Urban planning is always a project embedded with meaning, ideology, vision and aspiration. To explore the dimensions of planning and its impact on people and the environment, the authors used some theoretical concepts in this report’s analysis. Three basic concepts were applied: discourse, neoliberalism and environmental justice. The concepts of discourse and neoliberalism will allow us to analyse the intertwined dimensions of ideology, aspiration, knowledge and power in shaping the visions of a modern city. The conceptual tools from environmental justice and political ecology will shed light onto the narratives and how they are recreating and re-enacting the power/knowledge dynamics that have defined the riverscape and the socio-natural processes underpinning it.