Ocean Health Index (OHI)

The Ocean Health Index (OHI) is a framework for assessing ocean health based on the sustainable provisioning of benefits and services people expect from healthy oceans, such as food, cultural and social value, and jobs. The basic philosophy of the Ocean Health Index is that it measures how well ocean systems are sustainably providing people with the benefits and services they need and desire from marine systems. The global OHI measures the status of these key societal ‘goals’: - artisanal fishing opportunity - biodiversity - carbon storage - clean waters - coastal livelihoods and economies - coastal protection - food provision - natural products - sense of place - tourism and recreation Each goal is scored on the delivery of specific benefits with respect to a sustainable target. A goal is given a score of 100 if its benefits are maximized without compromising the ocean’s ability to deliver those benefits in the future. Lower scores indicate that more benefits could be gained or that current methods are harming the delivery of future benefits. Goal Scores are based on several components: current status, likely future status, trend, pressures, and resilience. To calculate each Goal Score the average of Present Status and Likely Future Status is taken: CURRENT STATUS is a goal’s current value compared to its reference point, resulting in a score from 0 to 100. LIKELY FUTURE STATUS is the predicted status score five years into the future (once again, on a scale from 0 to 100), which is estimated by adjusting the current status score by 3 variables: TREND which is the change in a goal’s status observed over the most recent five years. PRESSURES which are the ecological and social factors that decrease a goal’s status. RESILIENCE which are ecological factors and social initiatives (policies, laws, etc) that mitigate the pressures acting on a goal. A region’s Index Score is the average of its goal scores. Goal scores are weighted equally in global assessments, but independent assessments could weight them differently depending on local conditions and values. The Global Score is the average of scores for all assessed regions weighted by EEZ area. The data included in Data360 is a subset of the data available from the source. Please refer to the source for complete data and methodology details. This collection includes only a subset of indicators from the source dataset.