A Practical Approach to Assessing the Impact of Citizen Science towards the Sustainable Development Goals
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Experimental Design
2.2. Questionnaire Design
2.3. Workshop and Interview Structure
2.4. Workshop Procedure
2.5. Interview Procedure
2.6. Participants and Projects
2.7. Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Question and Answer Revision
3.2. Questionnaire Responses
- Yes
- No
- I don’t know
- Pre-primary-level education to children
- Primary-level education to pupils
- Secondary-level education to pupils (middle and high school)
- Tertiary education to students (university, college and vocational courses)
- Adult education or life-long learning
- The project does not contribute to the formal education of participants.
- I don’t know
3.3. Comments and Discussion
3.4. Updated Questions Related to SDGs
4. Discussion
4.1. Relevance of the SDGs to Citizen Science
4.2. Monitoring Progress vs. Contribution towards Achieving SDGs
4.3. Relevance of the Questions to the SDGs and Limitations of the Approach
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Workshop | Interviews (Round 1) | Interviews (Round 2) | |
---|---|---|---|
Questions | 41 | 41 | 43 |
Comments from participants | 21 | 115 | 81 |
Changes made to questions | 7 | 19 | 28 |
Questions added | - | 2 | 11 |
Questions removed | - | - | 3 |
SDG Number | SDG Title | Total Number of Questions | Response Rate (%) | Positive Response Rate (%) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | No poverty | 2 | 100 | 42 |
2 | Zero hunger | 2 | 46 | 9 |
3 | Good health and well-being | 6 | 94 | 5 |
4 | Quality education | 5 | 98 | 75 |
5 | Gender equality | 4 | 100 | 40 |
6 | Clean water and sanitation | 1 | 42 | 100 |
7 | Affordable and clean energy | 1 | 0 | 0 |
8 | Decent work and economic growth | 4 | 96 | 15 |
9 | Industry, innovation, and infrastructure | 0 | n/a | n/a |
10 | Reduced inequalities | 2 | 96 | 21 |
11 | Sustainable cities and communities | 1 | 67 | 100 |
12 | Responsible consumption and production | 3 | 75 | 48 |
13 | Climate action | 2 | 96 | 65 |
14 | Life below water | 1 | 25 | 100 |
15 | Life on land | 1 | 42 | 100 |
16 | Peace, justice, and strong institutions | 2 | 88 | 79 |
17 | Partnerships for the goals | 5 | 100 | 25 |
Theme | Definition and Examples | No. of Comments |
---|---|---|
Justification of answer | These comments describe the activities of the project rather than the project coordinator’s thoughts on the question. “Our data are not open access because it’s all interview and workshop transcripts. But all the outputs of the project are open access”. “We talk about climate change and its impact on water quality and quantity. And we give education on how to use storm water or mention what is the source of water pollution that we measure in the creek and explain the environmental challenges, just not in very deep detail. We explain the probable source of pollution and then list some counter measures. So we do some small education”. | 78 |
Change to wording | Includes all comments suggesting changes to the questions and answers, for example, requests to add another answer option, a definition of a key term, or a new question on a related topic. “It would be good to have an option where you can say ‘no’ because we’re only targeting a single group”. “Disadvantaged is a little loaded. I would say disadvantaged or historically marginalised”. “It would be good to devote a question to data ownership if it’s not already covered in an upcoming question”. | 63 |
Uncertainty (answer) | This theme includes comments where the interviewee understood the question but was still unsure which answer they should select. “It’s always communicated what is the origin of air pollution and how it can be avoided. Would that fall under sustainable lifestyles?” “Very indirectly researches sustainable agriculture. Not researching how to farm but just looking at the impacts. [I] said yes but [I’m] not confident” “I don’t know which category our education falls into. we have diverse participants from different age and educational backgrounds”. | 57 |
Positive reaction | Positive reactions to questions included comments that the question was interesting and easy to understand or answer. “I really like that you have put this here because I think there are so many projects which haven’t even thought or don’t know what the SDGs are and it really makes you think about that”. “It’s an interesting [question], not one that I’d thought about before”. “These questions are easy, even if I answer no to them all”. | 34 |
Difficulty with SDGs | These comments indicated that the interviewee was having difficulty with the SDG related to the question, either because they felt they did not have enough knowledge about the SDGs or because the SDG was not relevant to their project. “I think the SDG parameters are at the very high level, it’s very difficult to collect in a citizen-science project, it’s really at a different level than our project”. “It would be good to have some explanation about the SDGs. I know vaguely what they are but I don’t know them in detail”. | 32 |
Specificity required | Many of the questions include the term “explicitly”. This theme includes comments where interviewees indicated that they had an indirect impact on a topic, or that having an impact on the topic was not an aim of their project, so they did not feel they could say they explicitly had an impact on the topic. “I would clarify, is the direct goal of the project about this. Again, air quality monitoring might provide data which is helpful for respiratory diseases but health isn’t the primary focus of the project”. “Explicitly no. I’m sure there will be a link. We just don’t investigate it”. | 32 |
Uncertainty (question) | This theme includes comments where the interviewee was unsure about their interpretation of the question. “Are you asking about sustainable development in the context of the SDGs? Not everyone sees it through the SDG framework”. “Need to adapt some of these questions to more natural language rather than buzz words and technical [or] academic language” “What does that mean? [It’s] Not a familiar term”. | 31 |
Project ambition | Sometimes, interviewees were reluctant to answer “no” to a question and preferred to say “not yet”, indicating that, even if the project did not currently have an impact on this topic, it had an ambition to do so. “Not yet, but we hope it will. We talk about it in our social media but it’s not currently a focus of the project”. “I want to select good health because we have ambitions to talk about well-being but it’s not something we directly address yet by a research question”. | 17 |
Difficulty with the topic | This theme includes comments of dissatisfaction with the topic of the question. For example, participants complained that certain impacts were too broad, too ambitious, or not meaningful to citizen science. “Maybe long term but within the span of the project it would be too ambitious to say we have a positive impact on the health of participants”. “So few projects… are linked to expectations of economic benefit or gain. I can guess what you’re trying to ask it’s just not meaningful in citizen science”. | 13 |
Dependency on country | The interpretation of some questions depended on the very specific national context of the interviewee. “I would say it’s just the secondary level education. This is the challenge of doing a platform in many different countries because the education system will look different. But I think it’s still possible to answer these”. “I think people in different countries, if they’re familiar with the SDGs, they might be more used to their local wording”. | 7 |
Total | 364 |
Question and Answer Options | Question ID | SDG Description |
---|---|---|
Which socially-relevant issues are directly addressed by the project? (We’ll ask details about each issue later.)
| 131 | Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere. Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries. Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. |
Which environmental issues are related to the aims of the project? (We’ll ask details about each issue later.)
| 414 | Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. |
Does the project actively engage participants from disadvantaged or historically marginalised backgrounds?
| 156 | Target 1.4: By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance. |
Does the project foster resilience, or does it foster learning and adaptation (which then leads to resilience)?
| 165 | Target 1.5: By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters. Target 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries. |
Does the project contribute to secure plant and animal genetic resources in either medium- or long-term conservation facilities?
| 430 | Indicator 2.5.1: Number of (a) plant and (b) animal genetic resources for food and agriculture secured in either medium- or long-term conservation facilities. |
How does the project contribute to sustainable agriculture?
| 415 | Target 2.3: By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment. Indicator 2.4.1: Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture. Target 2.a: Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries. |
Does the project have a positive impact on the physical health of participants?
| 136 | Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. |
Does the project aid in the investigation of diseases?
| 133 | Target 3.3: By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases. Target 3.4: By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being. |
Does the project directly research mental health concerns?
| 137 | Target 3.4: By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being. |
Does the project have a positive impact on the mental health of participants?
| 140 | Target 3.4: By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being. |
Does the project explicitly investigate the link between pollution and health?
| 135 | Target 3.9: By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination. |
Does the project aid in the research and development of vaccines and medical interventions?
| 134 | Target 3.b: Support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for the communicable and non-communicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, provide access to affordable essential medicines and vaccines, in accordance with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which affirms the right of developing countries to use to the full the provisions in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights regarding flexibilities to protect public health, and, in particular, provide access to medicines for all. |
How does the project contribute to the formal education of participants (for example, by working with schools)?
| 143 | Target 4.1: By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes. Target 4.2: By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education. Target 4.3: By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university. |
Do participants gain new skills from taking part in the project?
| 146 | Target 4.4: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship. |
What kind of specific training does the project provide to participants?
| 142 | Target 4.4: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship. |
Does the project provide technical support to participants?
| 525 | Target 4.4: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship. |
What support is provided to educational institutions by the project?
| 144 | Target 4.c: By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States. |
Does the project explicitly contribute to gender equality?
| 159 | Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. |
Does the project use enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women?
| 526 | Target 5.b: Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women. |
Does the project use mobile phones as a primary tool (for example, using an app to collect observations)?
| 523 | Indicator 5.b.1: Proportion of individuals who own a mobile telephone, by sex. |
Is participation possible without a phone connected to the internet?
| 524 | Indicator 5.b.1: Proportion of individuals who own a mobile telephone, by sex. |
With regards to freshwater, which of the following activities does the project include?
| 416 | Indicator 6.3.1: Proportion of domestic and industrial wastewater flows safely treated. Indicator 6.3.2: Proportion of bodies of water with good ambient water quality. Target 6.4: By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity. Indicator 6.4.2: Level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources. Target 6.6: By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes. Indicator 6.6.1: Change in the extent of water-related ecosystems over time. Target 6.b: Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management. |
How does the project contribute to affordable and clean energy?
| 418 | Target 7.2: By 2030, increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. Target 7.3: By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency. Target 7.a: By 2030, enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel technology, and promote investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology. |
Does the project explicitly improve economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading or innovation?
| 316 | Target 8.2: Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors. |
Does the project explicitly promote the formation and growth of micro-, small- or medium-sized enterprises/businesses?
| 307 | Target 8.3: Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services. |
Does the project have a positive impact on the livelihoods of participants?
| 310 | Target 8.5: By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value. |
Does the project have explicit health and safety regulations in place?
| 228 | Target 8.8: Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment. |
Does the project increase demand for the services of organisations (for example, by promoting sustainable tourism)?
| 309 | Target 8.9: By 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products. |
Does the project explicitly promote diversity and inclusion among all relevant participant groups?
| 154 | Target 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status. |
Has the project been designed to give access, where possible, to all participants, including those with “functional diversity” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_diversity_(disability)] (accessed on 28 February 2022)?
| 152 | Target 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status. |
Does the project include objectives to protect or enhance cultural heritage components?
| 162 | Target 11.4: Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage. |
With regards to air quality, which of the following activities does the project include?
| 421 | Indicator 11.6.2: Annual mean levels of fine particulate matter (e.g., PM 2.5 and PM 10) in cities (population weighted). |
With regards to Sustainable cities and communities, which of the following activities does the project include?
| 419 | Indicator 11.6.1: Proportion of municipal solid waste collected and managed in controlled facilities out of total municipal waste generated, by cities. Target 11.7: By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities. |
With regards to responsible consumption and production, which of the following activities does the project include?
| 423 | Target 12.3: By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses. Target 12.4: By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment. Target 12.5: By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse. |
Does the project collaborate with external companies to enable the adoption of sustainable practices?
| 408 | Target 12.6: Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle. |
Does the project explicitly disseminate information on sustainable development or lifestyles?
| 404 | Target 12.8: By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature. |
Does the project educate participants on environmental challenges?
| 405 | Target 13.3: Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning. |
With regards to marine water, which of the following activities does the project include?
| 425 | Target 14.1: By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution. Target 14.3: Minimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levels. Target 14.4: By 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics. Target 14.5: By 2020, conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on the best available scientific information. Target 14.a: Increase scientific knowledge, develop research capacity and transfer marine technology, taking into account the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Criteria and Guidelines on the Transfer of Marine Technology, in order to improve ocean health and to enhance the contribution of marine biodiversity to the development of developing countries, in particular small island developing States and least developed countries. |
With regards to life on land, which of the following activities does the project include?
| 427 | Target 15.1: By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements. Target 15.2: By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally. Target 15.3: By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world. Target 15.4: By 2030, ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems, including their biodiversity, in order to enhance their capacity to provide benefits that are essential for sustainable development. Target 15.5: Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species. Target 15.7: Take urgent action to end poaching and trafficking of protected species of flora and fauna and address both demand and supply of illegal wildlife products. Target 15.8: By 2020, introduce measures to prevent the introduction and significantly reduce the impact of invasive alien species on land and water ecosystems and control or eradicate the priority species. Target 15.c: Enhance global support for efforts to combat poaching and trafficking of protected species, including by increasing the capacity of local communities to pursue sustainable livelihood opportunities. |
Does the project lead to an increase in the commitment of organizations to public participation in decision making?
| 231 | Target 16.7: Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels. |
Does the project help organisations to increase their capacity for public participation in decision making?
| 232 | Target 16.7: Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels. |
Are the outputs generated by the project open access?
| 210 | Target 16.10: Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements. |
How can the outputs generated by the project be used by external parties?
| 211 | Target 16.10: Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements. |
Does the project enhance international cooperation on science, technology or innovation?
| 527 | Target 17.6: Enhance North–South, South–South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge-sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism. |
Does the project explicitly develop, transfer or disseminate information about environmentally-sound technologies?
| 522 | Target 17.7: Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed. |
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Parkinson, S.; Woods, S.M.; Sprinks, J.; Ceccaroni, L. A Practical Approach to Assessing the Impact of Citizen Science towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainability 2022, 14, 4676. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084676
Parkinson S, Woods SM, Sprinks J, Ceccaroni L. A Practical Approach to Assessing the Impact of Citizen Science towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainability. 2022; 14(8):4676. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084676
Chicago/Turabian StyleParkinson, Stephen, Sasha Marie Woods, James Sprinks, and Luigi Ceccaroni. 2022. "A Practical Approach to Assessing the Impact of Citizen Science towards the Sustainable Development Goals" Sustainability 14, no. 8: 4676. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084676
APA StyleParkinson, S., Woods, S. M., Sprinks, J., & Ceccaroni, L. (2022). A Practical Approach to Assessing the Impact of Citizen Science towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainability, 14(8), 4676. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084676