Abstract
Progress towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is monitored using a set of targets and indicators. Gaps in official datasets have led to calls for the inclusion of data generated through citizen science (CS) and allied approaches. Co-benefits of CS mean these approaches could also contribute to localising, defining, and achieving the SDGs. However, mapping of current and potential contributions is needed, as well as an understanding of the challenges these approaches present. We undertake a semi-systematic review of past and current CS projects and assess them against dimensions of CS—spatial, temporal, thematic, process, and management—and their value for the SDGs set out by Fritz et al. in 2019, focusing on low and middle income country (LMIC) cities as key environments in the battle for sustainability. We conduct interviews with project leaders to further understand the challenges for CS in these contexts. We find opportunities for projects to monitor and achieve a wide range of goals, targets, and indicators. However, we find fewer projects in low income countries when compared with middle income countries. Challenges include balancing local needs with national monitoring requirements and a lack of long-term funding. Support is needed for LMICs to achieve the potential of CS.
Highlights
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations (UN)Member States in 2015, are a call to action for all countries to work together to end poverty, improve health and education, reduce inequalities, and protect the environment by 2030 [1].The SDGs have 169 targets and 231 unique indicators, which provide a framework for assessing and monitoring progress towards the goals
The need for citizen science (CS) to contribute to monitoring, localising, defining, and implementing the SDGs is acute in urban environments in low and middle income country (LMIC)
We use CS projects in LMIC cities identified from a semi-systematic review of the academic and grey literature, as well as interviews with CS project leaders in LMICs, to (1) map the current and potential scope for CS to contribute to monitoring, localising, defining and implementing the SDGs in LMIC cities; (2) identify challenges for the use of CS approaches in these contexts; (3) suggest ways forward to realise the potential of CS to support the SDGs
Summary
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations (UN). The SDGs have 169 targets and 231 unique indicators, which provide a framework for assessing and monitoring progress towards the goals. SDG indicators, in low and middle income countries (LMICs) [2], have led to calls to incorporate non-traditional forms of data, including those generated through citizen science (CS), into monitoring frameworks [3,4,5]. Our review focuses on urban environments, as cities are considered to be where the battle for sustainability will be won or lost [13], and LMICs as these are where some of the biggest data deficits exist [2]
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