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Attitudes have been a commonly used psychological measure of program effectiveness in conservation social science research. The major limitation of this approach is that attitudes do not always translate into behavior and therefore may not provide an accurate assessment of program success. Given that achieving conservation goals generally relies on understanding and changing human behavior, we argue for the need to assess behavior rather than attitudes as an indicator of conservation outcomes. Psychological theory shows that attitudes and behavior are distinct, but related, concepts. Measuring conservation behaviors involves identifying the target behavior or behaviors and the optimal time to measure and then selecting the most appropriate method of measurement (i.e., direct observation, objective indicators, self‐reported behavior, and behavioral intentions) that considers the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. We call for conservation programs to focus on influencing behavior rather than attitudes alone and encourage conservation practitioners and researchers to collect high‐quality behavioral data to more effectively inform policy and programs.

Community engagement and stewardship are important elements in urban water planning if we are to achieve the vision of water sensitive cities. The aim of this study was to explore how community members could participate in collaborative water planning processes that are adaptive, participatory and transdisciplinary. We conducted a case study of community participation in a water planning process in the regional town of Bendigo in Australia. Over a period of eight months, we worked with key stakeholders to generate integrated, collaborative and people-centred water planning. This involved a series of community champion workshops supplemented by focus groups with additional community members that ran alongside workshops with water and local planning professionals. The goal of the process was to bring together industry, government partners and community members to develop a 50-year vision for a water sensitive Bendigo and to identify the steps needed to achieve this vision. Key findings were that community champions were keen to learn and contribute to urban water planning in their local context. Given time and support, community champions were able to distil complex ideas and make compromises to contribute to a shared vision for the city. Our findings confirm that community champions can play the role of knowledge brokers between water managers and the general population. The research contributes knowledge regarding the value of engaging community champions in urban water planning.

Sustainable management of coastal ecosystems requires engaged communities—communities that support sustainable management policies and are willing to adopt behaviours that promote waterway health. Information provision is a common component of engagement practices, yet little is known about what type of information will most effectively motivate engaged communities. We conducted an experimental study (N = 702) examining the effectiveness of different messages about benefits of sustainable coastal management. We examined two messages about cultural ecosystem services (economic benefits and lifestyle benefits), messages focused on conservation benefits, and a ‘control’ message, which mentioned threats to coastal ecosystems but no benefits of management. We also compared the effect of factual and moral arguments on engagement outcomes. Overall, economic messages generated lower intentions to adopt household behaviours, and reduced information seeking across the whole sample. Moral arguments were not more effective than messages using factual arguments. In fact, factual arguments were associated with greater policy support and behavioural intentions. We also examined the role of participant values, political orientation and knowledge on message effectiveness. Participants with a conservative political orientation exhibited poorer responses to framed messages, compared with the control message. These findings highlight the importance of considering message content when communicating with communities. Specifically, messages about ecosystem services may not be superior to environmental messages when communicating about local issues. Recommendations for effective communication commonly suggest aligning messages with audience values. While our findings do not contradict this, they do serve as a reminder to avoid simple assumptions about what these values may entail, and that groups less supportive of conservation goals are likely to require more specific strategies to enh

This chapter addresses the important role of group processes in the context of environmental issues, attitudes, and actions. It discusses why environmental attitudes and behaviours are not solely the product of individual attributes but are also affected by group memberships and the group processes associated with these memberships. The social identity approach is an account of how group memberships influence individuals' attitudes and behaviours. It incorporates two interrelated theories: social identity theory (SIT) and self-categorization theory (SCT). SCT assumes that when a social identity is salient, the self is depersonalized and people do not behave in line with their individual motives, but instead in accordance with the needs, goals, and motives associated with their shared group membership. The social identity approach addresses the important question of how particular group memberships become salient and how new social identities are formed.

Full Text, Thesis (PhD Doctorate), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), School of Medicine, Griffith Health, This thesis explores the relationship between nature and psychological wellbeing. It does this within an urban context, examining how people’s perceptions of and connection to nature relate to psychological wellbeing and exploring factors that are associated with an individual’s subjective relationship with nature. First, I investigate how changes in perceptions of the quality and quantity of local urban nature relate to psychological wellbeing over time. Then I build on the concept of an individual’s subjective perceptions of nature to explore their subjective relationship with nature, or their nature connection, and how this relates to psychological wellbeing. Finally, to assist with the practical application of the research, I explore factors that may relate to nature connection within an urban context. This final component aims to address the numerous policy and planning documents which include objectives on nature connection enhancement. Hence, through exploring factors that are related to nature connection this research may help inform the design and delivery of such nature connection enhancing objectives and initiatives. This research used a multi-phased, sequential, survey-based design to explore how perceptions of and connection to nature relate to psychological wellbeing and to investigate factors that may be associated with nature connection. Using longitudinal mail-based survey data from 5,014 mid-aged Brisbane urban residents, I explored the first research question of this thesis - How do changes in perceptions of the quantity and quality of urban nature relate to psychological wellbeing? This research question emerged from the review of the nature and mental health literature which highlighted the preponderance of cross-sectional study designs investigating how objective measures of nature relate to measures of mental ill-health. To move the field forward I used longitudinal data to assess how changes in perceptions of the quality and quantity of natur

As approaches to water management begin to encompass broader social and environmental goals, new technical terms have entered the field of water management. Effective communication across professional disciplines, and with community stakeholders, is essential for sustainable urban water management. However, use of technical terminology has the potential to undermine effectiveness of communication. We surveyed professionals and community members to examine these issues. Findings indicate that water-related technical terms may not be well understood by the community. Professionals most likely to overestimate community understanding were influenced by their own understanding rather than experience with communities. For communities, individuals with poor topic knowledge or low education were less likely to seek information about terms, highlighting the importance of reducing reliance on technical terms when collaborating with diverse stakeholders. KEYWORDS: Communication, community engagement, information seeking, jargon, technical terminology, socio-technical systems

Citizen science programs enable community involvement in scientific research. In addition to fostering greater science literacy, some citizen science programs aim to foster engagement in environmental issues. However, few data are available to indicate whether and how citizen science programs can achieve greater environmental engagement. We survey individuals choosing to attend one of seventeen reef citizen science events and examine the extent to which attendees reported three indicators of greater environmental engagement: (i) willingness to share information, (ii) increased support for marine conservation and citizen science, and (iii) intentions to adopt a new behavior. Most participants reported being willing to share information about reef conservation (91) and described increased support for marine science and conservation (87). Half of participants (51) reported intentions to adopt a new conservation behavior. We found that key elements of the citizen science experience associated with these outcomes were learning about actions to protect reefs and coasts (procedural learning), experiencing surprise, and experiencing negative emotions about environmental problems. Excitement was also associated with positive outcomes, but only in participants who were less likely to see themselves as environmental, or were less frequent visitors to reefs and coasts. Importantly, the association between factual learning and environmental engagement outcomes was limited or negative. These findings suggest that the way citizen science experiences make people feel, may be more important for fostering future environmental engagement than factual-based learning. When designing citizen science programs for community members, these findings provide a reminder to not focus on provision of factual information alone, but to highlight environmental impacts while providing meaningful experiences and building environmental skills. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

Ensuring future water security requires broad community support for changes in policy, practice, and technology, such as those involved in delivering alternative water schemes. Building community support for alternative water sources may involve a suite of engagement activities, ranging from information campaigns, through to grassroots and participatory approaches. There is increasing recognition that ‘social capital’—the degree of social connectedness, trust, and shared values within a community—is important for building support for pro-environmental policies. However, little research has examined how social capital might influence support for alternative water schemes. We surveyed a representative sample of Australian adults (n = 5194). Support for alternative water sources was examined using a series of questions focusing on stormwater harvesting, desalination, and recycled water. Involvement in community organisations (defined as participation or membership) was used as an indicator of social capital. Using a series of mediation analyses, we identified that community involvement is associated with support for alternative water sources, and that this effect is mediated by (i) stronger water-related social norms, (ii) greater water-related knowledge, and (iii) increased recall of water-related information. Our results also suggest that these indirect effects can be conditional upon location, employment status, life satisfaction, and language spoken within the home. These findings highlight the importance of social capital in building engagement in water-related issues, and specifically, building support for alternative water sources. In addition they highlight potential pathways for the association between social capital and support for alternative water sources for different social groups and communities.

Citizen engagement in water-related issues is vital for securing future water supplies and protecting waterways. In this paper we explore elements of engagement in water related issues – what people know, what they value and their actions, and describe how these cohere in ways that can inform planning and interventions. Drawing on a nationally representative survey (N = 5194) and an interdisciplinary conceptual framework, this paper outlines how groups within the population differ on engagement in water-related issues. We identify five key groups: (i) the Disengaged, (ii) Aware but inactive, (iii) Active but not engaged, (iv) Engaged but cautious, and (v) Highly engaged. Homeownership, having a garden, being older, and life experiences such as experience of water restrictions had a significant impact on each of the engagement profiles. The utility of this analysis is demonstrated through finding that the groups have distinct views on two key policy examples, support for raingardens and willingness to pay for waterway protection. We suggest ways of targeting individual and community interventions to reach the identified groups.