Mapping Innovative Data Sources Across the Many Dimensions of Sustainability Research

As we navigate the path toward a more sustainable future, the need to study and measure the performance of sustainability transitions becomes crucial. In the past decades, the advent of innovative data sources has significantly expanded our ability to gauge the many dimensions of sustainability addressed by the SPES framework. Unlike traditional data sources (e.g., surveys and census data), innovative data sources are often generated as a by-product of activities of all kinds and are only subsequently (and sometimes creatively) repurposed in innovative ways for research goals. Albeit providing unprecedented opportunities, indeed, such new sources of data come with several methodological and epistemological caveats.

The deliverable “Report on mapping,harmonising and integrating novel data sources for research purposes” by SPES Researchers from the University of Florence and the University of Amsterdam provides on the one hand a mapping of innovative data sources used to measure the dimensions of sustainability transition and on the other hand an overview of data integration methods which enable the use of this novel data sources for research purposes.