Open Mapping towards Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations estimates that 3 billion people living in urban contexts will need adequate and affordable housing by 2030. We urgently need alternative perspectives and methodologies for urban development that are environmentally sustainable and inclusive of the local community. This chapter illustrates the design and results of projects carried out by YouthMappers in Rwanda, Italy, and Kenya, focused on informal settlements in the Global South and the value of geospatial data for addressing SDG 1 No Poverty and SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities.

YouthMappers are using open geospatial tools in support of initiatives seeking to achieve SGD 2 Zero Hunger and SDG 1 No Poverty in Northern Ghana. Students and researchers designed survey questions and a field data collection workflow using simple but cost-effective technology to catalogue a database of farmers, properly demarcate farm sizes, and give farmers, in particular impoverished women, the opportunity to project farm yields and increase the efficiency of their output.

Close to 750 million or nearly one in ten people in the world are exposed to severe levels of food insecurity, and 2 billion people do not have regular access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food. A critical but overlooked question is how to properly locate the most food insecure and malnourished households within geographical areas that have been generally identified as food insecure and malnourished – especially where such areas are poorly mapped. The YouthMappers approach served as a baseline to inform our spatial analysis of food insecurity and underpinned household surveys on malnutrition. The resulting maps paint a powerful picture of the spatial variation of factors affecting different places, knowledge which can better inform interventions that are tailored to households in need and ultimately help to meet the goals of SDG 2, Zero Hunger.

YouthMappers chapters are both locally and globally situated, fostering a confluence of community input, GIS skill sets, subject-matter expertise, and creativity that drives progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Examining Hudson Valley Mappers’ and Gaston Berger University YouthMappers’ community mapping projects in parallel offers rich insights on open mapping for SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being and highlights the value of SDG 4 Quality Education. Both YouthMappers chapters collaborated with local partners to map health facilities and other community resources; the resulting maps and data filled critical information gaps during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project outcomes underscore the unique niche that the YouthMappers network occupies in the open mapping world.

The authors detail the design of an innovative and cooperative approach to ground truthing geospatial data through cross-continental YouthMappers coordinated action. This effort provided key geographic information to design control actions and served as a powerful, active tool to disseminate awareness about the importance of neglected tropical diseases in remote regions of the planet in support of SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being and SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation.

This chapter considers the contributions of YouthMappers chapters in Asia. In addition to a regional overview, we highlight actions of students in Bangladesh and the Philippines to fill critical data gaps that support community access to information during emergencies, natural disasters, and pandemics. Lack of data leads to poor decision-making at any time, but in the context of shocks and hazards, it can have an especially profound impact on local communities. By creating open geospatial data and by advancing the geospatial capacity of university students and local community members, local governing bodies will be able to plan for the well-being of their constituents and community members will have access to the information necessary to keep their families safe. This contributes to better health and well-being (SDG 3) and a more resilient society in the face of impacts of climate change (SDG 13).

In hopes of building inclusive and sustainable societies, SDG 4, quality education, is central to helping to build a knowledge base to tackle some of the most pressing challenges faced by society. YouthMappers around the world are applying their knowledge coupled with critical reflection tools to act on and bring others along in making changes that improve the world. As such, they can be considered among a generation of “Solutionaries,” students who extend their understanding beyond typical boundaries to include a systematic application of their learning. Youth, in general, and young women, in particular, can get aligned to the opportunity to learn through practical knowledge, by way of inclusive mapping communities, which sparks their passion for learning and supports SDG 5 gender equality in education, as well.

Through YouthMappers, young women students are able to design and participate in activities that collect, create, and disseminate spatial data and information to prepare spatial databases and maps for visualization, analysis, planning, and decision-making in their local communities. Because the field of geography is dominated by men, the contributions, needs, and priorities of women are frequently overshadowed and ignored. We cannot imagine a society labeled as fully mapped if it does not represent all its members. Through its innovation programming, YouthMappers aims to engage future generations of women mappers to reduce inequalities (SDG 10) and support gender equality (SDG 5).

The water–energy–land nexus methodology proposes land management treatment based on watershed areas, considering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) objectives of SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation and SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy, and the evolution of governance. This framework was applied in two volcanic watersheds using open-source geodata methods. The results explain the governance evolution by stakeholder’s types and their activities around the water, land, and energy distribution and land evolution.

YouthMappers helps to map fundamental features of rural communities across the countryside of Sierra Leone as an innovative model for how to bring power to villages across West Africa. Charting location of buildings, tracing streets, and pinpointing where utility poles dot the landscape inform efforts to design and install mini-grids in places without power or with insufficient service. By understanding settlement patterns, road connectivity, and the layout of current low-voltage distribution networks, the team speeds up and scales up design for rural electrification, contributing directly to SDG 7 to bring affordable and clean energy to communities and to SDG 9 to build resilient infrastructure in ways that foster innovation for mapping and beyond.

YouthMappers use OpenStreetMap and IoT tools to help map where rural communities have good, poor, or no access to electricity throughout Nigeria, contributing to efforts that bring stable power across West Africa. An ongoing energy crisis is hampering other efforts to make sustainable cities and communities, so assessing and locating the reality of power access are critical not only to address SDGs related to affordable and clean energy but also as a fundamental element that serves as an engine for sustainable development. Through these efforts, we students have built our technology capacity and community networks, while also advancing practices about how to build inclusive, sustainable cities and communities in both urban and rural places where we live and study.

Dedicated to designing and organizing student-centered work, we highlight the Geomatics Engineering Students’ Association of Nepal (GESAN)’s collaborative effort to create training, internship, and job opportunities for the student members and alumni and with local institutions. Through putting into play a cycle of leadership, chapter activities find a sustainable way to continue to support SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth and SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure by preparing students to navigate newer applications of geospatial technology and tools. This work extends beyond campus and into the local community where we have trained secondary school students in map literacy – planting seeds of future leadership.

Drones are being used in various industries, focusing on youth involvement and mapping activities as a key component of the multiple initiatives. YouthMappers are creating open-source geospatial data using geospatial technology to address local developmental and humanitarian issues in Malawi and beyond. As the world works to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, this new technology, combined with significant youth involvement, is being used to its full potential because of its sophistication, which allows for more efficient operations in support of industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9) and responsible consumption and production (SDG 12) in the health sector for delivery, precision agriculture and the education sector, to name a few.

As leaders of tomorrow, we, the African YouthMappers, are taking the initiative of contributing toward the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals that are a blueprint for a better and more sustainable future for all. Our contributions center on the generation of open geospatial data, which is critical when making decisions on achieving desired development across all seventeen goals. In response to the African continent’s alleged data inadequacies, YouthMappers, as vital members of the OpenStreetMap community, have made significant contributions to open geospatial data in Africa. This chapter highlights the contribution of YouthMappers to not just build maps – which especially supports reduced inequalities around data access in Africa (SDG 10) – but also to build mappers – by advancing the geospatial capacity of young people across the continent, addressing (SDG 8) decent work and economic growth.

This account of the experiences of the first YouthMappers chapter in Brazil aims to present the work done by Mapeadores Livres UFPR focusing on the themes of accessibility (SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities) and favela mapping (SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities), bringing as a transversal discussion of the quality of the geospatial data obtained collaboratively. Mapeadores Livres UFPR proposes to be a formative space in collaborative mapping, and the theme of favela mapping reinforces our character as an extension and research group and as a teaching group with the inclusion of this topic in the course developed. YouthMappers functions as an outreach project at the Universidade Federal do Paraná and is an interface between the universe of social organizations and their humanitarian projects and that of universities and their research topics.

YouthMappers throughout Latin America are working to advance the attainment of the SDGs. Our contributions here centre on open data but also the maps and visualized analysis derived from them, which supports making decisions on how to achieve desired development across all seventeen goals. This chapter highlights the contribution of YouthMappers in ways that reduce inequalities around information access in Latin America (SDG 10), meanwhile advancing environmental resilience across the hemisphere, addressing a number of projects promoting biodiversity, conservation, and tourism that improve life on land (SDG 15).

Ingraining spatial thinking for problem-solving is critical for future decision makers and leaders. We argue that the use of open geospatial data and technology makes it easier to understand the interconnections between places and many socioecological issues facing communities. This facilitates openness to adopt the methods and strategies needed to make our communities and the world at large a better place as envisaged by UN-SDG 11. This case of two informal human settlements Uganda features low-lying areas with mostly slum conditions and urban poor migrants who settled there from rural communities in search of better livelihoods. YouthMappers documented conditions of drainage systems that impact flood vulnerability. We highlight important lessons in collaborating with local humanitarian organizations to spatially conceptualize development-related activities for underprivileged communities in a context that resonates with local people.

Sustainable mobility is a strategic tool that directly influences the fulfillment of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). We highlight the need to improve cycling as an urban transport option through our research in the city of Medellín (Colombia) and its Metropolitan Area. We present SIGenBici, a collaborative cycling infrastructure mapping project supported by the use of free and open-source software (FOSS) and the generation of open data. This work is aimed at contributing directly to SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities, and SDG 9: Industry, innovation, and infrastructure. We explain the project development process from the perspective of the mappers, a gender-sensitive approach, and community knowledge transfer. We conclude with reflections on what we have learned throughout this process and future expectations.

The World Bank has conservatively estimated that 33% of global waste is managed in an environmentally unsafe way (Kaza et al. 2018). Waste generation could nearly double by 2050 with generation per capita expected to increase by 40% in low- and middle-income countries, many of which are growing at an unsustainable pace with limited resources dedicated to waste management. YouthMappers creating local geospatial data about sites of illegal trash dumping can play a key role in mitigating impacts and improving waste management, and in turn, impact public health. Several of the UN SDGs are supported by creating and sustaining a clean, healthy environment, particularly in this case, SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production and ultimately, SDG 3 Health. A novel tool, Wastesites.io, has been initiated to leverage youth action and connectivity of YouthMappers in order to solve these challenges together.

YouthMappers help discover hidden vulnerabilities to extreme heat in the face of a changing climate by mapping health outcomes compared to energy assistance. What emerged is a pattern of disproportionate deaths by housing type, necessitating innovations in tagging unique mobile home attributes in OpenStreetMap (OSM). The resulting community engagement generated solutions that stakeholders and residents of mobile homes can implement for greater resilience, and a model for connecting SDG 13 (Sustainable Development Goals) for climate action to SDG 3 good health and well-being by looking at the homes where people live.

Increasingly disasters like floods, droughts, cyclones, and heat waves are recurring in the wake of climate change impacts. Women and children are among the most vulnerable, particularly in developing countries. At the same time, young people are among the most eager to respond with solutions to protect populations affected by disasters. In the low-lying riverine country of Bangladesh, YouthMappers are working to create fundamental maps to support the information needs of women who seek safety from climate-inducted disasters, but currently must rely on their husbands for evacuation. Initiatives like our open data mapping that entails participation of young women to alleviate such vulnerabilities toward disasters contribute to global goals for climate (SDG 13) and gender (SDG 5).

In the archipelago of the Philippines, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, sustainable development takes many forms, but livelihoods are always shaped by our ocean surroundings. This chapter explores a collection of research that addresses concerns that emerge when advancing SDG 14, to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development, with an eye toward the particular role of women in the creation of development, SDG 5. This includes their household contributions, as well as what they give to promote knowledge, policy, and programming and how the household and enterprise needs of women are critical to life in this region. The use of free and open-source tools through the Open Knowledge Kit Regeneration Program presents universal benefits to address the combined devastation of the pandemic, climate change, and of marginalized communities, especially women. Easy to use data collection, analyses, and modeling tools remove barriers to participation and the creation of knowledge.

We emphasize the need to contribute to the promotion of sustainable coastal communities from the recognition of a new era like the Anthropocene and the role of maps and open data. We want to tell you about how engaged YouthMappers contribute to efforts to achieve the SDGs under the demands of this new era and how maps can be a language that promotes the understanding of key factors of the Anthropocene such as via socioecological systems (SES) and connectivity. Examples of our work with coastal communities showcase addressing SDG 14, life below water, as well as SDG 13, in an era requiring climate action. With our voices, we want to call attention to the importance of observing the world without separating nature and human societies like two different entities, but to see them instead as a tightly interconnected tissue.

The authors explore the invisibility of riparian communities along the river channels of the Amazon basin and the utility of collaborative mapping as a methodology for increasing their visibility on publicly available maps with the objective of contributing to the recording of their history and presenting a collaborative cartographic product that can be useful for guaranteeing territorial rights and support the creation of public policies more suited to the riverside realities. These efforts carried out by the YouthMappers chapter at the Universidade Federal de São João del Rei and Centro de Estudos Superiores de Tefé - Universidade do Estado do Amazonas support SDG 15 – Life on Land and SDG 16 – Peace and Justice and Strong Institutions.

Governments need data to be effective and accountable to the SDGs. Spatial data are key to meeting these goals, and youth open mapping represents one way to support official cartographies, especially to advance SDG 16. We explored how youth could add value by integrating OSM data into public agency maps while offering education opportunities (SDG 4).

Along with increasing urban growth rates, especially in the global south, cities are becoming more fragile because of rapid climate change, insecurity, and increasing urban landscape challenges. With the limited budget sums, coupled with outdated and limited spatial and aspatial data, city planners, governors, and governments are left short of the optimal and efficient approaches to deploy and reckon just, smart, and sustainable cities across all populaces. This demands agile tools and applications for effective decision-making to maintain and sustainably improve quality of life with an assurance that no one is left behind. We demonstrate the potential utilization of OpenStreetMap datasets by urban planners and governing councils to enhance evidence-based planning and policy initiatives. Several projects have been pioneered and executed by youth to demonstrate their crucial role in the organization and collection of crowdsourced geospatial data as a manifestation of the broader theoretical underpinnings of urban governance encapsulated in SDG 16 – Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions and SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities. We argue youth are communicating through the collection of the data. We demonstrate practical approaches to the inclusion of OSM and the participation of local YouthMappers chapters towards objectively positive, just urban governance.

YouthMappers brings together university students coalesced around institutional chapters carrying out collaborative mapping to address humanitarian and development concerns. Beginning at three universities, in six years, YouthMappers has grown into a global movement of nearly 300 chapters in more than 60 countries. This success, in part, is attributed to the strong emphasis on mentorship in the YouthMappers structure. In this book chapter, mentors from Italy in Europe, Panama in Central America, the United States of America in North America, South Africa, and Uganda in Africa share their reflections on the role of mentoring in their YouthMappers chapters. They share about the nature of their chapter activities, how mentoring is effected, what has been successful, and the challenges faced. As YouthMappers continues to grow, the role of mentors will remain central to attaining the YouthMappers mission.

YouthMappers live and thrive in an ecosystem of university chapters, organizers, sponsors, ambassadors, and partners. This system places youth at the center and is designed as an empowering network, which ultimately advances partnerships for the goals, in line with SDG 17. But because we don’t just build maps, we build mappers- the result of this ecosystem also expands the capacity for students to advance to decent work and contribute to the economic growth in their careers and of their countries. We present here some of the voices of students, alumni, staff, and partners to describe this enabling ecosystem from their own perspectives.

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a very unusual kind of partnership, not only in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but also frankly everywhere. YouthMappers has expanded OSM through localized engagement on a global scale. Examining this unique approach is instructive to learn not only about partnerships (SDG 17) but also about innovation in the open technology industry (SDG 9). We consider this joint journey so far and ponder on how to amplify our collective impact in the future.

Use of data and digital technologies has dramatically changed the look, feel, and efficacy of humanitarian action over the past decade. Partnerships among data producers and data users in all sectors have increased access to and sharing of data across agencies and responders, and thus amplified the impact of youth in this domain. At the heart of those partnerships are young people, often university students, especially those who make up the YouthMappers network. Our close partnership between YouthMappers and the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team has not only advanced the global goals for disaster response and for development in their future workplaces and innovations, but also for global goals to enable better alliances across public, private, and nonprofit partnerships.

The young are deeply concerned about the world they will inherit, yet trends indicate that youth globally experience barriers to opportunities for civic engagement, lack of participation access, distrust, and voicelessness on the issues they care about most. The youth want to be more engaged in meeting the development needs of their communities and want to help lead democracy and social justice efforts despite contexts that discourage them. The authors argue for a renewed sense of engagement that is meaningful and puts youth at the center, and in the lead, in ways that capture the energy of a new generation.

YouthMappers co-founders and organizers reflect on the contributions narrated in this volume, and in a larger sense, the contributions of the more than 300 university campus chapters in more than 60 countries. These reflections provide a point of departure to imagine what’s next and “where to go from here.” We call for greater investment in youth, especially in majoritarian countries, as these contributions represent the dividend of previous investment in local capacity for the SDGs.