Openness and Community Geospatial Science for Monitoring SDGs – An Example From Tanzania

Abstract

This chapter focuses on two aspects that enable the monitoring of the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs): openness and community geospatial science. It presents concepts and examples of open data and open software, followed by the concept of community geospatial science with reference to citizen science and volunteered geographic information. Public participation in scientific achievements has a long history but attention and an impressive increase in the number of people involved. Citizen science and community geospatial science represent a new step in the history of science and these examples, like OpenStreetMap and its communities, are relevant cases of what can be done within the new paradigm of collaboration and openness. The Tabora region use case for calculating an SDG geospatial indicator proves that through the exclusive use of open global datasets, some of which contributed by citizens, and free and open source software, complex geospatial analyses can be conducted to better understand, manage and protect our environment.