SUPERVISOR: Marianne PENKER

PROJECT ASSIGNED TO: Dilek FRAISL

Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires informed decisions that are based on accurate, timely and comprehensive data. Even though data availability has increased over the years, there are still major gaps in our knowledge for guiding policies and actions. Traditional data sources that are often used to monitor progress on the SDGs are not adequate to address this challenge. Furthermore, the funding required to measure all 231 SDG indicators using only traditional data sources is an obstacle to achieving efficient, timely and reliable SDG monitoring systems. Citizen science, public participation in scientific research and knowledge production, can contribute to address these data gaps efficiently and sustainably. Through a vignette method based on examples of citizen science activities, a systematic review of the SDG indicator framework and citizen science literature, and a case study outlining a particular citizen science project, this PhD aimed to explore the potential of citizen science for SDG monitoring and to provide recommendations on how to harness this potential, while at the same time overcoming the challenges this approach presents. The results demonstrated that citizen science data could inform 33 per cent of the SDG indicators, where the greatest contributions from citizen science to SDG monitoring would be in SDG 15 Life on Land, SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 3 Good Health and Wellbeing and SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation. However, integrating citizen science data into the SDG monitoring mechanisms is not without challenges. Building data partnerships that rely on trust and common goals and ensuring high quality data are some of the key actions to unlocking the potential of citizen science for SDG monitoring. This PhD made a significant original contribution to the scientific debate by connecting the SDG data literature and citizen science, which were previously not considered as closely related.