Citizen science and the challenge of measuring urban sustainability

The findings show that citizen science data could substantially strengthen how cities monitor issues such as air quality, access to basic services, public space, safety, mobility, and community wellbeing, where local conditions and lived experience are critical.

Published in npj Urban Sustainability, the study provides the first comprehensive review of how citizen science can contribute to the Global Urban Monitoring Framework (UMF). Developed by UN-Habitat, the UMF brings together 77 urban-relevant indicators drawn from the Sustainable Development Goals and other international frameworks and is increasingly used by cities to track progress toward safe, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable urban development.

“This study highlights a missed opportunity in how cities track sustainability,” says co-lead author Inian Moorthy, a researcher in the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group of the IIASA Advancing Systems Analysis Program. “Citizen science is suitable for contributing to most of the framework we reviewed, but it is currently contributing to only a handful of indicators.”

The analysis found that citizen science is currently contributing directly to only three UMF indicators, or around 4% of the framework, despite aligning with 52 indicators, or about 68% overall. The strongest alignment was identified in the environment and society domains, including indicators related to air quality, biodiversity, access to basic services, public spaces, safety, mobility, and community wellbeing.

“These are areas where local and community-based data collection is essential,” says co-lead author Dilek Fraisl. “Citizen science can complement official statistics and provide timely and context-specific insights that are often missing from current reporting systems.”

To understand how the UMF is currently applied in practice, the researchers analyzed data from 466 cities worldwide. The analysis shows that many indicators remain incomplete and are still reported mainly at national level, with fewer than 20% reported at the city level, despite being designed to capture urban conditions.

“This means that local realities are often obscured or missed altogether,” notes coauthor Linda See. “Cities are central to achieving global sustainability goals, yet progress is still measured using data that remain incomplete, uneven, or reported at scales that do not reflect urban realities.”

“For policymakers and city authorities, this research shows that citizen science provides an opportunity to strengthen urban sustainability monitoring at a time when data gaps remain widespread,” adds coauthor Gerid Hager. “Our findings also highlight that citizens are not only affected by urban sustainability challenges but can contribute meaningfully to how progress is measured.”

The study shows that the challenge is not data scarcity, but integration. As the UMF guides urban policy and investment, incorporating citizen science into official monitoring can help ensure that sustainability assessments reflect how cities really work and how people live in them.

Reference 
Moorthy, I., Fraisl, D., See, L., Hager, G., Mwaniki, D., & Ndugwa, R.P. (2025). Opportunities for citizen science within the Global Urban Monitoring Framework. npj Urban Sustainability DOI: 10.1038/s42949-025-00305-w