A paradigm shift in river management practice is underway, from a hard engineering-dominated emphasis that endeavours to control water, to a multi-functionality-framed approach that strives to restore a river's ecology, scenery and ecosystem services. In Taiwan, the Laojie River in Taoyuan City, where a channelized and piped urban river was recently transformed into an accessible, linear green infrastructure feature, is widely regarded as the first extensive and successful river restoration project in Taiwan's densely-urbanized, flood-prone areas, yet its actual performance is rarely examined in any depth. Through in-depth interviews, fieldwork and a review of government documents, this paper presents findings on the practical factors involved in the practice of river restoration and their implications for urban river management. First, local people support river restoration with de-culverting, but potential flooding is a concern that results from different flood-risk perceptions and ineffective flood-risk communication between the government and public. Second, a mix of hard and soft edges to the watercourse improves the riverside landscapes in a densely-urban, flood-prone area. Third, due to a lack of basin-wide supporting sanitary sewer systems, a combination of on-site gravel contact oxidation treatment systems and riverside sewage-intercepting facilities still fails to improve the river water quality. Fourth, people's positive attitudes towards river restoration are largely associated with landscape aesthetics and recreational value, rather than water quality and biodiversity. It is revealed that using the Cheonggyecheon Stream in South Korea as a frame for river restoration seems effective in providing local people with an example of successful river restoration, based mainly on flood prevention and recreational and aesthetic improvement. Moreover, the effective flood-risk communication is mainly reliant on an intelligible presentation of related information to the general public. Practical, continuous and extensive public participation, with various types of involvement and resources along with a solid system of social objectives by which to assess the outcome, is central to the social aspect of river restoration.

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As a form of World Heritage, cultural landscapes have evolved linked with production systems and living space and have become an important topic of rural studies worldwide. This paper attempts to examine the development experiences of local revitalization combined with the cultural landscape in Songkou ancient town, China. Firstly, the rural livelihood-based landscape characteristics of mixing natural and man-made environments are the resources of cultural landscape development. Secondly, community action forms the cultural landscape through a spatial identification process involving place, identity, and heritage. Thirdly, “experience grafting” is a coordinated action for industrial development that has allowed the experience of community revitalization in Taiwan to make an effective contribution to the cultural landscape development of Songkou ancient town. The main findings are as follows: (1) The close connection between man and nature is confirmed from the perspective of landscape cognition and provides farmers with a means of earning a living. Hence, agricultural activities meet the principles of sustainable and organic agriculture by using natural resources responsibly. (2) By considering ecological orchards as cultural landscapes, community actions promote a consensus of local values and an effective way of making a livelihood.

China’s countryside is rich in cultural heritage. It is an important engine for rural development and revitalization. How to improve the tourists’ satisfaction with their aesthetic experience, raise the revisit rate and loyalty, and provide new methods and ideas for re-understanding the tourism experience is a topic worth discussing. This study chose Zoumatang Village in Ningbo, China, as the research target, and explored the important factors affecting tourists’ satisfaction with the aesthetic experience of their visit. Through a literature review and eight experts applying the Delphi method, this paper develops a framework of important criteria for the Zoumatang Village aesthetic experience. It then ranks their importance and causal relationships using the DEMATEL-based ANP method. It also combines 16 important factors for tourist satisfaction to explore improvement measures. The research results show that pleasure is the most critical factor of the aesthetic experience offered by Zoumatang Village with interactivity, variety, associability, sociability, and stewardship as factors that need to be improved given that naturalness lies at the heart of tourists’ aesthetic experience. The evaluation model of this study can provide a reference for improving the aesthetic experience of Zoumatang Village in particular, and the research methods and ideas for rural tourism development planning and integrated marketing in general. The findings can be used when investigating aesthetic experience, questionnaire making, and evaluation optimization related to tourism.

De-culverting is promoted to restore natural watercourses towards sustainable environmental management. However, the Taiwanese case of the Mei Stream develops quasinaturalistic landscaping on top of its culverted areas for improvement. Whilst most case-related literature emphasises the success in public places, little is known about why such an approach is used. Therefore, this paper investigates the physical characteristics and considerations about the implementation of quasi-naturalistic design within the culverted Mei Stream to aid understanding of watercourse development in dense, flood-afflicted urban areas. Through interviews, direct observations, photographs and government documents, the findings show that green parkways and a pseudo-stream (fed with pumped groundwater and tap water) form the quasi-naturalistic approach, revealing the severity of wastewater contamination and the popularity of hardengineered watercourses. Water pollution and flood risk perception are the key factors in watercourse redevelopment. In conclusion, the study shows the better the water quality the stronger the argument for de-culverting, and the significance of disseminating knowledge to change public attitudes to river restoration and disaster prevention. A redesign for the case-study stream is proposed to stress multi-functionality of watercourses towards flood protection, biodiversity and recreation.