This work was undertaken under the Future Coasts Aotearoa programme Research Aim 3.
The development of a serious game/adaptation simulation using a coastal lowland scenario under the effects of climate change is focussed on adaptation and aims to deliver transformative tools to support decision-making and change. We will use the tool developed to discover people’s behaviours and preferences for sea-level rise adaptation and the data it generates to build a behavioural model that shows how people would behave over time in a changing climate in response to a range of policies and resource constraints.
Both an online and physical version of a multi-player and -hazard serious game are being developed to:
- collect player behaviours to support the construction of a series of behavioural models
- support climate change adaptation education and conversations with public and stakeholders:
- to offer NIWA and stakeholders (e.g. councils) engaging and memorable tools for community engagement
- to deliver players at the conclusion of the game to further information, tools and resources developed in the Future Coasts Aotearoa programme and elsewhere as they consider their own adaptation options.
Future Coasts Aotearoa game progress update
The Future Coasts Aotearoa game is now live.
For the optimal game experience, play the game on tablets, laptops and desktop computers (it is not mobile enabled). The game is best for people over sixteen years of age, however younger children can play with guidance.
Future Coasts Aotearoa is set in a typical coastal community in New Zealand. The small town, local farms and marae are at risk of flooding, storm surges, sea and groundwater rising, and these risks are increasing with climate change – meaning more frequency and severity. You have choices available to you that can be applied in the real world, and you will learn the different pathways you can take to experience living with changing risk.
You will face different climate events in each game, and you can choose to play as a single player or one of up to 5 players in a multi-player game.
By playing this game, you are helping us understand all the possible ways different people may react to a changing climate - the actions you might take, when you might take them and why you might take them. Having many people play this game will give us a big enough data set to create the agents in a multi-agent behavioural model and will allow us to improve decision-making processes in rural coastal lowlands.
Find out more about the game and the multi agent model.
The Future Coasts Aotearoa game was developed by NIWA with design, programming and specialist support from Hum Interactive and GEO AR.