Grantee Research Project Results

2018 Progress Report: Integrating Human Wellbeing and Ecosystem Services into Near Term Action Planning in the Puget Sound

EPA Grant Number: R836946
Title: Integrating Human Wellbeing and Ecosystem Services into Near Term Action Planning in the Puget Sound
Investigators: Biedenweg, Kelly
Institution: Oregon State University
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: August 1, 2017 through July 31, 2019 (Extended to July 31, 2021)
Project Period Covered by this Report: August 1, 2017 through July 31,2018
Project Amount: $399,831
RFA: Integrating Human Health and Well-Being with Ecosystem Services (2016) RFA Text |  Recipients Lists
Research Category: Human Health

Objective:

The project has two main objectives:

1. Conduct Integrated Community Assessments (ICAs)

• Create ICAs with a minimum of five and up to nine communities that integrate diverse stressors, ecological endpoints, ecosystem services and human wellbeing (HWB) impacts. Emphasis will be placed on air and water quality, in addition to other locally-prioritized outcomes.
• Summarize generalizable tools, lessons learned, and performance metrics for common strategies that could impact ecosystem services and HWB

1. Empower communities to use these assessments when making decisions

• Test whether conducting a ICA alters resource management decisions by local communities
• Test the factors under which communities are willing and able to use ICAs that include ecosystem service and HWB considerations in natural resource planning

Progress Summary:

Progress Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes)

Outputs of Year # 1

• • Hired full-time PhD student
  • Hired part-time Postdoctoral scholar
  • Conducted 37 pre-condition interviews with members from all nine of the participating and non-participating communities.
  • Selected 5 communities for participation in the integrated assessment and planning process
  • Developed user guide for tools to integrate social and ecological data in estuary planning
  • Leveraged funding to complete Puget Sound-wide human wellbeing survey (3000 responses, 30% response rate) to quantify and spatialize human wellbeing metrics important to the communities
  • Held two half-day workshops with participating communities to build rapport, present existing wellbeing data, share potential integration tools (DASEES, Miradi conceptual models, and non-technological tools), define work plans, and identify challenges
  • Developed user guide for tools to integrate social and ecological data in estuary planning
  • Leveraged funding to complete Puget Sound-wide human wellbeing survey (3000 responses, 30% response rate) to quantify and spatialize human wellbeing metrics important to the communities
  • Leveraged funding to hire consultant to finalize air quality and drinking water metrics of human health
  • Completed proposal to conduct the same survey for the Bay-Delta estuary program for similar analyses
  • OSU IRB approval has been received for the study
• Outcomes
  • Established rapport with community participants
  • Informed regional and national partners and interested parties about the project
  • Developed work plans with participants
  • Started research component by collecting wellbeing data for the planning, and by collecting pre-interview data to later assess the intervention
  • Established baseline human wellbeing data to be used in the integrated planning process
  • Started participatory process for defining air quality and drinking water metrics to be used in long-term monitoring and planning

Future Activities:

Future Activities Plans -Year #2

• Complete analysis of pre-interviews
• Complete spatial and demographic analysis of human wellbeing metrics
• Begin integrated, spatial analysis of biophysical and human wellbeing interactions
• Work with five partner communities to implement work plan
• Finalize and compile trend data for air quality and drinking water metrics
• Submit at least 3 manuscripts: 1) Factors affecting the integration of social data in estuarine planning at watershed and basin scales; 2) The influence of time spent in location on sense of place, environmental stewardship, and governance perceptions; and 3) What are measures of cultural wellbeing in a diverse population?

Journal Articles:

No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 20 publications for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

Human wellbeing, indicators, Puget Sound, ecosystem restoration, large scale estuary

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

2019 Progress Report

2020 Progress Report

Final Report