GIG Community Call: Open Environmental Sensing – Connecting Community Data, Mapping & Monitoring for Climate Resilience

We’re excited to invite all GIG members working with community-led approaches to environmental monitoring, open mapping, and locally generated data to join our next Community Call, in collaboration with initiatives across Sierra Leone, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, and beyond.

This conversation grew out of an exchange between several GIG members working in this space. We believe it’s the right time to bring these initiatives together and explore how communities are using accessible technologies, open data, and community networks to understand and respond to environmental challenges in their own contexts.

This call will explore one main question: how can communities use open technologies and locally generated data to better understand, communicate, and act on the environmental challenges affecting them?

We’ll be joined by:

• Tommy Charles from OpenStreetMap Sierra Leone, who is exploring how open mapping can connect with environmental monitoring and help communities use geospatial data to better understand local environmental and socio-economic challenges.
• Gustaff Iskandar from Common Room Indonesia, who has been working on community-based weather stations and is exploring connections with OpenStreetMap Indonesia.
• Okoro Onyekachi from MAJI Initiative Nigeria, who is working with communities on air-quality monitoring and using locally generated data to understand and respond to environmental pollution.
• Mike Jensen and Bruna Zanolli from the LocNet project, who are working on documenting stories around socio-environmental justice and community-centred connectivity initiatives. You can explore more LocNet stories here.

Details:

Wednesday, 9 September 2026, 14:00 CEST

What to expect:

• Hear directly from community-led initiatives working on environmental monitoring, open mapping, and locally generated data across Sierra Leone, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, and beyond
• Explore common challenges, tools, approaches, and opportunities for collaboration across the GIG network

Join us to be part of this conversation, see you there!