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The purpose of this paper is to focus on the implications of claimed detrimental impacts for the agricultural activity of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) ecosystem health in Queensland, Australia. The authors discuss the complex interaction of factors that have contributed to the decline in reef ecosystems and the challenges presented by multiple industries operating within the GBR catchment area. The authors then discuss measures employed to address agricultural run-off, claimed to be a significant factor in declining reef water quality.

Surveys of land managers were undertaken in partnership with two of the six natural resource management (NRM) organizations operating in areas adjacent to the GBR identified as having very high risk of natural and anthropogenic runoff. The sample population was obtained from a membership database within the two regions. Participants include land managers from the both regions who engaged in sugar cane production (Region 1 and Region 2, included in this paper) and cattle production (Region 2, to be reported later). Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed including open-ended responses.

A large-scale study of land managers reveals several reasons for the lack of success at reducing agricultural run-off. The authors discuss the rationale for a move to a theory-grounded social marketing approach to encouraging land manager behavior change, highlighting barriers, and potential enablers of sustained behavior change.

This study is first of its kind that discusses the behavior of land managers in the GBR catchment area and highlights facilitators and impediments of land managers’ behavior change toward GBR protection actions.

Mobile games and ICT-based mixed reality tools offer significant opportunities for tourism. This chapter reviews the existing literature in both these areas, and presents a novel way of combining games and virtual reality into an interpretive tool. As a complex, threatened marine ecosystem, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef faces significant interpretive challenges, and almost no new interpretive tools have been developed over the last 30 years. Here, the authors unpack the stages and interdisciplinary approach required to design the tool and highlight how it might fit within the broader scope of ICT developments in tourism. We outline areas of future research, with a particular focus on how ICT might contribute to making nature-based tourism more sustainable, by finding fun, innovative ways to engage tourists in the conservation of some of our most iconic natural assets.

Diving has become a popular tourism activity for professionals and novices. Coral reefs or other types of natural sources are still the most preferred diving sites. However, they are under threat for many reasons, for example, climate change, intensive human activities or commercial use. Many countries have promoted artificial reefs to protect coral reefs and create new attractions for tourists. These new underwater atmospheres have changed diving and diving experiences. Wrecks, vessels, monuments, hotels, sunken cities or other types of artificial reef forms invite divers to discover and explore the human-driven underwater environment with novelty seeking, photographic opportunities and mysterious surroundings. This atmospheric turn has brought many advantages to communities, stakeholders and nations with socio-economic benefits, advantages in sustainability management and destination image. This chapter examines the range of underwater atmospheres in different structures and countries and explores their potential benefits.

The purpose of this paper is to review cases of artificial reefs built through additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and analyse their ecological goals, fabrication process, materials, structural design features and implementation location to determine predominant parameters, environmental impacts, advantages, and limitations.

The review analysed 16 cases of artificial reefs from both temperate and tropical regions. These were categorised based on the AM process used, the mortar material used (crucial for biological applications), the structural design features and the location of implementation. These parameters are assessed to determine how effectively the designs meet the stipulated ecological goals, how AM technologies demonstrate their potential in comparison to conventional methods and the preference locations of these implementations.

The overview revealed that the dominant artificial reef implementation occurs in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Seas, both accounting for 24%. The remaining cases were in the Australian Sea (20%), the South Asia Sea (12%), the Persian Gulf and the Pacific Ocean, both with 8%, and the Indian Sea with 4% of all the cases studied. It was concluded that fused filament fabrication, binder jetting and material extrusion represent the main AM processes used to build artificial reefs. Cementitious materials, ceramics, polymers and geopolymer formulations were used, incorporating aggregates from mineral residues, biological wastes and pozzolan materials, to reduce environmental impacts, promote the circular economy and be more beneficial for marine ecosystems. The evaluation ranking assessed how well their design and materials align with their ecological goals, demonstrating that five cases were ranked with high effectiveness, ten projects with moderate effectiveness and one case with low effectiveness.

AM represents an innovative method for marine restoration and management. It offers a rapid prototyping technique for design validation and enables the creation of highly complex shapes for habitat diversification while incorporating a diverse range of materials to benefit environmental and marine species’ habitats.

An increasing number of environmental threats towards tourism landmarks have significantly raised public concerns about tourists being environmentally responsible. Negative ecological consequences from tourism-related activities have triggered the growing usage of environmental-focused events such as Earth Hour as a means to promote pro-environmental behaviour. Despite their size, increasing holiday behaviour and their marketplace dominance within the next decade, students’ environmental beliefs and their interest in participating in environmental-focused events such as Earth Hour is relatively unknown. This academic limitation and potential theoretical and practical implications provide the impetus for this study. Based on a sample of 410 students, three environment belief factors of students were determined. Further, students’ concerns for the environment were derived from the environmental vulnerability factor. Students’ beliefs do not directly impact their decision to participate in environmental-focused events or their awareness of the theme of Earth Hour. However, environment vulnerability influenced students’ intention to participate in future Earth Hour events. Recommendations are made, while future research opportunities are also outlined.

Swimming is a popular holiday activity in tropical tourism destinations but is not risk free. Aside from the obvious risks of drowning, tropical waters harbour a number of marine animals that have the potential to injure or even kill unwary swimmers. Sharks, marine jellyfish and crocodiles may pose threats. From a destination perspective, strategies need to be implemented that firstly reduce the risk of injury and secondly care for swimmers who are injured. This paper first reports on the results of a survey of swimmers that examines a range of swimming-related behaviours then proposes an action pathway model that may be implemented by destinations to reduce risk for swimmers.

With future (extreme) change ahead of us, there are many serious problems humankind has to face. The pace of mitigating climate change through an energy transition to renewables is slow, global mean temperature is increasing and sea level seems to rise at an accelerated pace. This puts many livelihoods at risk and communities have to face an uncertain future. Therefore, continuing the way contemporary cities are developing and developed is not an option. The new normal should also be reflected in urbanism. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the answer to this question is sought in understanding traditional attitudes to living and their relation to the land. How these cultures have been capable of coping with disruptions lies in the way their mental paradigm respects their environment. A more resilient future can be achieved when the traditional values of the relation of societies with the land they live on are considered important and indigenous knowledge and perspectives are used to design cities.

Current society seems to have forgotten what it means and how to put into practice sharing resources and space, giving back more to the environment than used to live. Also, mankind seems to be lacking the ability to move and search for the potentials where to live. Furthermore, choosing to live in safe places, hence being less vulnerable for disruptions, is a principle that has long been neglected. These characteristics of traditional cultures are translated in four principles that are valuable in design processes: first, making use of the energy and power a disaster might bring and turning it into an advantage; second, using imagination to anticipate an unknown future; third, accommodating all paces of urban change; and fourth, designing redundancy for flexibility. The use of these principles is illustrated in three Sydney-based examples.

The link between indigenous knowledge and current urban design practice is new.