THE KAUAI COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Humid and Very Humid Steep and Very Steep Mountain Slopes setting.
Kauai County has 619.8 square miles of land in Hawaii. 6 mapped landscape regions meet across Kauai County: Humid and Very Humid Steep and Very Steep Mountain Slopes, Semiarid and Subhumid Low Mountain Slopes, Very Stony Land and Rock Land, among others.
Steep ridges, deep gulches and canyons dissect the wetter mountain landscapes of older Hawaiian islands. Some higher plateaus support bogs within this strongly varied terrain.
Regional context: Humid and Very Humid Steep and Very Steep Mountain Slopes ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Kauai County intersects 6 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Humid and Very Humid Steep and Very Steep Mountain Slopes41%
- Semiarid and Subhumid Low Mountain Slopes26.7%
- Very Stony Land and Rock Land16.5%
- Humid Oxidic Soils on Low and Intermediate Rolling Mountain Slopes7.7%
- Subhumid Intermediate Mountain Slopes4.5%
Semiarid and Subhumid Low Mountain Slopes in Kauai County
Lower leeward terrain on older Hawaiian islands includes relatively level plains and slopes cut by gulches. The setting is generally drier than neighboring windward mountain areas.
Read the regional source ↗Very Stony Land and Rock Land in Kauai County
Rocky gulches and stony slopes occur across the drier portions of older Hawaiian islands. Exposed rock and uneven volcanic terrain distinguish this landscape from smoother soil-covered areas.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Kauai County
The atlas lists 24 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Kauai County, including Kapaa, Lihue, Wailua Homesteads. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Kauai County by land and water
The Census records 646.5 square miles of water within Kauai County, or 51.1% of its total area. That share is close to Kauai County’s 51.1%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Kauai County has 646.3 times the land area of nearby Kekaha CDP (0.96 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.

