Ecological Archives H001-002-A2

Ecological Archives H001-002-A2

Wu Yang, Madeleine C. McKinnon, and Will R. Turner. 2015. Quantifying human well-being for sustainability research and policy. Ecosystem Health and Sustainability 1:16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ehs15-0004.1

Appendix B. Conceptual framework of the index system of human well-being (HWB).

Table B1. Conceptual framework of the index system of human well-being (HWB).

Category layer	Indicator layer	Indicator Code	Indicator description	Justification	Sign
Basic material for good life	Housing condition	V18	Percentage of low-quality houses (with thatched, zinc, or fibro roof).	Low-quality houses indicate bad housing condition.	-
	Access to electricity	V9013	Percentage of house (thatched, zinc, fibro, tiled roof, or villa) with access to electricity or battery light.	Nowadays, access to electricity is an important component of basic livelihood.	+
	Access to basic education	V250	Distance to the nearest junior secondary school (km).	The further the distance, the more difficult to access basic education.	-
	Illiterate rate	V9014	Percentage of illiterate people among population aging 18–45 years.	High illiterate rate indicates poor basic education conditions.	-
	Basic transportation	V33	Number of bicycles per capita.	More bicycles indicate better basic transportation.	+
	Access to other basic goods and services	V364	Average distance from all village centers in each commune to District/Khan office (km).	The further the distance, the more difficult to access other basic goods and services.	-
		V365	Average distance from all village centers in each commune to Provincial/Municipal office (km).	The further the distance, the more difficult to access other basic goods and services.	-

Table B2. Conceptual framework of the index system of human well-being (HWB).

Category layer	Indicator layer	Indicator Code	Indicator description	Justification	Sign
Security	Public security	V401	Occurrence rate of murders, robberies and kidnapping cases (calculated by the number of cases divided by total population).	High criminal rate indicates poor security conditions.	-
		V402	Occurrence rate of theft cases (calculated by the number of cases divided by total population).	High criminal rate indicates poor security conditions.	-
	Security for resource access	V280	Percentage of families who have rice land less than one hectare.	Rice land is crucial to food security.	+
		V28	Percentage of families with pigs.	Pork is an important source of protein.	+
		V302	Percentage of families with duck.	Poultry is an important source of protein.	+
		V42	Percentage of family using chemical fertilizer in the past year.	Use of chemical fertilizer is important to improve crop production.	+
		V43	Percentage of family using pesticide in the past year.	Use of pesticide is important to improve crop production.	+

Table B3. Conceptual framework of the index system of human well-being (HWB).

Category layer	Indicator layer	Indicator Code	Indicator description	Justification	Sign
Health	Sanitary	V23	Number of latrines per capita.	More latrines indicate better sanitary conditions.	+
		V391	Percentage of families usually uses water from purified system equipment.	Purified water is safer to drink.	+
		V400	Percentage of families regularly boils drinking water.	Boiling water helps to kill bacteria and is good for health.	+
	Access to electricity	V9013	Percentage of house (thatched, zinc, fibro, tiled roof, or villa) uses electricity or battery light.	Electricity is better for health than fuelwood or charcoal.	+
	Access to health facilities	V366	Average distance from all village centers in each commune to the nearest health center (km).	The further the distance the more difficult to access health care.	-
	Access to basic medical care	V38	Percentage of families who used a trained midwife in the past year.	Use of trained midwife enhances the success rate of birth.	+
	HIV/AIDS occurrence rate	V417	Percentage of families whose family member is living with HIV/AIDS.	High HIV/AIDS occurrence rate indicates bad health status.	-
	Survival rate of infants	V370	Percentage of new survival born infants by midwife, calculated using the number of new survival born infants divided by total population.	Higher infant survival rate indicates better medical services.	+

Table B4. Conceptual framework of the index system of human well-being (HWB).

Category layer	Indicator layer	Indicator Code	Indicator description	Justification	Sign
Good social relations	Neighborhood relations	V45	Number of land conflict cases per family in the past year.	More conflicts indicate worse social relations among families.	-
	Home violence	V47	Percentage of families having problems with violence at home.	More home violence cases indicate worse social relations within families.	-
	Cohesion & Trust	V401	Occurrence rate of murders, robberies and kidnapping cases (calculated by the number of cases divided by total population).	High criminal rate harms the social cohesion and trust.	-
		V402	Occurrence rate of theft cases (calculated by the number of cases divided by total population).	High criminal rate harms the social cohesion and trust.	-
		V403	Occurrence rate of other criminal cases except murders, robberies, kidnapping and theft (calculated by the number of cases divided by total population)	High criminal rate harms the social cohesion and trust.	-
		V404	Occurrence rate of other civil infraction cases except criminal cases (calculated by the number of cases divided by total population)	High criminal rate harms the social cohesion and trust.	-

Table B5. Conceptual framework of the index system of human well-being (HWB).

Category layer	Indicator layer	Indicator Code	Indicator description	Justification	Sign
Freedom of choice and action	Freedom from discrimination	V73	Percentage of female household headed.	Higher percentage may indicate less gender discrimination.	+
		V9008	Percentage of female in illiterate population between 18–45 years old.	More female illiterate population indicates more severe gender discrimination.	-
	Affordability to quality housing	V9017	Percentage of high-quality houses (tiled roof or villa houses).	More high-quality houses indicate higher degree of affordability.	+
	Access to relatively higher education	V251	Distance to the nearest senior secondary school (km).	The further the distance, the more difficult to access higher education.	-
	Improved transportation	V30	Number of motorcycles per capita.	Motorcycles are more valuable asset in comparison to bicycles and indicate better transportation conditions.	+
	Affordability to superior good	V9011	Percentage of house (thatched, zinc, fibro, tiled roof, or villa) with TV.	Television is a kind of superior good in Cambodia.	+
		V345	Per capita of power-tillage machine.	Power-tillage machine is a kind of superior good in Cambodia.	+
		V347	Per capita of small trucks (net weight less than 1.5 tons).	Small truck is a kind of superior good in Cambodia.	+
		V351	Per capita of family cars.	Family car is a kind of superior good in Cambodia.	+

Notes: This table shows the initially designed framework, indicators of which are further refined in the SEM. Some indicators are available at the village level and are aggregated to the commune level using the mean or sum values.

For the column of “Sign”, a positive sign means that the higher value of the indicator represents the better status of well-being; reversely, a negative sign means that the higher the value of the indicator represents the worse status of well-being. For indicators with positive and negative signs, they are normalized using the minimum-maximum normalization method based on equations “var = (var-min(var))/(max(var)-min(var))” and “var = - (var-max(var))/(max(var)-min(var))”, respectively. In doing so, indicators with negative signs are transformed into positive signs for easy interpretation. Though, such transformation does not alter the results of internal consistency, reliability test, or SEM, which are based on standardized indicators.

It also needs to be noted that the sign of indicators is hypothetical and may be context dependent. For example, bicycles can be superior good in very poor places but may be inferior good in less poorer regions. Here superior goods refer to items whose consumption increases as income rises, while inferior goods are reversed. When the criminal rate is low, wealthy people may have higher level of security; in reverse, when the criminal rate is high, wealthy people may have lower level of security. In addition, one indicator can also be a positive indicator for one dimension but a negative indicator for another dimension. Thus, in the final results of SEM model, there still could be some indicators with negative signs, which suggest that the transformed indicators are negatively associated with the corresponding HWB sub-index.

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