Reconstructing the Blue Connection: A Systemic Inquiry into the Improbable Project of Building a New River Through a (Sub)urban Area

We analysed how an improbable project of building a new river through a suburban area came to fruition after all. The project is called the ‘Blue Connection’. We deployed systemic causal diagrams as a tool to visually show the structure of a system. The diagrams were derived and synthesized from interviews with participants. They then reflected upon the results. As such, the diagrams served a dual purpose: to understand why the Blue Connection project gained momentum whilst simultaneously contributing to the momentum by providing a coherent diagram of the systemic whole beyond the bounded mental models of individual actors. We identified the mechanisms that enabled or restrained the project as a complex system.