Intermountain West Counties database

The data set contains 267 indicators for the 414 counties of the 11 states that contain the Intermountain West region in U.S. The specific counties that make the Intermountain West are a subset of 246 counties identified in the dataset. The reason to include all the counties in the dataset is to allow the removal or addition of counties according to different criteria. Different considerations of what criteria should be followed to define the intermountain West region can produce different groupings of counties. This dataset will be used to identify and evaluate sustainable development possibilities for each individual county through a comparative performance analysis. The dataset contains indicators measuring three aspects of each county: individual sociodemographic composition, economic characteristics, and the environmental and biophysical aspects of each county. All the information has been obtained from public access sources as indicated in the labels file.

A separate file (sIMWscores) contains the scores calculated through a comparative performance assessment of indicators. These scores evaluate the following for each county in the Intermountain West:

1. Six different types of restrictions mutually imposed between the economic, environmental, and social indicators
• the social restrictions to environmental activities
• the social restrictions to economic activities
• the environmental restrictions to economic activities
• the environmental restrictions to social activities
• the economic restrictions to social activities
• the economic restrictions to environmental activities

2. Three scores describing individual performance of environment, social, and economic activities as defined through the combined indicators performance.
• percent of total possible environmental activities
• percent of total possible social activities
• percent of total possible economic activities

3. The overlap of
• social and economic activities
• economic and environmental activities
• environmental and social activities

4. The overlap of all three sectors, which constitutes the possibilities for sustainable development

5. The conflict scores between environmental, social, and economic activities, produced by restrictions.
• conflicts between social and economic activities
• conflicts between economic and environmental activities
• conflicts between environmental and social activities

Scores calculates through a performance based comparison of a selection of indicators. These indicators were selected by a group of planning experts. The assessment model and the graphic outputs are available from the authors (by request).