ZALMON RIVER
2025–ONGOING
Civic Imagination · Generative AI · Participatory Planning
Role & Context
Interaction Developer & Facilitator
Commissioned by the Kinneret Drainage & Stream Authority
Overview
A participatory design tool created for a national infrastructure project: the revival of the Zalmon River using desalinated water pumped from the Mediterranean. As the dry riverbed begins to flow again, the Authority needed a way to engage local residents in envisioning the new public spaces created along its banks.
The System: Visualizing Civic Dreams
We developed a custom GenAI agent that serves two functions during public planning workshops:
The River's Persona: The AI is prompted to speak as the river, providing context about the new water flow and inviting users to imagine future interactions.
Real-Time Visualization: The tool translates residents' verbal ideas (e.g., "a floating concert," "agricultural tourism") into realistic images embedded in the specific landscape. This process turns abstract public feedback into concrete visual data, helping planners understand exactly how the community wants to inhabit the revived river.
Credits
Olga Stadnuk: Interaction Developer & Facilitator
Kinneret Drainage & Stream Authority: Project Commissioner