A picit jeu: Agent-based modelling with serious gaming for a fire-resilient landscape

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Social Science
• Computer Science

Background:

• Effective wildfire governance necessitates integrating physical, biological, and socio-economic factors to foster fire-resistant and resilient landscapes.
• Achieving landscape resilience requires integrated strategies combining fuel management with socio-economic activities and stakeholder collaboration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a new methodology supporting participatory decision-making for landscape fire resilience.
• To assist stakeholders in exploring land management strategies through collective decision-making processes.

Main Methods:

• A methodology combining agent-based modeling with a role-playing game was developed and tested.
• The approach involved 23 local stakeholders in forest and pasture management in the Italian Alps over three game sessions.
• Evaluation included observation, immediate feedback, questionnaires, and multi-year semi-structured interviews.

Main Results:

• The methodology facilitated productive discussions among stakeholders, highlighting challenges like land fragmentation, abandonment, and funding issues.
• Stakeholders identified potential strategies, such as community-based pastoralism, for maintaining land cover diversity and enhancing landscape resilience.
• The approach initiated positive, long-term change processes for sustainable landscape management.

Conclusions:

• The combined agent-based modeling and serious gaming approach is valuable for wildfire governance and participatory landscape planning.
• Key recommendations for future serious gaming applications include balanced group composition, consideration of organizational levels, strategic role allocation, and broad stakeholder involvement in game design.