Understanding Citizens’ Needs and Interests in Environmental Issues for Urban Development
Switzerland is a direct democracy, where citizens’ perceptions and willingness to act are decisive for sustainable development. With 84% of the population living in urban centres, cities attain high relevance in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) endorsed by the UN in 2015. The SDGs are interconnected social, environmental, economic and institutional objectives. Thus addressing urban development in Switzerland requires careful consideration of environmental issues and social diversity.
The City of Zurich strives to become a pioneer through its environmental masterplan 2017-2020 and implementing new carbon-emission reduction measures responding to the climate strike. As a city with high social diversity, convergences and divergences in citizens’ interests and needs regarding environmental issues become of utmost importance for securing a successful implementation of the master plan.
With this exploratory seed project, we will test a transdisciplinary and participatory methodology for understanding citizens’ perception about environmental issues in two sites in Zurich.
The project is led by TdLab at ETH-Zurich and conducted in collaboration with the city of Zurich as well as the Zurich University of Applied Sciences as a scientific partner and Paititi Lab as a Citizen Science / Art-based Research Partner.
Supported by Participatory Science Academy
