Characterizing Wellbeing Across the Intermountain West

Charter Summary:

Human wellbeing can be broadly conceptualized as everything “that constitutes a good life” (Bache and Reardon 2016, p. 5). Debate continues over the definition, scope, and measurement of wellbeing and countless objective and subjective measures and metrics are used for governance and research purposes (ibid.). This charter has compiled an initial large set of datasets and measures for wellbeing and social and environmental conditions and characteristics. These measures range from the Social Vulnerability Index to multiple measures of watershed health and integrity and beyond. In addition to quantitative wellbeing datasets, qualitative place-based perspectives are integral to understanding and characterizing wellbeing and opportunities for guided transformations for greater resilience. We are conducting interviews in communities in the Yakima River Basin and hope to expand to other TN study areas over time. By comparing wellbeing indicators with local-regional perspectives, clearer insights will be obtained for the Intermountain West looking into the future.