Dissertation
Measuring wellbeing in climate and socioeconomic scenarios
Over the past two centuries, socioeconomic development has improved material living standards but has also intensified environmental pressures, including climate change and biodiversity loss.
- Author
- K. Liu
- Date
- 26 March 2026
- Links
- Thesis in Leiden Repository
As human development increasingly transgresses planetary boundaries, a key challenge is to move beyond economic growth as the primary measure of progress and instead focus on sustainable and inclusive wellbeing. However, current climate–socioeconomic modelling frameworks based on Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), remain largely growth-centered and lack explicit representation of multidimensional wellbeing and environmental–social feedbacks.
This thesis addresses this gap by developing data and methodological approaches to integrate wellbeing into forward-looking climate scenarios. It introduces the WISE Database, which harmonizes indicators across wellbeing, inclusion, and sustainability dimensions. It then demonstrates the feasibility of projecting wellbeing by estimating future wellbeing trajectories under SSP scenarios, revealing the limitations of existing frameworks due to missing feedbacks. By incorporating air pollution–health interactions into demographic projections, the thesis shows that feedbacks can substantially alter future wellbeing outcomes. Finally, a methodological framework for urban temperature-related mortality projections highlights key requirements for robust climate–health assessments.
The thesis demonstrates that integrating wellbeing into scenario-based modelling is both necessary and feasible, providing a foundation for more policy-relevant and forward-looking climate analysis.