Layer 1 — the read-only spatial backbone
One spatial model, assembled from 18 authoritative datasets.
The spatial backbone is a read-only dataset assembled from 18 authoritative sources maintained by state and federal agencies. It is built in a separate pipeline from the platform itself and loaded as an immutable snapshot. The platform reads that snapshot — it never writes spatial data. Every project, program, research record, and compliance check in Mokunet resolves to a place through this backbone.
The backbone by the numbers
A single spatial model anchors all governance to Hawai'i's 33 traditional moku districts.
What the backbone contains
Every source dataset passes through the same process: geographic boundaries are indexed onto a uniform hexagonal grid, loaded as zone records, and linked to the moku district that contains them. The result is a single spatial model where every zone — a wetland polygon, a school campus, a steward parcel — is reachable from any moku through shared grid cells.
Layer
Source authority
Features
Moku districts
Traditional governance
33
Agricultural land (IAL)
State Land Use Commission
15 dockets
Agricultural baseline
Statewide Ag Land Use (2015)
5,024
Conservation reserves
DLNR
376
Government steward parcels
State/county land agencies
25,129
Zoning districts
City & County of Honolulu
1,965
Post-secondary campuses
UH + private institutions
85
Rail alignment
HART
4 sections
Opportunity zones
Federal designation
25
Career pathways
Workforce development
13 clusters
Environment monitoring
Research sites
3+
Land clusters
Community networks
1+
Indexed onto a uniform hexagonal grid
Every dataset is normalized to the same spatial index — H3 resolution 8 cells, roughly 0.74 km across. That shared grid is what lets layers from completely different agencies line up against one another.
One grid, every layer
Moku boundaries, agricultural parcels, wetlands, schools, and highways all become collections of the same hexagonal cells. Because every layer speaks the same index, a single cell can carry the full context of everything that overlaps it.
Coordinates resolve automatically
When a project or producer enters the system with GPS coordinates, the backbone converts those coordinates to a grid cell, resolves the cell to its containing moku, and inherits the full zone context — so you never manually assign a project to a district or tag overlapping land designations by hand.
Read-only by design
The backbone is authoritative because it comes from authoritative sources.
No subscriber, admin, or API call can modify zone boundaries, reclassify agricultural land, or move a school. When a source agency updates its data — say, a new IAL docket is approved — the pipeline reruns and the backbone is reloaded as a fresh snapshot. This separation ensures that governance decisions in the platform rest on spatial data the platform did not create.
The principle: the platform reads the backbone, but it never writes spatial data. Everything subscribers do — projects, observations, indicators — attaches to the backbone without ever altering it.
33 moku districts across seven islands
Every grid cell belongs to exactly one moku, the traditional regional unit that anchors district-level governance.
O'ahu — 6
Kona, Ewa, Wai'anae, Waialua, Ko'olaupoko, Ko'olauloa
Maui — 12
Lahaina, Ka'anapali, Wailuku, and 9 more
Hawai'i — 6
Kohala, Kona, Ka'u, Puna, Hilo, Hamakua
Kaua'i — 5
Kona, Puna, Ko'olau, Halelea, Na Pali
Moloka'i — 2
Ko'olau, Kona
A queryable model, not just a map
The backbone is not just a map — it is a queryable model. Every moku district, zone overlay, project, and research record is connected through structured relationships. A plain-language question resolves across the backbone in three steps.
Example question“What water quality data exists near agricultural land in Ewa?”
1
Locate
Resolve a place name like "Ewa" to its moku district and the backbone grid cells that make it up.
2
Intersect
Find cells where the relevant zones overlap — for example, agricultural land (IAL, ag baseline) meeting environment monitoring sites.
3
Retrieve
Return the records observed at those sites, with their SDG linkage and contributor provenance attached.
Behind this query: structured lookups across the backbone follow the relationships between districts, zones, and records to produce precise results. As project and observation data grows, these query patterns become a training set — the same relationships that govern projects today are intended to power natural-language spatial queries tomorrow. This semantic interface is in development.
Built from public, authoritative sources
Source agencies include:State Land Use CommissionDLNRUSFWSDOEHDOTHARTCity & County of HonoluluUniversity of Hawai'i
The spatial backbone is Layer 1 of Mokunet's three-layer architecture. Layer 2 scopes what each role can see and act on; Layer 3 adds community-contributed observations and indicators that resolve to the backbone without modifying it.