KatAWARE the game. A rol-playing game to support local multi-stakeholder negotiations around water management in the Kat river valley

Abstract

This report illustrates a Role Playing Game (RPG), which is being developed within the Water Research Commission (WRC) project "A stakeholder driven process to develop a Catchment Management Plan for the Kat River Valley", hereafter quoted as "the Kat River project". The RPG is called KatAWARE, like the multi-agent model (Farolfi-Bonté, 2005 and 2006) that backs it. The RPG is being developed within an iterative and participatory process called Companion Modelling ¿ ComMod (Farolfi and Rowntree, 2005) aiming at co-constructing the multi-agent model KatAWARE and at the same time facilitating discussions and common decision-making around water management within the Kat River Water Users Association (WUA). The report is organized in four main chapters: the first chapter illustrates the position of the RPG in the ComMod process and its relations with the KatAWARE model; the second chapter looks at the main features of the RPG; the third chapter presents some outcomes of the first RPG session played at Fort Beaufort in November 2005; the last chapter concludes and defines the way forward. (Résumé d'auteur