Experiences with a serious online game for exploring complex relationships of sustainable land management and human well-being: LandYOUs

Research output: Contribution to conferencesPaperContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Ralf Seppelt - , Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Author)
  • Romina Martin - , Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Stockholm University (Author)
  • Alexander Finger - , Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Author)
  • Christin Henzen - , Chair of Geoinformatics (Author)
  • Martin Lindner - , Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Author)
  • Katrin Pietzsch - , PiSolution GmbH (Author)
  • Andreas Werntze - , Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Author)
  • Ute Zander - , Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (Author)
  • Jule Schulze - , Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, University Osnabruck (Author)

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.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages1121-1128
Number of pages8
Publication statusPublished - 2014
Peer-reviewedYes

Conference

Title7th International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software, iEMSs 2014
Duration15 - 19 June 2014
CitySan Diego
CountryUnited States of America

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-5181-4368/work/166325436

Keywords

Keywords

  • Dynamic model, Environmental education, Game-based learning, Serious game, SLM, Spatial explicit model, Sustainability, System dynamics, Systems thinking