Event Title

Monitoring Human Wellbeing as an Ecosystem Indicator in Hood Canal

Presentation Abstract

The Hood Canal Coordinating Council (HCCC) is a council of local governments around the Hood Canal, a narrow 65 mile long fjord on the west side of Puget Sound, in Washington State. HCCC’s member jurisdictions include county and tribal governments, and it works in partnership with a large community of environmental organizations and consortiums to protect and conserve Hood Canal’s extraordinary environment under a unifying framework, the Hood Canal Integrated Watershed Plan (IWP). In 2014, HCCC adopted indicators of human wellbeing to its suite of ecosystem indicators in the IWP. The six indicators represent each of the domains of human wellbeing, including: Physical, Psychological, Governance, Cultural, Social, and Economic. Over the past year, HCCC has initiated monitoring of the selected indicators using a combination of objective and subjective measures with the goal to integrate this information into strategic planning. HCCC continues to refine its indicator measures and monitoring approach and improve the way ecosystem status and programmatic outcomes are communicated. A major component of this effort is OurHoodCanal.org, an online ecosystem report card that provides annual status updates and serves to re-frame our management approach.

With the addition of human wellbeing indicators, HCCC has initiated an ongoing conversation with many of its member jurisdictions, partners, and the public around how to make environmental management more inclusive and more responsive to the entire social-ecological system. Opening this discussion with decision-makers and project implementers has begun to re-shape HCCC’s and our partners’ approach to environmental management in a way that will better serve the wellbeing of Hood Canal’s natural and social communities.

Session Title

Human Wellbeing Related to the Salish Sea

Conference Track

People

Conference Name

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2016 : Vancouver, B.C.)

Document Type

Event

Start Date

2016 12:00 AM

End Date

2016 12:00 AM

Location

2016SSEC

Type of Presentation

Oral

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)

Human geography; Environmental geography; Social sciences; Sustainable living

Geographic Coverage

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

Comments

A Word document containing this abstract submission can be found at this link.

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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Jan 1st, 12:00 AM Jan 1st, 12:00 AM

Monitoring Human Wellbeing as an Ecosystem Indicator in Hood Canal

2016SSEC

The Hood Canal Coordinating Council (HCCC) is a council of local governments around the Hood Canal, a narrow 65 mile long fjord on the west side of Puget Sound, in Washington State. HCCC’s member jurisdictions include county and tribal governments, and it works in partnership with a large community of environmental organizations and consortiums to protect and conserve Hood Canal’s extraordinary environment under a unifying framework, the Hood Canal Integrated Watershed Plan (IWP). In 2014, HCCC adopted indicators of human wellbeing to its suite of ecosystem indicators in the IWP. The six indicators represent each of the domains of human wellbeing, including: Physical, Psychological, Governance, Cultural, Social, and Economic. Over the past year, HCCC has initiated monitoring of the selected indicators using a combination of objective and subjective measures with the goal to integrate this information into strategic planning. HCCC continues to refine its indicator measures and monitoring approach and improve the way ecosystem status and programmatic outcomes are communicated. A major component of this effort is OurHoodCanal.org, an online ecosystem report card that provides annual status updates and serves to re-frame our management approach.

With the addition of human wellbeing indicators, HCCC has initiated an ongoing conversation with many of its member jurisdictions, partners, and the public around how to make environmental management more inclusive and more responsive to the entire social-ecological system. Opening this discussion with decision-makers and project implementers has begun to re-shape HCCC’s and our partners’ approach to environmental management in a way that will better serve the wellbeing of Hood Canal’s natural and social communities.