Reid, JohnYates, Amanda2025-08-072025-08-072025-08-05Nature-Based Solutions, ISSN: 2772-4115 (Print), Elsevier BV, 8, 100257-100257. doi: 10.1016/j.nbsj.2025.1002572772-4115http://hdl.handle.net/10292/19648Place-based, Indigenous ways of knowing have real relevance in a context of urban system change. Indigenous approaches have developed over time in places that are understood as ecological entities and venerated kin, not geological resource. Such socio-ecological and nature-responsive models are evidenced to offer the adaptive, ecologically ethical and responsive strategies needed at this time of complex ecological crisis. The research discussed here is founded in a complex Indigenous wellbeing concept – mauri ora - that links social and ecological wellbeing together as an indissoluble whole. Earlier research developed an urban mauri-centered “compass” that oriented users towards nature-based and socio-ecological approaches to urban wellbeing. An urban wellbeing data display was also developed that measured and visualised current states of social, cultural and ecological wellbeing. This mauri-centered research methodology was then tested out in place, in Waitaha/Canterbury, in the South Island of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Working with Te Kāhui Kahukura, a group of Māori Iwi kin authorities, a wellbeing index was developed. In this paper we describe the research context, the place-based index and its key domains and measures that assess socio-ecological wellbeing as a complex whole in the context of urban environments.© 2025 Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).4406 Human Geography44 Human SocietyBehavioral and Social ScienceIndigenous knowledgeMauri oraUrban well-beingTransition toolsUrban system changeJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.1016/j.nbsj.2025.100257