Serious Gaming

We developed a serious gaming approach for the South-West Delta of Bangladesh that incorporates mental models of the community into the game design. It helps stakeholders to better understand the complex social, economic, and environmental factors that influence water management decisions in the Tidal River region. The project was carried out under the flagship program of South Asia CARE (Climate Adaptation and Resilience for South Asia), funded by the World Bank. 

Sustainable Delta Game is jointly developed by Carthago and Deltares that informs and enables communities, stakeholders, elected officials and the general public to better understand water systems and their related restoration and protection measures. Carthago arranges a workshop every year at the Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences to facilitate this game. This session provides students with hands-on experience in adaptive policy making and sustainable water management. 

This game by Carthago offers an immersive experience where participants take on the roles of key stakeholders in Dhaka city's sustainability efforts. We have facilitated several sessions of the game, for example at the Embassy of the Netherlands in Mumbai, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok and Japan Institute of Disaster Prevention and Urban Safety (JIDPUS), BUET. 

This approach aims to raise awareness about the Haor floods and the importance of community engagement in disaster response and management. The motivation for this game development came from the aftermath of the 2022 disastrous flood event in Haor. We tried to bring together the Bangladeshi community in the Netherlands to experience this game and also facilitated it at the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), Bangladesh.

Water Warden is a process-based approach that promotes middle-out participatory planning between marginalized communities and decision-makers for water management and climate adaptation. We co-developed the game with Deltares and successfully showcased the approach at the Water Proof Conference 2024 and in the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). 

‘The Mekong Water Custodian’ is a ‘Participatory Regional Decision Process Simulation’ or ‘Serious Gaming for Participatory Regional Decision Making’. This project was awarded as the winning proposal in the category ‘Water Efficiency’ in the agro-water contest of the Netherlands Embassy in Hanoi in November 2020.

The Serious Game “Stedelijk Evenwicht” (“Balanced cities”, “Urban Equilibrium”) was developed by Carthago Consultancy, H2Ruimte, Floodcom and the Hogeschool Rotterdam for the City of Rotterdam. The game is a tool to gain insight in the dynamics of urban sustainability and the competition between urban development and urban sustainability. 

The Mayor of Chicago a localized game developed for a session and discussion about climate adaptation with Climate Resilience Consulting, based in Chicago. It is a Serious Game that focuses on decision making around water management interventions. 

Exploring Resilience: A Game for Livelihood, Infrastructure, and Water Management is a serious game that simulates real challenges faced by farmers in Bangladesh. Based on firsthand accounts from Kaidahara, Rangpur in April 2024, it addresses land confiscation, loan inaccessibility, irrigation costs, and transboundary water conflicts. Players collaboratively select interventions within a set budget, with choices analyzed through the Rapid Impact Tool (RIT) to assess environmental, social, and economic impacts.