NCREATIVEARCH

Restoring Heen Ela Canal – UX Case Study | Social Impact & Systems Design

BRIEF:
Changing the Narrative for a Better Future

Connecting Texts, Deciphering Contexts: Concept Work
Media Design School—New Zealand

Challenge

Urban water pollution is often treated as an unavoidable side effect of city growth, with responsibility placed on individuals rather than systems. This results in low visibility, weak accountability, and limited action. The challenge was to reframe the problem from a UX and systems perspective: How might design make pollution visible, actionable, and shared between citizens and authorities?

Background

This project explored wastewater pollution in the Heen Ela canal in Sri Lanka through user research, policy review, and environmental case studies. The work situates pollution within a wider urban system involving households, businesses, local authorities, and infrastructure. Aligned with UN SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), the project focuses on improving transparency, civic engagement, and environmental accountability in complex urban environments.

Design Approach

The design response follows a phased, community-centred approach that combines immediate environmental action with long-term systemic change.

The first intervention focuses on community-led clean-up initiatives to restore sections of the Heen Ela canal. These clean-ups act as both a physical restoration effort and a catalyst for awareness, bringing visibility to pollution that is often ignored while fostering shared ownership among local residents.

Building on this collective momentum, the second phase introduces a citizen reporting app that enables users to document pollution incidents through location tagging and image uploads. This tool supports ongoing monitoring, creates accountability between communities and authorities, and transforms one-off clean-ups into sustained civic participation.

The final phase extends the system toward economic and social empowerment, particularly for women, through recycling-based micro-business opportunities. By connecting waste recovery with income generation, the project reframes environmental care as valuable labour and supports more resilient, circular local economies.

Together, these interventions demonstrate how UX and systems design can link community action, digital tools, and social innovation to create meaningful, scalable environmental impact.