and our Region of North Queensland

What is the role of ecotourism in the world ?

and what is happening in the world ?

Climate Change

Global rubbish and plasticsCulture changes

Species loss

Terrorism

Technology advances

So what is the role of Ecotourism ?

And how does Ecotourism stay relevant in this global age

climate change impact; global pollution and plastics; advanced technology and AI; culture change; recurring terrorism; and catastrophic species loss

“Achieving sustainability does not mean slowing down our economy. It means speeding it up, and directing its energy toward the redesign and redevelopment of the systems that are the cause of our dilemma.”

Alan AtKisson, Believing Cassandra (1999)

And what would this mean for Townsville and our region of North Queensland

as a Sustainable Destination

A community-based learning journey in visioning and uncovering the hidden world of sustainability

And taking action

2006 sustainability accelerator

2009 Smart Grid Smart City

2011 Townsville Smarter Cities (IBM)

» Townsville is Queensland’s largest regional City home to c. 187,000 peopleand covering a combined urban-rural area of c. 4000 km2

Townsville – “the Place”

Townsville’s story� Interpretation� Learnscape Origins� Townsville as a Learnscape� Transects and Storylines

Understanding and interpreting our local world and developing an integrated learning program developing towards becoming

Sustainable Destination

Supporting frameworks for action� CBSM (Community Based Social Marketing)

� Thematic Communication� Collective Social Learning� Experiential Learning� Smart Technology integration

STEM …

Townsville eco-catchments & education program from

Creek to Coral

Generating Tourism Opportunities in Regional Cities through delivering Sustainability and Resilience

Townsville City Council – has included an integrated approach to sustainability for more than 20 years now … integrating energy, water, biology and people …

9 Environmental Building – restoring ecosystems and environments

9 Environmental Systems - environmental management and data

9 Sustainable Solutions – tropicalised, safe, fit for purpose, lower cost and higher energy efficient ;

9 City Energy – integrated energy efficiency, demand management, behaviour change and renewables

The current TCC Environment and Sustainability program supports sustainable destination and developing ecotourism development

through an integrated approach, via the following programs

9 Jezzine, Rowes Bay to Pallarenda 9 Aboriginal Plant Trial9 Rowes Bay Sustainability Centre9 Military9 Wetlands

9 Borrow Pits to Rowes Bay City Learnscape

9 Magnetic Island Solar Suburb

9 Cromarty and Serpentine Lagoon Wetlands including tropical savannas, wetlands and wet tropical rainforests of Mt Elliot

9 Wet Tropics World Heritage Area from Bluewater to Paluma (30 km west of the Strand)

City wide initiatives supporting Ecotourism

Wet Tropics Bioregion of North Queensland

Wet tropics bioregional boundary within Townsville City Council LGA …

Townsville City Council – CBD Admin Building and Sustainable House retrofit (Rowes Bay)

Push and Pull of Migration

Professor Jane JamesEmeritus ProfessorFlinders University

An Integrated Sustainability Model of

Technology-Ecology-Culture and People…. consisting of our societies knowledge and collaborative actions

We have been utilising, developing and building on recognised

cognitive psychology approaches

Communications, behaviour change and learning

>> Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM)

>> Thematic Communication

>> Educating audience about the themeLike a NO SMOKING sign, the 6-9 icon communicates the demand side management message in a simple and effective way!

Collective Social Learning and KnowledgesLemrick cartoon (from Professor Valerie Brown presentation)

Patterned KnowledgesVal Brown

>> Patterned KnowledgesProfessor Val Brown

>> Patterned KnowledgesProfessor Val Brown

Learning Cities (Urban Age Institute and Tim Campbell, PhD)

>> The problem of achieving sustainable cities is not merely one of technology transfer ….

>> … learning cities are able to create and draw on stored memory that consists of shared experiences between and among people who take part in the learning process

From Cities on the Rise: Lessons in Becoming Sustainable (Urban Age Institute)

Peter Senge and his coffee cup

Townsville Integrated

Learnscapes

TCC; Energy Utility; Developer and Researcher (TNEP)

Townsville as a Learnscape: Transect

Townsville as a Learnscape: Transect

… and developing city-wide learnscapes to cover tourism, business, industry and sustainability and educate visitors, tourists and residents

So that is the framework

What have we done to contribute more broadly to a Sustainable Destination and where are we going from

here ….

In sustainability and ecotourism

Townsville Solar City Project

46% demand management

Sustainability in Practice – retrofitting old stock, and learnings relevant to supporting tourism industry

Supporting CBD Activation, innovation energy efficiency and effectiveness, tourist safety, interest and data

applying thematic communications into our city energy

Network Demand Management and Solar City

Objectives:

1. To increase awareness about Energy Demand Management and Peak Demand within Townsville City Council

2. To empower staff to reduce demand in the workplace (by switching off lights and monitors when they leave the room)

Residential Energy Demand Management

Objectives:

1. To empower home owners to have their roofs painted with a white reflective coating

2. To have home owners to plant shade trees on the western side of homes

3. To encourage owners to replace their electric hot water system with solar hot water or heat pump

The Eco-City Experience – Bringing it all back together

Objectives:

1. Building on the work the Eco-City Experience) and bringing all the work done over the week together – linking everything back to the BIG PICTURE

And all future projects tell a connected story at each level like chapters in an

Eco-City Storybook of Townsville.

Learning and developing our approach to “feeling” the city

… integrating energy, water, biology and people …

“City Whisperers” …. how commercial and tourism buildings tells us about the way we live and work

… and how our learnings from discovering key faults in our buildings can assist building sustainable destinations and reducing tourism infrastructure costs into the long term.

Understanding our building stock and where the savings come from requires granular data to uncover hidden patterns

… example from a commercial building in Townsville used as a visitor art gallery, Federation Place

… and involving kids, residents and visitors (tourists)

Learning to “feel” our cities and tourism destinations

Involving young people in STEM activities – and tourists too?

CIEE Study Abroad in Spain(Bronx, City University of New York)

Taking the message wider and learning to feel the city with people and technology

Building infrastructure for tourists and residents

Magnetic Island – ‘whole of island’ community pilot with Department of Environment & Science for

decarbonising the GBR islands � Audit – of sustainability� Analysis – assessment� Business Cases - develop

� Building Sustainable Destination Workshop – a community approach

� Townsville environmental community supporting 10 international delegates

� “Backpack” Sensor kits training and deployment – feeling the city

� Linking with tourism business

and hosting eco-tours of the city

City of Townsville supporting tourism business and industry