Community Engagement and Diverse River Values: A Case Study of Dyarubbin

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on the example of Dyarubbin (Nepean River), an urban river in Sydney, Australia, to illuminate how community engagement facilitates the expression of diverse river values. Combining Indigenous water justice, critical planning scholarship, and a scalar approach to values, and drawing on qualitative research conducted in 2021, we discuss how diverse community values have been represented in strategies for the river and consider which values are overlooked in these processes. We conclude by arguing that values for Dyarubbin are contested and diverse, however the rigid nature of engagement frameworks and the scalar nature of government responsibilities have reduced engagement’s influence on planning outcomes.

摘要

本文以澳大利亚悉尼的一条城市河流 Dyarubbin（尼平河）为例，说明社区参与是如何促进不同河流价值表达的。结合土著水正义、批判性规划学术和价值标量方法，并利用2021年进行的定性研究，我们讨论了不同的社区价值如何在河流战略中得到体现，并考虑了这些过程中忽略了哪些价值。我们的结论是，Dyarubbin的价值是有争议的和多样的，然而，参与框架的僵化性质和政府责任的标量性质降低了参与对规划结果的影响。

KEYWORDS:

• Community engagement
• Indigenous water justice
• urban rivers
• Australia
• Dyarubbin
• urban planning

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Dyarubbin is sometimes spelt as Deerubbin, an early anglicisation of the Darug and Darkinjung name for the river.

2 Pseudonyms used to protect identity of participant.

3 Pseudonym

4 Pseudonym