The intention-implementation gap for community involvement in urban waterways governance: a scoping review

Urban waterways as a subset of Nature-based solutions promote many functions, particularly in a warming climate by providing benefits for people and nature to adapt to critical social-ecological challenges. It has been widely suggested that a mechanism for unlocking those benefits is to promote active community involvement in governance. However, this practice is not widely adopted despite a common intention to do so. In this article, we review the evidence around such practices and why there is an intention-implementation gap. The review is based on analysis of 51 peer-reviewed scholarly works using a conceptual framework (Values, Rules, Knowledge) that has previously been applied to understand inertia in the adoption of climate adaptation practices. This framework provides an analytical lens to identify critical knowledge gaps by focusing firmly on factors that influence decision contexts. The review has revealed that whilst there are many academic papers outlining the hypothesised benefits of community involvement in urban waterways governance, there is much less detail about practices, risks, costs, or the lived experience of decision-makers. Nor is there much advice on the methods that can be used to implement the practice in a manner that effectively unlocks co-benefits. We argue that such evidence is urgently needed as it will allow the practice to be more widely adopted.