From citizen science to art: children as co-researchers for climate-adaptive cities
How can children’s perspectives help cities adapt to climate change? The Children Citizen Geo-Science for Climate-Adaptive Cities project explored this question through a hands-on citizen science approach developed at the University of Twente’s Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC). Researchers Funda Atun and Javier Martínez, together with teacher Martin van Hooijdonk from the International School Twente, worked directly with pupils to co-design and carry out urban research on climate adaptation and wellbeing. The findings were later brought to life artistically by Vivien Reichel (ArtEZ), who co-created the exhibition with the children.
From classroom to city: learning by doing
Through co-teaching sessions and participatory mapping, children learned to think and act like researchers — identifying local challenges, collecting and analysing data, and developing ideas for more climate-adaptive neighbourhoods. Their work included field observations, digital mapping with tablets, and interactive discussions on what makes their environment both liveable and sustainable.
Turning research into art
The project culminated in an artistic collaboration with visual artist Vivien Reichel, who helped translate the children’s findings into visual stories and design posters. Together, they created the Children Citizen Geo-Science exhibition — a showcase of how data, imagination, and local experience can merge into powerful narratives for change.
The exhibition at the DesignLab Twente in March and April 2025 invited visitors to see the city through the eyes of its youngest citizens. The children themselves acted as guides, explaining their research process and sharing their creative interpretations of what a climate-adaptive city could look like. In doing so, the project demonstrated how citizen science and art can together inspire new ways of understanding and shaping the urban environment.
more information about this project
Found out more by visiting the project page: Children Citizen Geo-Science For Climate-Adaptive Cities
Researchers involved
