Walking with water: A relational and respectful design to resurfacing water memory in the city.

This thesis explores the Indigenous paradigm of relationality to develop new urban planning and design methodologies for underground water management. Since colonisation, urban planning and design interventions in Melbourne have significantly altered coastal landscape conditions and displaced water in the urban environment. Despite water being largely engineered underground, water memory keeps resurfacing in the form of intense flooding, compelling us to reconsider our human and more-than-human relations. The research analyses drained, displaced, and piped waterways and tests how relational methods can contribute to a more careful, respectful, and effective approach to the design and management of water.