Local Action with Global Impact:The Case of the GROW Observatory and the Sustainable Development Goals

This article reports on Citizen Observatories’ (COs) potential to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reflecting on the experience of the GROW Observatory (GROW). The research aims to take the first steps in closing the gap in the literature on COs’ potential contributions to the SDG framework, beyond quantitative data contributions for indicator monitoring. Following an analysis of project activities and outcomes mapped against the SDG framework, the findings reveal GROW’s potential contributions across two dimensions: (i) Actions to advance the implementation of goals and targets through awareness raising and training; participatory methods; multi-stakeholder connections; and supporting citizens to move from data to action and (ii) Data contributions to SDG indicator monitoring through citizen-generated datasets. While earlier research has focused mostly on the latter (dimension ii), CO activities can impact numerous goals and targets, highlighting their potential to relate global SDGs to local level action, and vice versa. These findings align with the growing literature on COs’ ability to bring together policy makers, scientists and citizens, and support changes to environmental policy and practice. Furthermore, this research suggests groundwork activities that address the goal and target level can also enhance sustained data collection to contribute to indicator level monitoring. We conclude with future trends and recommendations for COs wishing to contribute to the SDGs

Onto new horizons:Insights from the WeObserve project to strengthen the awareness, acceptability and sustainability of Citizen Observatories in Europe

WeObserve delivered the first European-wide Citizen Observatory (CO) knowledge platform to share best practices, to address challenges and to inform practitioners, policy makers and funders of COs. We present key insights from WeObserve activities into leveraging challenges to create interlinked solutions, connecting with international frameworks and groups, advancing the field through communities of practice and practitioner networks, and fostering an enabling environment for COs. We also discuss how the new Horizon Europe funding programme can help to further advance the CO concept, and vice versa, how COs can provide a suitable mechanism to support the ambitions of Horizon Europe

Edible Plant Database

The Edible Plant Database (EPD) is an outcome of the GROW Observatory, a European Citizen Science project on growing food, soil moisture sensing and land monitoring. This dataset was disseminated via a web service hosted by IIASA (Austria) that provides information about suitable plants for locations within Europe, based on climate. The web service was used in the GROW app, this dataset is the base information used for that service. Key growing data, for example, planting and harvesting calendars, suitability of location for growing are either typically dispersed across a plethora of sources or generic and only applicable at large scales. The latter is a significant constraint to the new grower who may be unaware of the impact of local micro-climate on growing. The EPD provides collates key data for one resource, the GROW app, that enables users across Europe to choose what to plant in their location at the time of query. It is a database populated with 15 growing parameters with a supporting database on germination of 146 edible plant species included in EPD. Planting calendars and germination data to all 12 European climate zones are also included with high resolution images purchased under licence. The EPD brings together planting, harvesting and growing requirements for a suite of crops that can be grown in Europe and uses these data to provide locally relevant advice for growers. The Edible Plant Database provides data based on geographical location and growing season to answer questions such as “What can I plant now” and “what can I plant that will yield a crop on some future date”. Further information on GROW Observatory can be found at www.growobservatory.org This data is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 690199 Keywords: Growing calendars, edible plants, local differences, climate zone, planting, harvestin