definition of "lower Puna"

[ScottEF]

Hi, I'm a newcomer so forgive me if this is a dumb question or one discussed elsewhere. But since the 2018 lava news using this term frequently, I've wondered if there's any precise definition of "lower Puna." I gather it means, roughly, Pahoa and anything you can only reach on road by going past/through Pahoa, or even more informally, the lower-elevation parts of Puna. Does anyone ever use it more precisely than that, e.g., is there some point on the Keaau-Pahoa road where one might say "lower Puna starts here"?

[terracore]

Description I've heard is:

Parts of Puna accessible via highway 130 = lower Puna.

Parts of Puna accessible via highway 11 = upper Puna.

Outlier is Orchidland Estates because it can be accessed by both.

[dobanion]

Always figured it was anything past (below, "lower") Pahoa. Once the highways start going obviously downhill.

[kalakoa]

The only boundary that might matter is the one between D4/D5.

[ScottEF]

Description I've heard is:

Parts of Puna accessible via highway 11 = lower Puna.

Parts of Puna accessible via highway 130 = upper Puna.

Outlier is Orchidland Estates because it can be accessed by both.

I trust you meant the other way around, 11 being upper and 130 being lower Puna. But that is rather different from dobanian's suggestion that lower Puna starts after Pahoa, this still then belonging to upper Puna, so it sounds like there's no consensus on this so far. And kalakoa, I'm not sure what you mean by D4/D5, please explain.

What do people who live in Pahoa, and e.g., HPP, think--are you in upper Puna, or lower Puna?

[kalakoa]

Puna is split across two Council districts, D4 and D5.

There's also "follow the money", consider the large-scale "worthless land" subdivisions relative to the rest of the district.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

ScottEF,
I think the terms upper & lower are broad definitions, and variable.  I’ve never seen it as a line on a map, although I suppose it could be, somewhere.

For reference, when I lived on Maui, Upcountry included Kula, Makawao, upper Haiku, etc.  I lived a seventy acre field off the ocean but my address was Haiku.  When I told people I lived in Haiku they always nodded and said “oh Upcountry.”  It didn’t seem to matter that I was less than 100 feet above sea level.

[My 2 cents]

I never really thought about it before, but I guess I would consider everything between Kalapana and Waawaa to be Lower Puna, Volcano area to be Upper Puna, and everything in between to just be Puna.

Another suggestion would be Lava Zones 1 & 2  = Lower, LZ3 = Upper.

ScottEF, this obviously was not a dumb question.  I don't remember it ever being asked before, and we don't seem to be able to offer anything more concrete than opinions.

[ScottEF]

Puna is split across two Council districts, D4 and D5.

 
Ah, thank you. Although that looks more like an east-west split than upper-lower one, as it puts a lot of low land south of Pahoa in with, e.g., Mountain View. But I'm happy to learn more about my future home in addition to what I asked about. (And just learned it will be that--my offer on an HPP house was just accepted, so we'll be leaving Minnesota next month!   )

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I never really thought about it before, but I guess I would consider everything between Kalapana and Waawaa to be Lower Puna, Volcano area to be Upper Puna, and everything in between to just be Puna.

Another suggestion would be Lava Zones 1 & 2  = Lower, LZ3 = Upper.

ScottEF, this obviously was not a dumb question.  I don't remember it ever being asked before, and we don't seem to be able to offer anything more concrete than opinions.

Good to hear it, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't misusing the terms in some obvious way.

[kalakoa]

Volcano area to be Upper Puna

Volcano should be part of Hilo, not Puna or Ka'u.