Mapping Green Dublin and citizen science, Thursday 16 November 2023

The Mapping Green Dublin project used the CURIO tree app alongside a number of community co-creation events to empower the local community in Dublin 8 to learn about and contribute to knowledge-building about private and public trees and to develop a greening strategy for the Dublin 8 area. Mapping Green Dublin has established a process for effective engagement with neighbourhoods that allows residents to be participants in the design of their own spaces.

Mapping Green Dublin was a collaborative action research project led by UCD’s School of Geography in collaboration with arts organisation Common Ground (Siobhán Geoghegan and Ger Nolan), artist Seoidín O’Sullivan and Connect the Dots (Naomi Murphy and Marisa Denker). The project was funded by the Environmental Protection Agency for a two year period, 2019–2021.  The UCD Geography staff involved were Gerald Mills, Niamh Moore-Cherry, and Alma Clavin.

About the speakers

Niamh Moore Cherry is Professor in the School of Geography, Deputy College Principal in the UCD College of Social Sciences and Law.  Her research is focused on understanding the governance of urban (re)development, metropolitanisation and its urban and regional outcomes.  She leads a research group comprising PhD and postdoctoral scholars examining the relationship between Cities, Governance and Sustainability (www.cities governance sustainability.eu) and has a strong record in policy analysis, community engagement and citizen science.

Gerald Mills a physical geographer based at UCD who works on the climate of cities. His primary area of interest and research is in the field of climatology, specifically the climates of urban areas. He is co-author of Urban Climates (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and of The Urban Heat Island: A guidebook (Elsevier, 2021) and publishes in the areas of urban climates, climate change and urban greening.

Alma Clavin is a researcher in the Cities, Governance and Sustainability group (www.citiesgovernancesustainability.eu) at the UCD School of Geography. She has worked with a number of public, private and non-governmental organisations in Ireland and the UK on planning, energy and sustainability issues. Her academic work explores how sustainability and ecological design can enhance human well-being and quality of life. Since its inception in 2018, Alma has been part of the international Repair Acts programme. In 2022, Alma founded Repair Acts Ireland with artist and researcher Teresa Dillon with a Westmeath-based pilot project to encourage people to repair their possessions.

This was a UCD Citizen Science Community of Practice event supported by UCD Library and UCD Earth Institute. To find out more, see our website or join our mailing list.