"Citizen Science and the Sustainable Development Goals"

IPEN SEA Virtual Conference Day One

By Rachel Pateman | 02 November 2020

 

Rachel Pateman of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) discusses how citizen science has the potential to contribute towards global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), with a particular emphasis on citizen science in urban environments.

Citizen science could contribute to collecting data needed to monitor SDG indicators as it is widely recognized that there are currently significant gaps in the information that is available. There are particular concerns that current data underrepresents certain sectors of society, often the already marginalized, such as those living in informal settlements. Citizen science has been proposed as one way in which these data gaps could be filled. It has been proven as a method to collect information from marginalized communities, and it can also be used to collect the same from wide geographic areas, including hard to reach places. It can also generate data at very fine temporal resolutions and be responsive so that information is always up to date.

She also shared SEI’s report of citizen science projects that have taken place or are ongoing in urban environments in low and middle income countries. Projects include land use mapping, emergency and disaster response, biodiversity, and several that would be associated with urban environments including transport, waste, and pollution.View the virtual presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvyn1DtAYnM&t=1s

NOTE: Subtitles in English, Bahasa, Thai, and Vietnamese are available. Please click the Settings button on the lower right hand corner of your YouTube screen to view the subtitles.