Introduction, Purpose of This Book, and Organizing Assumptions

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to allow a planning office to conduct the research and analyze the data in order to complete a Social Weil-Being Account. The social assessment is to be administered in coordination with or as part of a larger assessment process which may include economic, environmental, and regional assessments. The book assesses a social assessment that is conducted along with economic, environmental, and regional assessments, which together form the basis upon which alternative water resource plans. A typical planning office should be able to conduct this assessment within reasonable resource constraints in a variety of plan situations and to draw appropriate conclusions. The social assessment should be applicable to a variety of community settings: rural and urban, large and small.