Citizen science for SDG delivery, data, and measurement
Conference
65th ISI World Statistics Congress 2025
Format: IPS Abstract - WSC 2025
Keywords: #officialstatistics, 'sustainable development goals', citizen science, sdg, sdg-monitoring
Thursday 9 October 10:50 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (Europe/Amsterdam)
Abstract
In 2015, the United Nations (UN) launched its most ambitious development plan: the 2030 Agenda and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). An explicit requirement of this agenda was the compilation of statistical indicators to monitor performance. Two years later, in March 2017, the UN Statistical Commission adopted a measurement framework for that agenda, comprising 232 unique indicators designed to measure the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their respective 169 targets. This global indicator framework was subsequently adopted by the UN General Assembly in July 2017. Seven years later, many elements of SDG measurement remain a challenge. Official statisticians are still faced with the herculean task of populating this framework, and naturally looking beyond traditional data sources for possible solutions. Big Data, defined as large amounts of data produced very quickly from a high number of diverse places, was one potential source. Another, lesser known, source is citizen science data. A study by Fraisl et al. (2020) suggested that citizen science data could make a considerable contribution to populating the SDG indicators.
This presentation introduces citizen science and highlights the ways in which it can be used to support the delivery, data and measurement of the SDGs and official statistics more generally. The synergies between citizen science data and other traditional and non-traditional data sources such as official surveys and Earth Observation will then presented. Successful examples of where citizen science has contributed to SDG reporting, including for marine plastics in Ghana, will be provided as is the protocol developed by the Office of National Statistics in the UK for including citizen science data as a non-official source of information. Finally, the challenges and opportunities of using citizen science data for SDG monitoring will be outlined.