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Document: A U.S. Human Well-being index (HWBI) for multiple scales: linking service provisioning to human well-being endpoints (2000-2010) (Doc-421)

421
Authors
Smith, L.M., Harwell, L.C., Summers, J.K., Smith, H.M., Wade, C.M., Straub, K.R. and J.L. Case
Year
2014
Title
A U.S. Human Well-being index (HWBI) for multiple scales: linking service provisioning to human well-being endpoints (2000-2010)
Document Type
Government Document
Report Number
EPA/600/R-14/223
Pages
200
Abstract
Executive Summary : " The intended use of the HWBI is to evaluate the influence of social, economic and ecological service flows on human well-being as an integrated measure based on eight aspects of the human condition referred to as domains. Tracked over time, the index has the potential to serve as a measure of sustainable human well-being when linked to alternative decisions that change the ecological, economic, and social states of defined populations (Fig. ES-1). The metrics and methodologies for constructing multiple scale HWBI measures have been developed for the U.S., General Social Survey (GSS) Region, state and county assessments as well as for specific geographic and population group applications. These well-being endpoints have been linked to the provisioning of services through the derivation of relationship function equations. The objective of this report is to characterize well-being at multiple scales in order to evaluate the relationship of service flows in terms of sustainable well-being. The HWBI results presented represent snapshot assessments for the 2000-2010 time period. Based on the spatial and temporal availability of the data, results were confidently calculated at the state, region, and national scales. Finer spatial resolution results, such as county, include greater uncertainty. Provisioning is evaluated at the state, regional and national scales for 22 different services. The functional relationships between services and well-being endpoints are modeled at the state level to examine service interactions and to evaluate the potential influence of service flows on domains and overall well-being. In this report, multiple scale HWBI values are summarized. The whole of the United States is divided into nine GSS regions. These groupings are the same divisions of the United States Census. The nine regions discussed in this paper are Pacific, Montain, West North Central, West South Central, East North Central, East South Central, New England, Middle Atlantic, and South Atlantic (Fig. ES-2). The HWBI values have also been calculated for each of the 50 states and 3,143 counties. The baseline HWBI values referred to in the results are based on a decadal block of metric data (2000-2010). Services provisioning results are presented for each state for the baseline 2000-2010 period with references to GSS regional and national scores. The modeled relationships between each of the services and the well-being domains during the 2000-2010 time period, derived from functional equations, are also presented. "
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