Participatory simulations for developing scenarios in environmental resource management

Many simulations in the environmental management field are intended to assist in the exploration of environmental scenarios in order to educate policymakers about the possible outcomes of their decisions. One approach is to build a simulation of the current situation and then project it forward through time. The policymaker’s role is essentially passive. He or she can note the outcomes that result from given inputs. However, all the design and investigation is done by the simulation modeller. An alternative approach is to build a multi-agent model in which some of the agents are computational, but others are played by policymakers (or their representatives). To the users, the model then looks like a multi-user ‘game’, in which the players are making decisions from moment to moment to affect the course of the simulation. It is hypothesised that such strategy games (which have been used in business education for some time) give users a more intuitive understanding of the dynamics of the situation modelled than would be the case if they were just observers. This paper describes such a strategy game developed for policymakers concerned with the management of water resources in Zurich. It briefly describes the implementation of the game and experiments that are being carried out with it.