Abstract We emphasize the need to contribute to the promotion of sustainable coastal communities from the recognition of a new era like the Anthropocene and the role of maps and open data. We want to tell you about how engaged YouthMappers contribute to efforts to achieve the SDGs under the demands of this new era and how maps can be a language that promotes the understanding of key factors of the Anthropocene such as via socioecological systems (SES) and connectivity. Examples of our work with coastal communities showcase addressing SDG 14, life below water, as well as SDG 13, in an era requiring climate action. With our voices, we want to call attention to the importance of observing the world without separating nature and human societies like two different entities, but to see them instead as a tightly interconnected tissue.