社區是居民日常生活主要的活動場域，良好的社區環境可以凝聚居民向心力並強化歸屬感。理想的社區發展政策均強調「由下而上」、「永續經營」的參與理念，以能確實反映民意，帶動居民對社區的關懷。然而政府公共建設之推動常涉及上位政策、既有法令與年度預算之諸多限制，因此一項大型整合型之計畫由規劃、設計、施工至維護管理的各個環節中常會因缺乏完整的社區參與，產生許多糾紛而使原有政策美意效益不彰。本研究採用行動研究理論，選擇桃園縣政府闢建完成之南崁溪水岸自行車道沿線三個社區進行其相鄰水岸空間的改善，在參與社區的邀請過程中發現由於先前水岸工程計畫之執行缺乏與社區的良性互動，造成民眾對政府的強烈不信任感，而經由研究團隊積極與社區建立「夥伴關係」始得初步開啟社區參與的意願。水岸環境改善的參與過程長達半年，運用「規劃、行動、觀察、反思」的螺旋程序，透過傾聽民眾宣洩的情緒、激發民眾的正向思考、化解民眾心中的憂慮與協同民眾動手參與，共同打造對社區有意義的水岸空間。行動研究之實質成果其實是在原有水岸沿線施作的景觀工程基礎上，調整或增加對社區實用且具意義的植栽綠化與簡易休憩設施，研究原先期待且具體的貢獻則在於過程中帶動居民間彼此的密切互動與溝通，使得兩個社區因此萌發社區意識，另一個原有的社區組織則因此次行動研究促成更為活絡的社區活動，且進一步爭取希望成為全縣示範社區；政府權責單位也因此明瞭社區參與對工程效益評估之必要性；外來使用者則因水岸景觀之特色差異感受到三個社區逐漸顯現的自明性。

A community is an activity place for residents in their daily life. A good community environment not only can bring residents together, but also strengthen a sense of belonging. An ideal community development policy should emphasizes on“from bottom to top“ and “environmental sustainability “, so residents can give opinions and care about their community. A public work including planning, design, construction, maintenance and management is often related to some limits, such as super-ordinate policies, laws, and annual budgets. Disputes are often caused by lacking of community participation, and that makes the policy less of environmental benefits. This research is based on action research theory, choosing three communities to improve their riverfront space. Finding the public had no confidence in the government because of the original riverside construction lacking of the community opinions. The research team set a “partnership” with the community to execute the public participation. The purpose is using the spiral procedures of “planning, acting, observing and reviewing” to build a meaningful riverside space for the community by listening to the public’s voices during six months working period. The result of this action research is adjusting or increasing some functional and meaningful landscape and resting facilities on the base of original landscape construction. The contribution of the project is the communication and interaction among the community residents in the process. Two of the communities grow community consciousness, and the other one has developed a stronger organization. Through this project, the government realizes the necessity of community participation for construction benefit, and visitors from other cities can feel the identities of these three communities because of the different riverside landscapes.