Elicited strong negative emotions

The images elicited negative emotions like disgust and anger. Images that included visible rubbish elicited the most negative emotion.

“Unpleasant, because it’s a lot of rubbish trapped and it’s obviously there for that purpose. So the system is kind of working in that we have something in place to trap rubbish, but the rubbish is still there”

Most relevant to the topic

Out of all of the tested images, images of traditional stormwater infrastructure were ranked as being the most relevant to the topic of stormwater management.

“The ones that are most relevant are ones with drains”

“More of these ugly grids, cement, they’re an eye sore – very relevant.”

Least personally relevant

Images of traditional stormwater infrastructure were ranked amongst the least personally relevant.

“Rubbish in the gutter…I hate that…it’s least relevant to me because I do the right thing and encourage people to do the right thing”

Elicited weak emotions

These images elicited either weak positive or weak negative emotions. For example, an image of a swale under construction elicited weak negative emotions. Whereas, a vegetated swale elicited weak positive emotions.

“It’s just a park in the suburbs”

“I feel nothing about it at all.”

Somewhat relevant to the topic

Despite being ranked towards the middle of the scale, most community members could identify the basic purpose of swales.

“Start of some sort of control measure to divert water”

Somewhat personally relevant

Images that were considered highly familiar were ranked higher.

“Shows urban setting, which does not resonate as strongly as natural settings”

“That’s a really familiar looking scene…I don’t know where it is but it’s quite familiar with the suburban area that I live in now”

Elicited weak positive or neutral emotions

Images of rainwater tanks elicited weak positive emotional reactions, particularly for those members that owned rainwater tanks.

“It’s nice to see the rainwater tanks making a comeback”

“Great, but a more neutral response”

Somewhat relevant to the topic

Community members ranked the tanks as somewhat relevant to the topic and indicated that they understood the role of the water tank in capturing rainwater for alternative uses, such as watering the lawn.

“The link here is how to divert stormwater and use it for other purposes”

Somewhat personally relevant

The images fell at the mid-way point of the personal relevance scale, with those people that either had or desired a rainwater tank placing the images higher on the personal relevance scale.

“Not as relevant to me, we don’t have tanks”

“We put water tanks in because of the drought”

Elicited strong positive emotions

Community members had strong positive emotional reactions to the images. They elicited emotions like calmness and happiness. The highest ranked image from this category was of a small waterfall in a rainforest setting.

“It’s a peaceful creek in the bush and I like that”

Least relevant to the topic

The majority of respondents understood that rainfall eventually flows into rivers and creeks, however, the images were not ranked highly in terms of relevance to stormwater management in cities and towns. Some community members highlighted the distance from urban areas.

“Not as relevant because it’s showing more remote waterways - not as quickly or directly affected”

Somewhat personally relevant

Generally, the images were seen as somewhat personally relevant, with relevance tied to how familiar the image was. That is, the more familiar the image, the higher the personal relevance. In addition, images that included animals were ranked by half of the community members as highly personally relevant.

“[This image] triggers a camping memory”

“Just looks like a creek, pretty boring”

Elicited strong positive emotions

The images elicited strong positive emotions for all community members and were amongst the highest ranked of all the tested images. Amongst the ocean images, an image of a turtle was given the highest score.

“Beautiful setting. Looks very relaxing. I’d like to be there”

“That’s what I love to see”

Least to most relevant to the topic

There was a discrepancy between community members in terms of topic relevance. The majority of respondents failed to identity the relevance of ocean imagery in terms of relevance to stormwater management and consequently they ranked the images as the least topic-relevant. A smaller sub-group ranked the images as highly topic relevant.

“The ocean’s always been around and I don’t necessarily associate it with stormwater”

“It’s relevant in the sense that it gets into the stormwater drains and then goes out to sea”

Varied personal relevance

The images received a mixed response with regard to personal relevance. Just over half of the community members scored the images highly for personal relevance, one-third of the community members had a neutral response to the images and a small number considered the images irrelevant.

“I grew up in North Queensland, so the coast and the environment are important to me”

“I am not a beach person, all these open ocean type images are not part of my normal experience”

Elicited strong negative emotions

Community members overwhelmingly reported that the images elicited sadness. Across all tested images, an image of a turtle ingesting plastic elicited the strongest negative emotional reaction.

“I want to cry when I look at that, it’s terrible, it shouldn’t happen”

Somewhat to least relevant to the topic

Consistent with the response to the images of pristine ocean environments, the images received a mixed response with regard to the relevance to the topic: a small proportion of community members identified that the images were highly relevant to the topic of stormwater management but the larger subgroup ranked the images below the mid-way point of the scale.

“Not as relevant because it’s showing more remote waterways - not as quickly or directly affected”

“It shouldn’t happen, and very important for stormwater management”

Varied personal relevance

The images received a mixed response with regard to personal relevance. Just over half of the community members scored the images highly for personal relevance, one-third of the community members had a neutral response to the images and a small number considered the images irrelevant.

“Is just plastic in the water, that talks to me more than anything. That upsets me very much. We could do something about it but we don’t”

“Least relevant – that is something you would see scuba diving which is something I have never done”

Elicited strong negative emotions

The images elicited the negative emotion of sadness.

“Flooding is no good for anybody, people lose so much through that, their homes, their memories, their photos, so it’s unpleasant”

Somewhat to most relevant to the topic

While the majority of community members indicated that the images were highly relevant to the topic of stormwater management, the smaller subgroup ranked the images as somewhat topic-relevant. This was because this subgroup of community members considered images of ocean environments as more important to the idea of stormwater management in cities and towns.

“That’s relevant in its own way”

“The floods are always going to happen here”

Somewhat personally relevant

The images were consistently ranked around the mid-way point of the scale with regard to personal relevance, with community members who had personally experienced a flood event ranking them higher than other community members.

“Got caught in the floods, pretty relevant”

“Very impactful, not to myself personally but brings back that kind of memory”

Elicited weak to strong positive emotions

The majority of the community members ranked these images highly with regard to positive emotion, as they elicited pride and belonging. However, a small sub-set of the community members ranked the images around the mid-way point of the emotion scale. They indicated that they felt somewhat sad or disappointed that people needed to clean-up due to either a flood event or human pollution.

“It’s great how the community comes together when it’s needed”

“Makes me feel pretty sad about all that”

Somewhat relevant to the topic

Despite receiving scores in the mid-range of the scale, community members indicated that they understood the relevance of these images with regard to stormwater and flooding.

“Here is people tiding up after, picking up things that have washed down after flood”

“Not sure if they are exactly stormwater related or just caring for waterways related”

Highly personally relevant

Across all tested images these were ranked as the most personally relevant.

“I like these because at least they are trying to do something” 

Elicited strong positive emotions

These images consistently elicited positive emotions, largely tied to community members' happiness to see people enjoying the outdoors. Activities like biking and walking were ranked higher as these activities appeal to a wider range of community members.

“Strong connection, I’ve walked up and down that little stretch of bikeway many many times”

“I like the people paddling in natural sort of setting, in a natural way”

Least relevant to the topic

These images were consistently ranked at the bottom of the scale in terms of topic relevance.

“Not really relevant – more about leisure time”

“Not relevant to stormwater”

Somewhat to highly personally relevant

It was extremely rare to have a group of images whereby the large majority sat above the mid-way point on the personal relevance dimension, as was the case for this category. An image of a bike rider along the Brisbane River was one of the highest ranked images with regard to personal relevance across all tested images.

“Very relevant to me as I ride along the bike track”

“Recreation is important to me”

“Boating is not something I am interested in”

Elicited weak to strong positive emotions

The majority of respondents had a neutral response in terms of emotion, but the smaller subgroup had a strong positive emotional reaction. The community members in the smaller subgroup expressed pride and happiness as residents of the capital city depicted in the image.

“It’s Brisbane, the river, the city cat - which is one of the most positive things we have had in Brisbane for a long time…it’s such a lovely way to travel”

Somewhat relevant to the topic

The community members had a moderate response in terms of topic relevance. People understood that rainwater flows into the Brisbane River.

“The shots of the river I’ve moved back a little bit because it takes a bigger storm to affect the river than a small creek.”

“Brisbane River relevant to capture stormwater”

Somewhat to highly personally relevant

The group was split in terms of personal relevance, where just over half of community members ranked the images as somewhat relevant and the remaining community members ranked the images as highly personally relevant. This was tied to the familiarity of the image.

“Because I’m some-one who has lived in Brisbane my whole life, I love Brisbane, I think it’s a beautiful city at night, and that’s a really lovely photo of it”