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Since the needs and expectations of communities towards their urban environments often vary, landscape management strategies can often be prone to fail in the absence of social considerations. It is therefore incumbent on policy-makers to investigate and attempt to reconcile diverse community perceptions toward the natural and built environment for more equitable governance. This is of particular interest when planning and managing nature-based solutions (NBS) for river protection. We considered this challenge in understanding human values, perceptions and behaviour in a multilayered ecosystem that includes waterways, NBS, green open spaces, and a built environment. This paper analyses perceptions and behaviour around a public urban park next to the Georges River in Sydney Australia, utilizing a proxy-based approach and a mixed-method comprising community surveys and behavioural mapping. The results showed that while users perceive the significance of the urban river environment differently, naturalistic (ecological), humanistic (recreational) and utilitarian (well-being) values are dominant. Urban river catchments are highly valued for recreational purposes, with a strong perception of potential flooding hazards. Through exploring the literature, we recognized that the dominancy of leisure-related values around urban river catchments can be generalized to similar cases worldwide. While NBS, as an urban stormwater management solution, address some user values (e.g., naturalistic) around urban river catchments, they may lack further delivery of humanistic and utilitarian values due to the poor integration with recreational and cultural spaces. It was also the case around the Georges River, where low prominence of cultural features was observed. We concluded that NBS development around Georges River and other urban river catchments should incorporate socio-cultural considerations and community values, in particular the ones related to leisure. The gaps between users' beliefs and behaviour do not greatly challenge governance, provided that the decision-makers utilise these gaps for optimising management actions. • We used mixed-method approach to show community values in urban environment. • Behavioural mapping was a complementary process in value perception analysis. • Study highlighted the importance of ecological, recreational and utilitarian values. • Existing NBS addresses naturalistic values, but lacks cultural, recreational values. • Management actions need to consider socio-cultural values and landscape integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainwater is a traditional but under-utilized water resource that has today had a resurgence due to the worldwide water crisis. This paper demonstrates the outcomes of research on the feasibility of rainwater use in high-rise residential envelopes for four Australian cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Darwin. Different climate patterns and various levels of water demand management were established for determination of storage dimensions; annual tank water use; reduction in both imported water flow and stormwater disposal; and water spillage from tanks. High level water demand management was a profoundly effective tool for reducing potable water supply, especially in combination with rainwater use. The economic feasibility of rainwater use systems were estimated; with Sydney having the shortest payback period compared to other cities either both with 3A rated appliances (8.6 years) or 5A ones installed (10.4 years). That was due to the higher and more consistent rainfall in Sydney. An outcome of this study was that Sydney was likely most suited to rainwater use, followed by Perth, Darwin, and then Melbourne. The objective of this study was to fill in the gap in estimating feasibility of rainwater use in various Australian cities. This investigation endeavors to provide assistance to water authorities and urban planners of Australian cities with the consideration of the potential of rainwater harvesting. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]