Subjective wellbeing (SWB) is a key social indicator and a potential determinant of health, yet empirical evidence linking neighbourhood social fragmentation to higher SWB remains limited. This study examined the association between neighbourhood social fragmentation and high SWB among 2,056 adults in the Australian Capital Territory using data from the ‘Living well in the ACT Region’ survey. High SWB was assessed using the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and Global Life Satisfaction (GLS). Neighbourhood social fragmentation was measured using the Australian Neighbourhood Social Fragmentation Index (ANSFI). Multilevel logistic regression models were used to examine these associations while adjusting for individual sociodemographic characteristics and area socioeconomic status (SES), measured by the Index of Relative Socioeconomic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD). Higher levels of social fragmentation were associated with lower odds of high SWB in unadjusted models for both PWI and GLS. After adjustments, the association remained significant for high PWI (OR = 0.941, 95

Green infrastructure (GI) of various forms provides a range of benefits. Prior studies suggest a positive association between GI access and the quality of life of urban residents, but lack a focus on mid-sized cities, where residents have relatively ready access to peri-urban nature; and do not examine how this association changes during a population-wide shock. This study explores the association between GI access and wellbeing in Canberra, Australia, a planned mid-sized city, and whether this changed in response to two shock events: the 2019-20 bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis of survey responses from 3349 adult Canberrans identified that access to GI was associated with improved wellbeing, but only when accessing natural GI (e.g. reserves) rather than more constructed forms (e.g. parks and ovals), and when they could spend the "right" amount of time outdoors - neither more or less than they wished. Analysis of 119 responses to a survey of a subsampled population suggested that use of all GI decreased during the bushfires, but the use of nearby parks and ovals was high during the COVID-19 pandemic. Respondents appreciated GI more as a result of both shock events, but also expected better management of GI-associated fire risks. These results reaffirm the value of GI to urban residents' wellbeing, even in mid-sized cities, though some findings may be specific to Canberra. These results suggest the need to understand how various shock events, expected to become more common, may affect the association between access to different forms of GI and wellbeing.

While social resources are known to promote positive psychological outcomes after disasters, little is known about the unique influence of different social resources on distress and coping during a disaster. This study examined the association between five social resources: sense of belonging, bushfire reciprocal support, emotional support, practical support and loneliness, and two psychological outcomes, distress and coping self-efficacy, during Australia’s 2019–2020 Black Summer bushfires. Survey data collected from 2611 bushfire-affected Australians in late 2020 was analysed using regression modelling. Higher perceived emotional and practical support and lower levels of loneliness predicted increased coping self-efficacy, and higher sense of belonging and lower loneliness predicted reduced distress. However, higher emotional and reciprocal support predicted higher distress after accounting for coping self-efficacy. The findings suggest having higher access to some social resources may not directly reduce distress but may reduce distress indirectly through increasing coping self-efficacy. While access to social resources, particularly bonding social capital, is likely important for supporting psychological response during disasters, the findings suggest this may be dependent on the perceived quantity, quality and expectations of these social resources. The findings indicate that different social resources interact with disaster-related psychological outcomes in distinct, complex and sometimes non-linear ways.

Increased use of electric vehicles (EVs) has the potential to reduce carbon emissions. Therefore, predicting the impact of governments' EV incentive policies on the future uptake of EVs is important. This study estimates the impact of incentive policies introduced in the Australian Capital Territory. This estimation is conducted through constructing a microsimulation model and using it to assess the impact of the incentive policies on the purchase of EVs for households in different income quintiles. In the model, the decision about purchasing an EV is based largely on the total cost of ownership of an EV compared to the vehicle already owned and the additional utility of having a new vehicle. The application of the model shows that, regardless of incentives, a drop in the price of EVs will play the most important role in uptake. Incentives will help lower to middle income households, although EV demand is dominated by those in the highest income quintile. Importantly, however, incentives can increase uptake in locations with previously low uptake. Future work needs to focus on the reliability of data on EV's, and how to incorporate the rapid change in the market (eg, rapid uptake of EV's in the ACT) seen in the last few years.

Abstract Worldwide, a growing number of societal wellbeing frameworks are being developed and used to provide measures of progress that go beyond economic growth. The emergence of these frameworks highlights both the opportunities and challenges of reconceptualising social progress and its measurement around the concept of wellbeing. This chapter provides a brief history of the evolution of societal wellbeing frameworks and common challenges in their development, such as how best to determine what to include, how to integrate measures of wellbeing that are typically drawn from a diverse range of disciplines, and, increasingly, how to include both objective and subjective measures. It examines the key need for the ongoing development of an integrated science of wellbeing that can continue to build the validity, utility, and implementation of these frameworks.

Ensuring natural resource management (NRM) positively impacts the quality of life of a farmer is important to farmer mental health and persistence with adoption. Evidence suggests the well-being co-benefits of NRM are related to either ‘doing’ NRM practices or applying socioecological systems (SES) principles to guide NRM. We examine the relationship between a common NRM practice—tree planting, and farmer well-being, psychological distress, and social connectedness. Using hierarchical regression models, we test to see if these relationships remain with the addition of a measure of SES principles. Results show that while NRM practice was associated with improved social connectedness, only SES principles were associated with well-being. Neither NRM practice nor SES principles were associated with psychological distress. Both NRM practices and SES principles have the potential to positively impact farmers' lives and ensuring NRM programs have co-benefits to farmer well-being may help to encourage long-term engagement.

The growing movement of ‘regenerative agriculture’ (RA) claims to provide a way to adapt to a changing climate by regenerating landscapes while meeting the social and economic needs of farmers and their communities. Current research suggests that through the application of socio-ecological (SES) principles, RA can build a farmer's sense of their ability to successfully manage land for a range of outcomes and adapt to changes, also known as farming self-efficacy. Further, it is argued that by increasing farming self-efficacy, farmers experience improved wellbeing. Up until now, the role of farming self-efficacy as a potential wellbeing pathway has only been examined in the qualitative literature. We address this gap through a two-part exploratory study of Australian graziers. Firstly, we undertake an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify a measure of RA principles. We then use this measure to examine whether farming self-efficacy mediates the effect engaging in RA has on three different measures of subjective wellbeing (hedonic wellbeing, eudaimonic wellbeing and evaluative wellbeing). Results of the EFA identified a two-factor structure of RA principles. These were labelled “holistic planning and monitoring” and “prioritising landscape regeneration”. Only the latter was strongly associated with farming selfefficacy and wellbeing. Mediation was tested through three separate SEM analyses. Findings showed that the positive relationship between “prioritising landscape regeneration” and all subjective wellbeing measures were significantly mediated by farming self-efficacy. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that regenerative agriculture may support long-term adaptation to climatic variability through building farming self-efficacy and wellbeing.

Despite the wide range of wellbeing frameworks utilised globally, no consensus exists regarding how a wellbeing framework might be assessed. This article aims to fill this gap by proposing a method of assessment to review potential indicators of wellbeing and then shows how this method can be used to assess evidence for a number of indicators. It answers the research question: what indicators have been successfully validated and applied in population settings? To identify the current evidence and any potential research gaps, we investigated key international and Australian frameworks on wellbeing. After identifying the wellbeing indicators used in these frameworks, we assessed the quality of evidence in the academic literature using three criteria: frequency of use, reliability and availability. We then made an overall assessment of the indicators’ practicality and usability weighing up both the quality of evidence and data availability. From the 96 indicators analysed, we identified 16 high usability indicators in the domains of economic, home, health, education and skills, and social and community. These indicators are household income, educational attainment, employment, unemployment, financial hardship, overcrowding, housing affordability, homelessness, life expectancy, self-reported health status, disability, smoking behaviour, mental health, cognitive skills, social network/support and volunteering. This practical method of assessment is not limited to wellbeing indicators and can also be applied in other settings, providing a useful tool for policymakers across the world.

It is increasingly argued that indicators of sustainable agriculture should include measures examining the health and wellbeing of farm managers. Given the farmer plays a crucial role in farm-based decision making and management, good farmer wellbeing may indicate a level of functioning across all components of the farm system - a defining aspect of sustainability. Despite this, few agricultural sustainability indicator frameworks measure farmer wellbeing. A key challenge is lack of exploration of the linkages between farming systems and wellbeing, and identification of measures that can shed light on the wellbeing benefits of ecological and economically sustainable farming systems. We test the utility of subjective wellbeing (SWB) measures for inclusion as part of agricultural sustainability indicator frameworks, using regenerative agriculture (RA) as a case example. RA is a farming system which many claim has benefits for sustainability, and attempts to assess the sustainability of this approach has yielded conflicting results. Using a sample of Australian graziers, we examine the relationship between engagement in RA and several measures of SWB. Hierarchical regressions were conducted to assess whether engaging in RA predicted variance in SWB over and above age, gender and farm type. We found RA was associated with higher SWB for some, but not all, measures. The association was strongest for measures of eudaimonic wellbeing and satisfaction with health. Our findings suggest that SWB measures are sufficiently sensitive to provide meaningful insight into the wellbeing impacts of different agricultural systems, supporting the case for inclusion of such measures in sustainability frameworks.

Understanding the social acceptability of managing forest fuels to reduce wildfire risk is essential to achieving long-term investment in fuel management that is supported publicly and politically. Integrative Complexity Theory (ICT) examines how people think about complex issues, and provides a way to better understand acceptability of potentially controversial issues, and inform design of communication that can achieve more stable social and political support; higher integrative complexity (IC) is argued to result in more moderate, but resilient attitudes. However, existing IC measures have limitations in identifying the distribution of IC across a population, restricting their usefulness for informing communication strategies targeted to differing levels of complex thinking. We propose a modified IC measure that aligns more closely with IC theory to better understand IC across a population, and test it using a sample of 435 Australians. The modified IC measure enables better identification of the groups who have lower complexity of thinking, and their preferred ways of receiving information: those with lower IC preferred information about fuel management delivered via traditional one-way mediums that typically use simpler styles of messaging. To achieve long-term resilient attitudes to fuel management, communication may need to use these mediums to both build complexity of thinking, and to encourage a shift to accessing information via mediums that are better suited to communicating the complexities of fuel management.

Social acceptability of environmental management actions, such as prescribed burning used to reduce wildfire risk, is critical to achieving positive outcomes. However, environmental managers often need to implement strategies over a long time period, and sustaining long-term community support can be challenging. Public attention to environmental issues is argued to vary over time, with acceptability of management interventions theorized to decrease with time since experiencing an environmental problem. However, it is unknown whether a person needs to personally experience the problem to maintain support, or if hearing about it in the media is sufficient. In this paper we explore whether acceptability of prescribed burning used to reduce wildfire risk declines with length of time since personally experiencing a wildfire. In a sample of 4390 Australians, acceptability of prescribed burning was not predicted by length of time since personally experiencing a wildfire, or perceptions of wildfire risk. Significant predictors included perceptions of local fuel loads, and of positive and negative impacts of prescribed burning, suggesting addressing these issues may be more effective in maintaining long-term support for wildfire management policies than investing in increasing attention to wildfire risk. This suggests environmental managers can design communication strategies to maintain support for environmental actions even in the absence of an individual personally experiencing the problem the action is designed to address.

Multiple studies have examined what' people think about fuel management (perceptions); fewer have examined how' people think about it (structure of thoughts). In an Australian study, we used Integrative Complexity Theory (ICT) to explore the relationship between how complexly people thought about, and how acceptable they found, three fuel management strategies: prescribed burning, mechanical thinning and livestock grazing. Integrative complexity (IC) was associated with the direction of acceptability of the most familiar practice - prescribed burning, but trust in organizations was associated with acceptability of all strategies. IC was associated with the extremity of acceptability, with higher IC associated with more moderate attitudes. Our findings support the argument that targeting communication to (i) match current IC and (ii) encourage growth in complexity of thinking has potential to encourage more moderate and stable attitudes about fuel management.

In many developed countries, the number of farmers working in commercial agriculture continues to decline with more likely to leave in the future. The act of farming and autonomy of farming work are central to farmers' identity. Although loss of autonomy when exiting farming may pose a threat to identity and reduce farmer wellbeing, these are notable gaps in existing social research. This article retrospectively examines farmer autonomy and wellbeing in a sample of 412 Australian exited farmers. Regression modelling showed those who reported lost autonomy when leaving farming reported consistently lower levels of wellbeing than those who did not lose autonomy. Supports that assist farmers to maintain their autonomy during and after exiting the occupation may help to protect against stresses associated with farm exit and improve wellbeing outcomes for exited farmers.

Communities in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin face the challenge of trying to achieve social, economic, and environmental sustainability; but experience entrenched conflict about the best way to achieve a sustainable future, especially for small rural communities. Integral ecology is a philosophical concept that seeks to address community, economic, social, and environmental sustainability simultaneously. Its inclusive processes are designed to reduce stakeholder conflict. However, to date the application of the integral ecology concept has been largely qualitative in nature. This study developed a quantitative integral ecology framework, and applied this framework to a case study of the Riverina, in the Murray-Darling Basin. Seventy-seven community-focused initiatives were assessed, ranked, and quantified. The majority of the community-focused ranked initiatives did not exhibit all aspects of integral ecology. Initiatives typically prioritized either (1) economic and community development or (2) environmental health; rarely both together. The integral ecology framework developed here enables recommendations on future community initiatives and may provide a pathway for community leaders and other policy-makers to more readily apply integral ecology objectives. Further research refining the framework's operationalization, application and implementation to a wider-scale may enhance communities' capacity to develop and grow sustainably.

The ongoing challenge of maintaining and improving the quality of water that leaves urban stormwater systems is often addressed using technical rather than social solutions. The need for investment in often expensive water infrastructure can be reduced through better investing in promoting human behaviors that protect water quality as part of water-sensitive urban design (WSUD) initiatives. Successfully achieving this requires understanding factors that influence adoption of proenvironmental behaviors. We review past studies examining this topic and identify that factors influencing adoption of proenvironmental behaviors relevant to WSUD commonly fall into four domains: proenvironmental values and norms, awareness and knowledge of environmental problems and the actions that can address them, proximity and place-based identity, and life-stage and lifestyle factors. We propose the VAIL (values, awareness, identify, lifestyle) framework, based on these four domains and able to be contextualized to specific water-quality problems and individual communities, to assist in diagnosing factors influencing adoption of proenvironmental behaviors. We demonstrate the applicability of the framework in a case study examining adoption of gardening practices that support water quality in Canberra, Australia. We developed 22 locally relevant VAIL indicators and surveyed 3,334 residents to understand engagement in four water-friendly gardening behaviors that help improve water quality in local lakes. In regression modeling, the indicators explained a significant amount of variance in these behaviors and suggested avenues for supporting greater adoption of these behaviors. Predictor variables across all four VAIL domains were significant, highlighting the importance of a multidomain framework.