Laura Dominici, Matilde Molari, Silvia Pesce, and Elena Comino
Urban rivers provide many ecosystems services contributing to improving the quality of life in cities and becoming landmarks that define unique riverscapes. However, climate change increasingly causes systemic stresses, leading to more frequent extreme events. In this scenario, researchers supported by academic student teams as AkaNoah, are called to get out of universities and collaborate with citizens, local government, and other stakeholders to preserve the quality of natural common goods. This article discusses the importance of a participatory approach and interdisciplinary collaboration between stakeholders to foster environmental and systemic awareness and civic engagement by presenting the case study of the project “CIAK! Sì, parteciPO”. The project, supervised by academics from design, biology and environmental engineering, focused on the co-creation of a short documentary working with 20 young citizens. The goal is to holistically explore complexity and systemic relationships around the Po River in the city of Turin (Italy). Without any specific filmmaking skill, participants worked in teams to co-produce a participatory short movie that immediately communicate citizen’s perspective and voices of various local stakeholders about the civic use of Po Rivers using the emotional power of sounds and images. The group was supported by an interdisciplinary team of mentors who provided participants basic knowledge concerning concept design, scriptwriting, filming and audio recording techniques, and guided them during the creative videomaking process. The visual design practice has been adopted as an instrument to foster peer-to-peer learning, civic and participatory imagination and community empowerment about the Po River as an urban common good. At the end, this article highlights opportunities provided by participatory projects to strengthen the network of various stakeholders at the local scale, including policymakers, to support the socio-ecologically conscious, resilient and systemic-oriented management of freshwater ecosystems in the urban environment.
KEYWORDS: socio-ecological perspective; urban rivers; environmental communication; systemic awareness; citizens empowerment