Chew, Chengiz

James Lloyd, Gareth

English

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Article, Published VersionChew, Chengiz; James Lloyd, GarethAqua republica - humanising water and environmenteducation as well as stakeholder engagement with seriousgamingHydrolinkVerfügbar unter/Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11970/109354Vorgeschlagene Zitierweise/Suggested citation:Chew, Chengiz; James Lloyd, Gareth (2017): Aqua republica - humanising water andenvironment education as well as stakeholder engagement with serious gaming. In:Hydrolink 2017/1. Madrid: International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering andResearch (IAHR). S. 24-26. https://iahr.oss-accelerate.aliyuncs.com/library/HydroLink/HydroLink2017_01_Sensors.pdf.Standardnutzungsbedingungen/Terms of Use:Die Dokumente in HENRY stehen unter der Creative Commons Lizenz CC BY 4.0, sofern keine abweichendenNutzungsbedingungen getroffen wurden. Damit ist sowohl die kommerzielle Nutzung als auch das Teilen, dieWeiterbearbeitung und Speicherung erlaubt. Das Verwenden und das Bearbeiten stehen unter der Bedingung derNamensnennung. Im Einzelfall kann eine restriktivere Lizenz gelten; dann gelten abweichend von den obigenNutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.Documents in HENRY are made available under the Creative Commons License CC BY 4.0, if no other license isapplicable. Under CC BY 4.0 commercial use and sharing, remixing, transforming, and building upon the materialof the work is permitted. In some cases a different, more restrictive license may apply; if applicable the terms ofthe restrictive license will be binding.24 hydrolink number 1/2017Serious Games?There is a big difference between whatmotivates people and what does not. While allhave their own personal preferences, someactivities can generally be considered muchmore exciting or interesting than others. Aspecific example of this is found in schools,where students are typically more stimulated byactivities that they consider to be informal andfun, and often less so with more formal activitiesand materials (after Stapleton, A J, 2003; Shute,V. J., Ventura, M., Bauer, M. I., & Zapata-Rivera,D., 2009). Unfortunately, it is the more formalstuff that is usually considered to be of greateracademic importance.A serious gaming approach combines alearning objective in a fun activity, in order toincrease the potential for learning uptake. Suchan approach is of course not new and has along history of application in everything from thesongs children learn, to various work-relatedteambuilding events that they may have beensubjected to over the years when they weregrowing up. Perhaps one of the best-knownapplications of an electronic-based serious“game” is that of flight simulators used in pilottraining. One of the main reasons for thesuccess of this kind of application is the recog-nised fact that pilots need a very realisticlearning environment, but also one that is lowrisk and allows them to make non-catastrophicmistakes that they can learn from.  This learning by playing approach is commonlytermed as “meaningful play” and a well-designed serious game environment provides afeedback mechanism that allows the player toreflect on his or her actions and adopt differentapproaches or strategies. The internalisation ofactions and reactions stimulates learning, oftenresulting in an increase in self-learning andknowledge retention. Our professional passion lies in the field ofwater and environment, and one of our sharednon-work passions is in playing a wide variety ofonline games, as well as traditional boardgames. When we first started out on thepathway that led to Aqua Republica ourambition was to try to combine these interests ina way that would help people better appreciatethe critical connections between water, socialand economic development, and environmentalAQUA REPUBLICA – HUMANISING WATERAND ENVIRONMENT EDUCATION AS WELL AS STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENTWITH SERIOUS GAMINGBY CHENGZI CHEW & GARETH JAMES LLOYDDHI, UN Environment and UNEP-DHI Partnership have been developing and using online gamessince 2013, working to engage and educate stakeholders through a serious gaming initiative calledAqua Republica. During this time we have worked with many types of organisations using differentversions of the Aqua Republica in a range of settings including government strategy workshops,national competitions and stakeholder engagement workshops.   Figure 1: Testing out gameplay with a board game version of Aqua RepublicaFigure 2. Schematic representation of how the Aqua Republica game connects to the MIKE HYDROBASIN model25hydrolink number 1/2017is the awareness of the broader consequences.This philosophy is reflected in Aqua Republica.One platform, many unique versionsThe foundation of Aqua Republica is the gameplatform. This consists of components that canbe combined and/or modified to produce manydifferent unique versions. In Aqua Republica awater allocation model (MIKE HYDRO BASIN)communicates and interacts with the gameengine simultaneously, while the player isplaying the game. The water allocation model is widely used bydifferent governmental agencies around theworld to help in calculating and forecastingwater balances in river basins, so that differentscenarios can be analysed, as part ofmanagement decision processes. There is nobetter way to understand the physicalenvironment and interactions in a river basinthan to the use the laws of physics andhydrology as part of the rules in the game. Thegame engine uses the results from the modelthat are linked to other parameters, such aspopulation, economy and other social issuesrelated to water. In line with the fact that nothingremains constant in real life, the interactionbetween the game layer and the scientificsustainability – something we could see was aserious issue requiring greater attention.Another constantly reoccurring issue we wereseeing, and still see, are situations where thereis a lack of good decision-making, or even acomplete lack of decisions, on how watershould be allocated between various municipal,agricultural, industrial and energy users anduses, while also taking into account climatechange impacts.  What we wanted to do was touse a serious game to further the cause ofsustainable development, with water as theconnecting element that would promote policy-based actions that integrate climate changeresponses with holistic planning approaches.The big question though was, could it be done?From humble beginnings, a lot of healthyscepticism from good colleagues, andnumerous user pilot tests, Aqua Republicabegan to quickly evolve from half a page of A4paper, to a board game and finally to a digitalprototype that combined numerical models, agame engine, and an attractive but deceptivelysimple user-interface.  The end result is asophisticated game that reflects the challengesof real life. In the real world trade-offs betweenshorter and longer term development goals areoften essential, but what is even more importantIAHRChengzi Chew works asthe Head of SeriousGames at DHI. He startedthe Aqua Republicainitiative together withcolleagues in DHI and has been workingextensively with Gareth to promote the useof serious gaming in water andenvironmental education andcommunication. Chengzi has a backgroundin hydro-informatics and watermanagement. Gareth James Lloydworks as senior advisorat UNEP-DHI Partnership,a United NationsEnvironment Programmecollaboration center onwater and the environment. Based inDenmark, but with an international focus,his portfolio includes U.N. work linked to theSustainable Development Goals, technologytransfer to developing countries and seriousgaming. He has degrees in environmentalscience and environmental policy.Figure 3. Screenshot of an example of different farm types in the game26 hydrolink number 1/2017model produces evolving scenarios to whichplayers must react and adapt.  Experience has shown that this interactionbetween game, the scientific model and theplayer provides a really interesting and relevantlearning experience for users.  It can alsofunction as a way of sharing and discussingscenarios based on data and model results withnon-expert stakeholders. For example, a modelusing climate change data, using local waterdata and then linking up with local water issuesin a game can help those who play the gamelearn many details of local water issues.Through playing the game, people becomemore interested in these issues and start toinvestigate and learn more about them, andcome up with ideas that can help solve variouschallenges. A typical version of the game starts by intro-ducing players to Aqua Republica, beforeinforming them that they have the responsibilityof developing what is a small but ambitiousnation in the most sustainable way possible. Asthe game progresses and time moves on,drivers such climate change, population growthand associated demands for homes and jobs,force players to adapt to survive and thrive. Forexample, should the strategy be to grow cropsfor food or biofuel, and if both, what should bethe balance - given various alternatives andrisks? Players quickly learn that developmentsare costly, take time to implement, and oftenimpact the resource base on which they arereliant, as well as neighboring countries. Uses and impactsTo date, there are many different uniqueversions of Aqua Republica developed to teachdifferent aspects of water and environmentmanagement to different groups of stake-holders, ranging from food-energy-water nexusissues for water users in New Zealand, to watersecurity issues for the Government ofSingapore. Aqua Republica has also beensuccessfully used in many other educationalactivities, such as the annual UNEP-DHI EcoChallenge competition, where more than 7000students have participated since 2013, theWorld University Challenge, as well as part ofMaster and Bachelor programmes around theworld. In addition, Aqua Republica has alsobeen used in research projects where theobjective is to continuously seek improvementson how to better use this technology to reachout to even more people. What’s next?While we are very pleased with the uptake andpositive feedback we have received so far, weare always looking for additional opportunitiesto collaborate and further develop the game.One of the most exciting projects we arecurrently working on is SIM4NEXUS. It is aHorizon 2020 European research project led byWageningen Economic Research (theNetherlands), which brings together a multidis-ciplinary team of 25 partners including DHI.The aim of SIM4NEXUS is to addressknowledge and technology gaps and therebyfacilitate the design of holistic developmentpolicies. The delivery mode is through a seriousgame in the form of a cloud-based, integratedtool for testing and evaluating policy decisions.This is done by combining a number ofthematic models on water, land, food, energyand climate to quantify the impacts of differentpolicy decisions. The aim of this game is still tohelp people better understand and evaluate thedecisions that they are taking, based on thecomplexities of real life. In doing so, they willbetter appreciate the consequences of bothaction and inaction. nFigure 6. MSc students in McGill University, Canada using the Aqua Republica as part of an IWRM course“Wow! This is a lot of fun and we are learning so much aboutwater, its uses and how important it is. Why can’t more of ourlessons be like this?” Timothy Yip, 14, United Christian College, Hong Kong“These competitions are extremely important. As we activate theyouth to take an active role and interest in water issues, we helpto educate the next generation of water professionals.”Rüdiger Heidebrecht, DWA (German Water and Wastewater Association), Germany“Aqua Republica is an excellent learning resource linking the Food – Energy – Water nexus ...” Todd Jarvis, Oregon State University, USAFigures 4 and 5. Participants trying their hands on the Aqua Republica game at Stockholm World WaterWeek and Students in Kenya playing the Aqua Republica game as part of a workshop

Aqua republica - humanising water and environment education as well as stakeholder engagement with serious gaming

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Aqua republica - humanising water and environment education as well as stakeholder engagement with serious gaming

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