Presentation Abstract

Planning for and monitoring human wellbeing as a component of ecosystem recovery is a growing trend in coastal zone management. Within the Puget Sound specifically, organizations at the watershed and basin scale have been developing recovery action plans with placeholders for human wellbeing or quality of life indicators. While the actual incorporation of human wellbeing into policy has been limited, there is significant interest to receive guidance for developing indicators and begin addressing human wellbeing in practice. This article describes the results of a pilot process to develop scientifically and practically relevant human wellbeing indicators for the Hood Canal watershed of the Puget Sound. We gathered data on why residents and visitors value the Hood Canal from prior surveys, workshops, and nineteen open-ended interviews with diverse residents from the region. We coded these values into potential indicators of human wellbeing for seven domains: Psychological, Spiritual, Cultural, Social, Physical, Economic, and Governance. Three facilitated workshops with expert-stakeholders and an online survey with social scientists helped refine and rate indicators for recommendation to the regional watershed recovery coordinating council. We present the final indicators, detail the methods for getting to them, and discuss how they will be applied to enhance watershed recovery in the Hood Canal and larger Puget Sound Basin.

Session Title

Session S-01H: Social and Ecological Indicators

Conference Track

Social Science Plus

Conference Name

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2014 : Seattle, Wash.)

Document Type

Event

Start Date

30-4-2014 10:30 AM

End Date

30-4-2014 12:00 PM

Location

Room 607

Genre/Form

conference proceedings; presentations (communicative events)

Contributing Repository

Digital content made available by University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Subjects – Topical (LCSH)

Coastal zone management--Washington (State)--Hood Canal; Human ecology--Washington (State)--Hood Canal

Geographic Coverage

Hood Canal (Wash.); Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)

Rights

This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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Apr 30th, 10:30 AM Apr 30th, 12:00 PM

Developing Human Wellbeing Indicators in the Hood Canal Watershed

Room 607

Planning for and monitoring human wellbeing as a component of ecosystem recovery is a growing trend in coastal zone management. Within the Puget Sound specifically, organizations at the watershed and basin scale have been developing recovery action plans with placeholders for human wellbeing or quality of life indicators. While the actual incorporation of human wellbeing into policy has been limited, there is significant interest to receive guidance for developing indicators and begin addressing human wellbeing in practice. This article describes the results of a pilot process to develop scientifically and practically relevant human wellbeing indicators for the Hood Canal watershed of the Puget Sound. We gathered data on why residents and visitors value the Hood Canal from prior surveys, workshops, and nineteen open-ended interviews with diverse residents from the region. We coded these values into potential indicators of human wellbeing for seven domains: Psychological, Spiritual, Cultural, Social, Physical, Economic, and Governance. Three facilitated workshops with expert-stakeholders and an online survey with social scientists helped refine and rate indicators for recommendation to the regional watershed recovery coordinating council. We present the final indicators, detail the methods for getting to them, and discuss how they will be applied to enhance watershed recovery in the Hood Canal and larger Puget Sound Basin.