Sample indicators of well-being in Alaska

International organizations, nations, and specific regions and communities increasingly recognize well-being as an integral goal of sustainable development. Scientists identify well-being as central to effective management of fisheries and marine ecosystems. This project builds on these efforts and provides a path forward in defining and incorporating well-being measures into salmon governance and decision-making arenas. We developed objective, subjective, and relational indicators to better identify what promotes and what threatens well-being in Alaska’s diverse salmon systems. We especially considered well-being concepts inclusive of Indigenous people’s priorities and perspectives. Our team identified and evaluated over 250 indicators. We found that even among our highest-ranked indicators, few indicators were universally applicable across Alaska. Additionally, our working group members also had varied opinions about what domains and indicators should be prioritized for study and assessment. We, therefore, identified suitable sample indicators that communities can refine to be more locally relevant. We also identified super indicators that measure multiple domains, like “change in median age of fishermen.” For more information on indicator domains and attributes, see: Rachel Donkersloot, Courtney Carothers, Jessica Black, and Danielle Ringer. Well-Being Domains and Attributes, 2018. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F1R20ZN2. Indicators present a potential solution but it is easy to tell the wrong story when relying on simple measures without appropriate context or cultural grounding. An understanding of how people define their own well-being should be the first step in attempts to develop and apply indicators, with communities engaged from the onset in processes of indicator development and selection. We present our work here with a note of caution where direct community involvement and evaluation is most effective and appropriate for assessing the well-being of people and communities. This dataset contains numeric representations of some of the 250 indicators identified and evaluated as part of the working group process. From a data perspective, they can be grouped roughly into 4 domains: demographic, commercial fishing, sport fishing, and subsistence/personal use fishing. For more information on data sources and data processing, please see the methods section.