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IPS175 Jillian C. et al.
3b. Citizen science for monitoring the environmental dimension of the
SDGs
New data sources beyond national statistical data sets have yet to be fully
exploited for the SDG reporting process. In addition to non-traditional data
streams such as Earth Observation and big data analytics, citizen science also
has the potential to be used for SDG monitoring. Citizen science is the
involvement of citizens in scientific research, from data collection up to higher
levels of scientific contribution such as data analysis and hypothesis
generation (Bonney et al., 2009). To date, numerous citizen science initiatives
have already generated a considerable amount of data in the environmental
domain, some of which are being used in national and global biodiversity
monitoring frameworks such as the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD). For
example, as much as 50% of species occurrence data in the Global Biodiversity
Information Facility (GBIF) has been contributed by citizen science projects
(Copas et al., 2016).
Data sets sourced from citizen science are also currently contributing to a
few of the environmental SDG indicators, but there is still considerable scope
for expansion. For example, BirdLife International, which has a huge network
of volunteers, compiles the bird taxonomic component of the International
Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN)’s Red List
Index of Threatened Species (covering SDG indicator 15.5.1). For SDG 15.1.2
and 15.4.1 on protected areas, data from BirdLife is included in the
development of the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) used as the denominator for
the indicator. Hence citizen science is currently contributing to SDG reporting
to an important, yet still very limited, degree.
Citizen science may also help to validate or provide sub-national data for
indicators that have been at the national level. An example is SDG indicator
14.1.1 on floating marine debris, there are numerous citizen science projects
with different purposes, currently, UN Environment, is working with the citizen
science community in order to find ways forward, e.g. through establishing
acceptable protocols for data collection demonstrated through pilot projects
in selected countries or as potential validation for the global modelling
approach proposed for this indicator.

4. Discussion and Conclusion
Faced with the SDGs’ 169 targets and 244 indicators countries are stymied
in both action and monitoring of SDG progress. This is no more true than in
regards to environmental indicators which are outpaced among all indicators
in globally-agreed methodologies and, regardless of a country’s stated
priorities, will impact progress on other targets (Nilsson, 2017; Griggs et al.,
2017; Weitz et al., 2018).

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