Community Engagement on Water Futures: Using creative processes, appreciative inquiry and art to bring communities’ views to life

New approaches to engaging the community are needed to navigate the increasing complexity of planning urban water systems in the face of uncertain climatic, social, economic and political futures. This paper shares an innovative approach developed in collaboration between the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney, and the NSW Government’s Metropolitan Water Directorate. Our approach integrated futures visioning, Appreciative Inquiry and creative processes to engage the community on their vision for the future. Participants’ visions were also informed by technical information about the urban water system. The approach produced three “futures scenarios”, comprising annotated artworks and accompanying narrative statement