Introduction

Abstract

In an era of global challenges – from climate change to economic unrest to social disruption to pandemics – the need to hear from voices of the next generation of leaders is clear. The time to listen to them is now. The purpose of this book is to assemble, organize, and amplify the knowledge and experiences of some of the world’s young people who are working locally and collectively to use scientific results, geospatial technologies, and multi-national collaboration to address some of the most pressing issues facing their local communities and global society. From every region of the world, students have emerged as leaders in the YouthMappers movement, to study such problems by creating and using open data that has a spatial component. The issues they are addressing with these common tools and methods range across the entire scope of topics known as the Sustainable Development Goals, articulated globally through the United Nations. Not only do YouthMappers create new knowledge and bring unique perspectives and experiences, but they are also proposing and taking action based upon what they see and what they know from the map and from each other.