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Indicators and Methods for Evaluating Economic, Ecosystem and Social Services Provisioning: A Human Well-being Index (HWBI) Research Product
Citation:
Smith, L., C. Wade, K. Straub, L. Harwell, J. Case, M. Harwell, AND Kevin Summers. Indicators and Methods for Evaluating Economic, Ecosystem and Social Services Provisioning: A Human Well-being Index (HWBI) Research Product. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-14/184, 2014.
Impact/Purpose:
Provide metadata and methods for calculating services provisioning scores for HWBI modeling framework
Description:
The U.S. Human Well-being Index (HWBI) is a composite measure that incorporates economic, environmental, and societal well-being elements through the eight domains of connection to nature, cultural fulfillment, education, health, leisure time, living standards, safety and security, and social cohesion (USEPA 2012a; Smith et al. 2013). Twenty-eight services, represented by a collection of indicators and metrics, have been identified as influencing these domains of human well-being. By taking an inventory of stocks or measuring the results of a service, a relationship function can be derived to understand how changes in the provisioning of that service can influence the HWBI. An extensive review of existing services was performed to identify current services, indicators and metrics in use. This report describes the indicators and methods we have selected to evaluate the provisioning of economic, ecosystem, and social services related to human well-being.