College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Aug 25;18(17):8949. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18178949.
Urban development and disaster risk are deeply linked, especially now when we are facing increasingly frequent climate change. Hence, knowledge of the potential trade-offs between urban development and disaster risk reduction (DRR) may have potential to build a resilient and sustainable future. The objectives of this study are (1) to present education for a sustainability (EfS) program and to evaluate its performance: a serious game of knowledge communication for the interactions among climate change, disaster risk, and urban development; (2) to explore factors that will influence the players' decision making in the trade-offs between urban development and DRR under an urbanization background through counterfactual scenarios constructed by a series of serious games. The Yudai Trench, once a critical component of the urban green infrastructure of ancient Guangzhou, has disappeared under rapid urban expansion, leaving the city exposed to environmental hazards caused by climate change. Is the disappearance of the Yudai Trench an inevitable event in the progress of urbanization? To answer this question, the study constructed counterfactual scenarios by recuring the historical progress through the same serious game. Gameplay involved the players' decision making with associated impacts on the urbanization progress and the DRR in diverse climate hazard scenarios. For this study, 107 undergraduates from related majors, who are also would-be policymakers, were selected as players. The methodology combined questionnaire survey and participant observation complemented by interviews. The -test results indicated that undergraduates' knowledge levels had significant positive changes after the end of the serious game. Importantly, the results showed that the knowledge could potentially contribute to the players' decision-making process for DRR by assisting them in making pre-decision. Beside this knowledge, the results expanded the range of influencing factors and solutions reported by previous literature on DRR under an urbanization background against climate hazards by constructing counterfactual scenarios, e.g., higher economic levels and policy incentives. In this study, the serious game was evaluated as an innovative communication and the EfS method in counterfactual scenarios. These findings of the study provide a reference for future practice, policymaking, and decision making so as to help harness lessons learned from unrealized environmental hazards to support a more resilient future through informed policies and plans.
城市发展与灾害风险密切相关，特别是在我们面临日益频繁的气候变化的当下。因此，了解城市发展与减少灾害风险（DRR）之间的潜在权衡可能有助于建设有弹性和可持续的未来。本研究的目的是：（1）介绍可持续发展教育（EfS）方案并评估其表现：即气候变化、灾害风险和城市发展之间相互作用的知识交流严肃游戏；（2）通过一系列严肃游戏构建的反事实情景，探索在城市化背景下，影响玩家在城市发展与 DRR 之间进行权衡决策的因素。鱼袋堤曾是古代广州城市绿色基础设施的重要组成部分，随着城市的迅速扩张，它已消失不见，使城市容易受到气候变化带来的环境危害。鱼袋堤的消失是否是城市化进程中的必然事件？为了回答这个问题，研究通过相同的严肃游戏重现历史进程来构建反事实情景。游戏玩家通过在不同气候灾害情景下的城市化进程和 DRR 相关决策来影响游戏进程。在这项研究中，选择了 107 名来自相关专业的本科生作为游戏玩家，他们也是未来的政策制定者。该研究方法结合了问卷调查和参与者观察，并辅以访谈。t 检验结果表明，严肃游戏结束后，本科生的知识水平有显著提高。重要的是，研究结果表明，这些知识可以通过帮助玩家进行决策前的规划，为他们的 DRR 决策过程提供帮助。除了这些知识，研究结果通过构建反事实情景，扩大了城市化背景下应对气候灾害的 DRR 影响因素和解决方案的范围，例如更高的经济水平和政策激励。在本研究中，严肃游戏被评估为一种创新的沟通和反事实情景中的 EfS 方法。这些研究结果为未来的实践、决策提供了参考，帮助从未实现的环境危害中吸取教训，通过明智的政策和计划，为更有弹性的未来提供支持。
