ID: 2236
Presenting Author: Victoria Donnelly
Session: 660 - Using Digital Tools to Enhance Transparency & Collaboration during Impact Assessments
Status: pending
Digital approaches to engaging indigenous communities on infrastructure projects enables inclusive participation. Collaborative approaches to engagement incorporating digital tools will be shared.
Digital and collaborative approaches to engaging indigenous communities on infrastructure projects enables inclusive and interactive participation to influence outcomes. Digital methods and tools can support improved participation and outcomes for communities and projects but challenges to effective implementation must be acknowledged, such as lack of capacity and limited resources for digital approaches. Engagement approaches which support capacity building, knowledge sharing and provide opportunities for community members to engage directly and contribute Indigenous perspectives to improved infrastructure design and construction can be enhanced through digital methods and tools. Through infrastructure project examples such as the Canadian Federal Government’s Alexandra Bridge Replacement Project in Ottawa, ways in which combined digital and collaborative approaches to engagement can support the direct involvement of Indigenous Communities in key areas of project planning and design will be explored. Benefits and barriers to incorporating digital tools and systems to support effective indigenous engagement will be shared. Through the lens of project-based experiences, this paper will highlight the ways in which an inclusive approach to engagement can contribute to the overall project design, identification and protection of key ecological and heritage features, and economic participation in projects.
Dr Victoria Donnelly is a Senior Environmental Consultant at Arup. She undertakes reconciliation-focused indigenous engagement working within large multidisciplinary teams to support major projects in
Coauthor 1: Elise Croll