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Poster Short Abstract

This poster presents the Urban ReLeaf Blueprint designed to foster the creation of inclusive citizen science across diverse urban contexts, addressing participation barriers and supporting equitable community engagement in monitoring activities for data-driven decision making.

Poster Abstract

How can citizen science genuinely engage socially vulnerable communities without reinforcing existing social inequalities? Despite its democratic promise, most citizen science initiatives continue to overrepresent privileged groups, excluding those most affected by environmental injustices through structural barriers such as digital exclusion or socio-economic disadvantage. In the Urban ReLeaf project, we respond to this challenge by developing a Blueprint for Inclusive Citizen Science: a practical guide that centres inclusion as a core design principle rather than an afterthought.

Grounded in participatory action research and co-developed with local stakeholders across six European cities, the blueprint takes into consideration both the causes of exclusion and the practicalities of implementing inclusive engagement strategies. It provides cities with phase-based, actionable guidance to identify community-specific vulnerabilities, co-create adequate engagement campaigns, and design accessible data collection methods. The blueprint is structured across four phases: preparing, planning, interacting, and monitoring for inclusion. Each phase contains several steps with concrete activities such as stakeholder ecosystem mapping, participant persona development, recruitment strategies, and the co-design of accessible tools and tasks. The approach centres "non-traditional" participants, including older adults and youth, females, and citizens with lower socio-economic status to ensure their knowledge, priorities, and lived experiences eventually shape cities' decision-making processes.

By embedding principles of accessibility, adaptability, sensitivity, and safety, the Urban ReLeaf blueprint goes beyond generic participation frameworks by offering phased and actionable strategies that directly address social vulnerability, making citizen science a driver of equity in data-driven decision-making.