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Flood resilience game

Experience, explore, and learn about community flood resilience!

Flood resilience game

Experience, explore, and learn about community flood resilience!

Flood Resilience Game - Peru

Why?

The question how to link the development and growth with disaster risk management is not easy. Often problems and solutions for flood-prone communities are focused only on the role of hard infrastructure.

Other aspects, like social, natural, human and financial capital are frequently ignored, and the role of the cooperation sparked by bonds between the community members is underestimated. Also, long-term planning often gives way to immediate actions that lead to improving safety for short time, but fail in the long run.

Understanding resilience is not easy! It requires a change in thinking.

Flood Resilience Game - Peru

How?

Games are powerful dissemination instruments; with broader outreach than traditional reports, they provide the perfect avenue to engage participants in exploring the challenge of managing and understanding both flood risk and development.

Simulation games offer an opportunity to communicate such complex realities in a way that’s easy to comprehend.

In a game time is compressed, e.g. one round can represent a year or two dozen years. This way, players are able to develop strategies, make the decisions and then experience the consequences of their choices in the long run.

Flood Resilience Game - boat

What?

The Flood Resilience Game is an educational game that allows players to experience, explore, and learn about the flood risk and resilience of communities in river valleys.

The game is designed to help participants – such as NGO staff working on flood-focused programs – to identify novel policies and strategies which improve flood resilience.

The game is set in a community living in an area exposed to floods, occurring with different severity. Players take roles of members of different citizen groups (workers, farmers, entrepreneur, financial services agent), local government and water board officials.

The direct interactions between players create a rich experience that can be discussed, analysed and lead to concrete conclusions and actions. This allows players to explore vulnerabilities and capacities leading to an advanced understanding of interdependencies and the potential for working together.

The game has been designed to align with the framework of the Zurich Flood Resilience Measurement tool (but also operates completely independently).

Why?

The question how to link the development and growth with disaster risk management is not easy. Often problems and solutions for flood-prone communities are focused only on the role of hard infrastructure.

Other aspects, like social, natural, human and financial capital are frequently ignored, and the role of the cooperation sparked by bonds between the community members is underestimated. Also, long-term planning often gives way to immediate actions that lead to improving safety for short time, but fail in the long run.

Understanding resilience is not easy! It requires a change in thinking.

How?

Games are powerful dissemination instruments; with broader outreach than traditional reports, they provide the perfect avenue to engage participants in exploring the challenge of managing and understanding both flood risk and development.

Simulation games offer an opportunity to communicate such complex realities in a way that’s easy to comprehend.

In a game time is compressed, e.g. one round can represent a year or two dozen years. This way, players are able to develop strategies, make the decisions and then experience the consequences of their choices in the long run.

What?

The Flood Resilience Game is an educational game that allows players to experience, explore, and learn about the flood risk and resilience of communities in river valleys.

The game is designed to help participants – such as NGO staff working on flood-focused programs – to identify novel policies and strategies which improve flood resilience.

The game is set in a community living in an area exposed to floods, occurring with different severity. Players take roles of members of different citizen groups (workers, farmers, entrepreneur, financial services agent), local government and water board officials.

The direct interactions between players create a rich experience that can be discussed, analysed and lead to concrete conclusions and actions. This allows players to explore vulnerabilities and capacities leading to an advanced understanding of interdependencies and the potential for working together.

The game has been designed to align with the framework of the Zurich Flood Resilience Measurement tool (but also operates completely independently).

Benefits

Experience the effects on resilience of investments in different types of “capital” - such as financial, human, social, built, and natural.

Experience the effects on resilience of investments in different types of “capital” – such as financial, human, social, built, and natural.

Improve understanding of the influence of preparedness, response, reconstruction on flood resilience.

Improve understanding of the influence of preparedness, response, reconstruction on flood resilience.

Demonstrate the benefits of investment in risk reduction before the flood strikes.

Demonstrate the benefits of investment in risk reduction before the flood strikes.

Explore the complex outcomes on the economy, society and the environment from long-term development pathways.

Explore the complex outcomes on the economy, society and the environment from long-term development pathways.

Discover the types of decisions needed to avoid creating more flood risk in the future, incentivizing action before a flood through enhancing participatory decision-making.

Discover the types of decisions needed to avoid creating more flood risk in the future, incentivizing action before a flood through enhancing participatory decision-making.

Experience all these complex ideas with a simple and concrete game elements so that participants can connect with their daily realities.

Experience all these complex ideas with a simple and concrete game elements so that participants can connect with their daily realities.

Watch the game in action

The workshop with the game was organized by Soluciones Prácticas and funded by the Zurich Alliance and the project “Redes en Acción” funded by the EU. Video created by Soluciones Prácticas.

Technical details

time

Time

2-4 hours
(depending on the number of players, and on the length of the debriefing)

players

Number of players

8-16

setting

Setting

Table (at least 1x2m)
Chair for each participant

Download the game

You can download the game (elements that can be printed)
and the instructions on how to run the game.

Spanish

COMING SOON
Please note that you will need also pawns, markers and other elements.
More information in the moderator guidelines.

Read Terms of use. You can also invite us to run a game workshop for you, take part in the training for moderators and order a set of the game.

It cannot be distributed on another website. If you want to modify our game, please contact us.

Translate the game to your language

You can run the game in the native language of your participants.

Contact us for further information how to do that!

Contact us




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