Keywords
Serious game, game-based learning, environmental education, sustainability, dynamic model, spatial explicit model, system dynamics, systems thinking, SLM.
Location
Session F3: Modeling with Stakeholders: Old Problems, New Solutions
Start Date
17-6-2014 10:40 AM
End Date
17-6-2014 12:00 PM
Abstract
Land is a limited resource. Its use for one purpose excludes other uses. Addressing the issue of human appropriation of natural resources thus requires understanding of a variety of complex feedbacks between decisions on land use and ecosystem services. The complexity is caused by a large number of mostly nonlinear feedbacks between management strategies, productivity, environmental quality, human well-being, consumption and many other aspects of land use. Here, we present LandYOUs: an educational online game, which aims at explaining and illustrating various options and feedbacks of sustainable land management (SLM) to the interested public, students and stakeholders. The game gives the player an opportunity to govern a country by means of land use, nature protection and education. One can explore how sometime contrasting dimensions of sustainability with respect to economic, social and environmental conditions can be balanced on a regional scale while being continuously threatened by global trade fluctuations and limited resources. The game was tested by several groups of students from high schools and universities. Based on this testing, we received valuable information on how the game is perceived and understood by the players. The feedback suggests that the game has a potential to be used for educational purposes, environmental planning or stakeholder meetings.
Included in
Civil Engineering Commons, Data Storage Systems Commons, Environmental Engineering Commons, Hydraulic Engineering Commons, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons
Experiences with a serious online game for exploring complex relationships of sustainable land management and human well-being: LandYOUs
Session F3: Modeling with Stakeholders: Old Problems, New Solutions
Land is a limited resource. Its use for one purpose excludes other uses. Addressing the issue of human appropriation of natural resources thus requires understanding of a variety of complex feedbacks between decisions on land use and ecosystem services. The complexity is caused by a large number of mostly nonlinear feedbacks between management strategies, productivity, environmental quality, human well-being, consumption and many other aspects of land use. Here, we present LandYOUs: an educational online game, which aims at explaining and illustrating various options and feedbacks of sustainable land management (SLM) to the interested public, students and stakeholders. The game gives the player an opportunity to govern a country by means of land use, nature protection and education. One can explore how sometime contrasting dimensions of sustainability with respect to economic, social and environmental conditions can be balanced on a regional scale while being continuously threatened by global trade fluctuations and limited resources. The game was tested by several groups of students from high schools and universities. Based on this testing, we received valuable information on how the game is perceived and understood by the players. The feedback suggests that the game has a potential to be used for educational purposes, environmental planning or stakeholder meetings.
