We offer the Flood Resilience Challenge Serious Game in-person and online for your organization, community, business, school, and classes.
700+ players (in-person and online versions of the game) from across Canada between Fall 2019– August 2024 from universities, community members, NGOs, governments, and private sector.
Purpose: To build the capacity of stakeholders to improve their flood resilience, and to enhance flood risk governance, including collective decision-making. The Flood Resilience game achieves this purpose, as an educational and engagement tool, by:
- Increasing flood literacy,
- Fostering social learning, and
- Creating a safe space for exploring both risk management and communication strategies.
To request the FRC Serious Game, please fill out the request form here.
Background
The Flood Resilience Challenge (FRC) is a serious role-playing game designed to strengthen stakeholder capacity for collective decision-making. As an educational and engagement tool, the FRC game provides an experiential learning opportunity for participants to increase their knowledge of the factors, dynamics, and complexity in building flood resiliency that is more inclusive and equitable. The FRC game seeks to promote a better understanding of the complexity of flooding issues (i.e., governance, risk management) as well as provide a safe space for exploring communication and risk management strategies.
For more information, please visit the official FRC Serious Game Website.
Book the FRC Game for Your Organization and Events
We offer the FRC Game to:
- Local, provincial, and national governments
- Private Industry (e.g., insurance, real estate, developers, etc.)
- NGOs (including environmental NGOs)
- Schools and universities teaching flood risk management
We also offer the FRC Game at:
- Government, NGO, and industry training and kick-off events
- Government events such as Federation of Canadian Municipalities
- Global Disaster Risk Platform (every 2 years)
- UN-related events and activities
Once you completed the request form we will contact you to run the game for you.
For more information please contact: cifalom@yorku.ca
Target Audience of the FRC Game
Potential participants:
- Executives and senior managers
- Urban planners
- Public Health practitioners
- Engineers
- Not-for-profit, social or emergency management agencies
- Professionals/leaders in municipalities/local governments
- Researchers with associated interests
- Residents in communities at risk
- Students
FRC game with Cambridge business district, 2023
Description of FRC Serious Game
Serious games are one approach to learning about complex socio-environmental problems such as flooding. Serious games are games that serve a purpose, other than just entertainment, such as education. Games can create safe spaces in which stakeholders can interact and explore diverse views and innovative ideas. In the FRC game, players take on the roles of a range of stakeholders (can choose from 20 different stakeholder roles) including various levels of government, scientists, insurers, developers and other private businesses, and media. Players play 2-3 rounds of the game and each round has 4 phases:
- Choose Flood Risk Measures - Players plan for different types of flooding and interact to decide which flood risk management measures to employ.
- Check for Flood Event - There is a flooding event (6 types to choose from) and players re-evaluate their past decisions and make future flood management plans.
- Update Budget - Players calculate their losses and gains following the flooding event and prepare the new budget for the next round.
- Vote - Players take a vote of confidence for the mayor, premier, and prime minister based on their interactions with the politicians and their opinions on the outcomes of the round.
At the end, players debrief about their strategies and experiences, providing further opportunities for learning.
Objectives of the FRC Serious Game
The Flood Resilience Challenge (FRC) game is a serious role-playing game, using role simulation and mock decision making, designed to strengthen stakeholder capacity for collective decision-making.
The FRC game is effective at the community level, within or across organizations and government, and in academic courses focused on solving complex socio-environmental problems. Participants’ learnings related to complexity, collaboration, conflict, and communication can be applied to a range of issues extending beyond flooding to other complex problems.
FRC game rounds and phases
Structure & Methodology of the FRC
The goal of the FRC Game is educate stakeholders on complex socio-environmental problems such as flooding and create an environment for knowledge sharing, problem solving, and innovative thinking.
In the FRC game, players take on the roles of a range of stakeholders (can choose from 20 different stakeholder roles in the long version of the game and 8 stakeholder roles in the short version), including various levels of government, scientists, insurers, developers and other private businesses, and media.
The FRC Game can be played in person or online.