How we respond to sea level rise and coastal hazards is complex, challenging, and emotive. The options that we choose and the decisions that we make will impact on the places that we live, work, play, and value – both now and for future generations.
NIWA Taihoro Nukurangi has developed Adaptive Futures, a 'serious game' designed to introduce players to local level decision-making on climate change adaptation. This type of educational game simulates the real-life complexities of making these challenging decisions. It’s a useful tool to demonstrate the difficulties of coastal management.
In Adaptive Futures, the objective of the game is to protect the fictional ‘Seaview community’ from the negative effects of sea level rise and coastal storms. Doing this requires the player to choose from a number of options such as renourishing beaches, building seawalls, and relocating segments of the community.
Each of these actions requires sufficient funds and selecting some options may restrict the player's capacity to use other options. The player must work with the Seaview community and the game is populated with non-player characters – each with their own location, back story, interests, and values.
As the game progresses, these characters will react to the decisions that the player makes, simulating real-life community decision-making processes.
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