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Bridging the SDG 11 Gap: Youth-Led, Data-Driven Approaches to Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities
Subject area: Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities · Area of research: Sustainable Urban Planning & Social Policy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV10I1-1719754
Abstract
This study examines how sustainable communities are understood and built in practice, drawing on semi-structured interviews with two youth changemakers, a supporting survey, and secondary statistics on youth civic participation. The interviews reveal a persistent gap between the language of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11) and its implementation: cities largely react to crises rather than plan for them, political short-termism deprioritizes long-term resilience investments, and sustainability benefits such as green space and transit tend to reach higher-resource neighborhoods first. Respondents also describe formal education as under-preparing students for applied sustainability work, favoring experiential formats such as hackathons, fieldwork, and youth-led organizations instead. Statistics on youth volunteering — including participation from India's National Service Scheme, Australian youth volunteering rates, and post-disaster youth mobilization in Japan — reinforce the interview finding that young people are current contributors to community resilience, not only future ones. The paper concludes that pairing predictive, data-driven urban planning tools with genuine youth participation in design and decision-making offers a practical path toward closing the SDG 11 implementation gap.
Keywords
SDG 11, Smart City Planning, Sustainable Communities, Urban Resilience, Youth Engagement
References
[1] Sami, personal interview, 2026.
[2] P. Gulati, personal interview, 2026.
[3] FRSIS Survey, Google Forms, 2026.
[4] FRSIS Presentation, youth volunteering statistics (India National Service Scheme; Australian youth volunteering data; post-2011 Great East Japan Earthquake youth volunteer mobilization), 2026.
[5] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, "Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities," Sustainable Development Goals, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal11
[6] S. Azadi, D. Kasraian, P. Nourian, et al., "What Have Urban Digital Twins Contributed to Urban Planning and Decision Making? From a Systematic Literature Review Toward a Socio-Technical Research and Development Agenda," Smart Cities, vol. 8, no. 1, art. 32, 2025.
How to cite this paper
@article{1719754,
author = {Ahem Gulati, Ridhima Gupta, Yuvika Gogia},
title = {Bridging the SDG 11 Gap: Youth-Led, Data-Driven Approaches to Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities},
journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
year = {2026},
volume = {10},
number = {1},
pages = {4088-4091},
issn = {2456-8880},
url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1719754.pdf},
abstract = {This study examines how sustainable communities are understood and built in practice, drawing on semi-structured interviews with two youth changemakers, a supporting survey, and secondary statistics on youth civic participation. The interviews reveal a persistent gap between the language of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11) and its implementation: cities largely react to crises rather than plan for them, political short-termism deprioritizes long-term resilience investments, and sustainability benefits such as green space and transit tend to reach higher-resource neighborhoods first. Respondents also describe formal education as under-preparing students for applied sustainability work, favoring experiential formats such as hackathons, fieldwork, and youth-led organizations instead. Statistics on youth volunteering — including participation from India's National Service Scheme, Australian youth volunteering rates, and post-disaster youth mobilization in Japan — reinforce the interview finding that young people are current contributors to community resilience, not only future ones. The paper concludes that pairing predictive, data-driven urban planning tools with genuine youth participation in design and decision-making offers a practical path toward closing the SDG 11 implementation gap.},
keywords = {SDG 11, Smart City Planning, Sustainable Communities, Urban Resilience, Youth Engagement},
month = {July},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV10I1-1719754}
}