permitting in 2000, that guides public policy, investment, and decision-making with regard to development and land use within each of six O‘ahu planning regions not designated for significant growth in the next 20 years.
sustainable yield: the maximum quantity of water that may be pumped from a source year after year without damage to the water source.
symbology: the criteria used to determine symbols for the features in a layer. A characteristic of a feature may influence the size, color, and shape of the symbol used.
T
temporal: of or relating to time.
threatened species: species listed by regulation under the Endangered Species Act. Threatened species are not considered in immediate danger of becoming extinct, but are considered likely to become endangered species.
tidal range: difference in height between consecutive high and low waters. The mean range is the difference between mean high water and mean low water. The great diurnal range or diurnal range is the difference in height between mean higher high water high water (MHHW) and mean lower low water (MLLW). Where the type of tide is diurnal, the mean range is the same as the diurnal range.
U
ulua: certain species of crevalle, jack, or pompano, an important game fish and food item. Is the final (adult) growth stage of the fish, attaining a length of 1.5 meters and a weight of over 45 kilos.
underflow: the movement of groundwater through a pervious subsurface material.
V
vector data: a data structure used to represent linear geographic features. Feature are made of ordered lists of x,y coordinates and represented by points, lines, or polygons; points connect to become lines, and lines connect to become polygons. Attributes are associated with each feature.
W
Wahi pana: sacred place; wahi: place, location, position, site, setting; pana: celebrated or legendary place.
Glossary References
City and County of Honolulu. 2004. Revised Statutes of Honolulu. http://www.co.honolulu.hi.us/refs/roh/klaupoko/24kp_app.htm
Evenhuis, N.L., and S.E. Miller. 1994. "Records of the Hawaii Biological Survey for 1994." Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 41: 3-18.
Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. 1998. Encyclopedia Britannica on-line. http://www.britannica.com
Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. 2001. Dictionary of GIS Terminology. ESRI Press. Redlands, CA.
International Research Institute for Climate Prediction. 2003. Glossary of Terms. http://iri.columbia.edu/outreach/meeting/MediaWS2001/Glossary.html
Mantua, N. 2000. Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and the Ocean. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and University of Washington. http://tao.atmos.washington.edu/pdo/
Merriam-Webster. 2004. Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary. http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm
Minami, M. 2000. Using ArcMap: GIS by ESRI. Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. Redlands, CA.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 2002. Monitoring Intraseasonal Oscillations. National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center. http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/intraseasonal
Pukui, M.K., and S.H. Elbert. 1986. Hawaiian Dictionary, Hawaiian-English, English-Hawaiian. University of Hawai‘i Press. Honolulu, HI.
Science Dictionary. 2004. Science Dictionary: Science Terms and Definitions. http://www.sciencedictionary.org/
Ulukau Electronic Hawaiian Library. 2004. Hawaiian Dictionaries: Search for a Hawaiian Word or Definition. http://wehewehe.org/cgi-bin/hdict
U.S. Census Bureau. 2000. Census 2000: American FactFinder Web Site. http://factfinder.census.gov
University of North Dakota. 2004. Volcanic and Geologic Terms. http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/glossary.html
