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Geospatial Human‐environment Simulation through Integration of Massive Multiplayer Online Games and Geographic Information Systems
Abstract
This article reports on the initial development of a generic framework for integrating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with Massive Multi‐player Online Gaming (MMOG) technology to support the integrated modeling of human‐environment resource management and decision‐making. We review Web 2.0 concepts, online maps, and games as key technologies to realize a participatory construction of spatial simulation and decision making practices. Through a design‐based research approach we develop a prototype framework, “GeoGame”, that allows users to play board‐game‐style simulations on top of an online map. Through several iterations we demonstrate the implementation of a range of design artifacts including: real‐time, multi‐user editing of online maps, web services, game lobby, user‐modifiable rules and scenarios building, chat, discussion, and market transactions. Based on observational, analytical, experimental and functional evaluations of design artifacts as well as a literature review, we argue that a MMO GeoGame‐framework offers a viable approach to address the complex dynamics of human‐environmental systems that require a simultaneous reconciliation of both top‐down and bottom‐up decision making where stakeholders are an integral part of a modeling environment. Further research will offer additional insight into the development of social‐environmental models using stakeholder input and the use of such models to explore properties of complex dynamic systems.
... Finally, the work of Xiang and Ong Guo [39] analyzes specific case studies over the last decade to understand how participatory design has been utilized in urban projects and attempts to understand the mechanism behind these interactions by presenting actual urban planning examples in the coastline of Manhattan, urban planning participation discussions on Yogyakarta and Semarang, Tirana and other cities. Additionally, they study how Massively Multiplayer Online Games [40] can be facilitated into online multiplayer interactions. Their conclusion is that a coherent research interest and financial incentives to advance the development of such processes is lacking; however, the tools are already mature and constantly improved according to the needs of the gaming industry. ...
... Gamified Urban Planning and Participation [14,[16][17][18][19][20][21]23,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] Gamification of the urban planning process can enhance the participation of the general public in the planning process. Additionally, the interactive environment provided by the game platform makes the urban planning problem more understandable than other approaches. ...
Targeted nature-based small-scale interventions is an approach commonly adopted by urban developers. The public acceptance of their implementation could be improved by participation, emphasizing residents or shopkeepers located close to the areas of interest. In this work, we propose a methodology that combines 3D technology, based on open data sources, user-generated content, 3D software and game engines for both minimizing the time and cost of the whole planning process and enhancing citizen participation. The proposed schemes are demonstrated in Piraeus (Greece) and Gladsaxe (Denmark). The core findings can be summarized as follows: (a) the time and cost are minimized by using online databases, (b) the gamification of the planning process enhances the decision making process and (c) the interactivity provided by the game engine inspired the participation of non-experts in the planning process (co-creation and co-evaluation), which decentralizes and democratizes the final planning solution.
... Our research has demonstrated the feasibility of combining GIS and massive multiplayer online game software to create an environment called "GeoGame" for spatially situated role-play activities where large numbers of remotely located participants can interact (Ahlqvist et al. 2012). Through several iterations we have investigated the feasibility of multi-user, real-time map edits, use of distributed data sources, incorporation of feature web services, and ontology-based resource descriptions tied to an expert-system rules engine. ...
... (iii) We use the structured data collection module to automatically collect data for analysis in a process similar to usability evaluation studies, in which data on user experience is used to improve the design of the software. While our usability evaluations have collected data by means of interviews, focus groups, and surveys throughout the iterative development of the GeoGame (Ahlqvist et al. 2012), implementing a structured data collection module utilizes automaticallycollected data on user behavior (Butler 1996;Ivory and Hearst 2001). ...
Agent-based models (ABMs) (also referred to as multi-agent systems, or MAS, in literature) are widely used to model complex adaptive systems (CAS) through representing dynamic non-linear interactions amongst a large number of heterogeneous agents and their environments. However, these models often oversimplify real-life decisions and lack the cognitive authenticity present in real-world interactions. In this paper we argue that although role-playing games (RPGs) and massive multi-player online games were developed separately from ABMs, both exhibit high levels of spatially situated participation or collaboration, social interaction, and knowledge construction. We describe an online map-based gaming platform which simulates spatial scenarios as MAS using human participants as the decision agents. We use our prototype to demonstrate and discuss challenges that cyberGIS faces towards the facilitation of massively multi-user computational resources and methods along with the opportunities for a cyberGIS framework to provide improved understanding of complex systems.
... We regard LBGs as a particular subclass of geogames, i.e., games played in geographic space [35]. The latter, however, include also online games that make use of geographical information without any physical interaction of players [1]. ...
... In order to reach players from different places and in order to allow for flexibility in taking gaming opportunities, LBG concepts need to be easily relocalized in a way which preserves the particular attractiveness of a game. Furthermore, turning successful virtual reality games played on a computer, or massive multiplayer online games [1], into a LBG requires localization, i.e., the suitable embedding of virtual game concepts into a physical environment. All these tasks still pose considerable conceptual and computational challenges, even though some effort has been made to tackle them [35,19,11,34]. ...
While location-based games (LBGs) have been around for some time, only few of them have succeeded in attracting a larger number of players. One reason is the difficulty of suitable embedding of game concepts in an environment. In order to reach players from different places, LBG concepts need to be relocalized in a way which preserves the particular attractiveness of a game. What are criteria for high-quality (re-)localization? While the problem has been recognized in the literature, a systematic derivation of computational criteria is missing. In this chapter, we propose three novel criteria of game localization: playability, breakability, and authenticity. They are b sed on consistency and similarity measures in a 3-tier model of game localization, understood as a mapping of game actions and narratives into environmental affordances. We illustrate the use of the criteria in terms of a simple conquer game with two different narratives and two different environmental embeddings, as well as with an existing multi-player geogame.
... In retrospect, the past 20 years have witnessed the emergence of a plethora of research themes in GIS that are quite different from traditional GIS practices before 1992. Intellectually tied to the critical cartography pioneered by Harley (1989) in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the emerging GIS themes covered in this article have evolved from early discussions on GIS and Society (primarily via NCGIA initiative-19) (Pickles 1995), critical GIS (Schuurman 2000), public participation GIS (PPGIS) (Sieber 2006), feminist GIS (Kwan 2007), deep maps (Bodenhamer 2013) to qualitative GIS (Cope and Elwood 2009), queer cartography (Brown and Knopp 2008), neogeography (Turner 2006), crowding scouring/ volunteered geographic information (VGI) (Dodge and Kitchin 2013;Wilson and Graham 2013), geoweb (Leszczynski 2012), postcolonial computing (Irani et al. 2010), geogames (Ahlqvist et al. 2012), geodesign (Goodchild 2010) and spatial humanities, etc. (Wilson 2012). Indeed the new intellectual landscape for these emerging GIS themes is diverse and dizzying. ...
... geogames will play increasingly important roles in both GIScience research and education. Geogames are gaining more recognition for their importance in both GIS research and education (Ahlqvist et al. 2012). The interactions between GIS and the online virtual world second life (SL) are particularly noteworthy (Sui 2008). ...
The past 20 years have witnessed the emergence of a plethora of research themes in GIS that are quite different from conventional GIS practices. This article develops a preliminary framework to loosely knit together the diverse intellectual threads for the emerging GIS themes. It is found that the framework for the six senses of the whole new mind (design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning) captures the six major emerging GIS themes remarkably well. Conventional GIS practices have been predominantly concentrating on automated cartography/map-making, spatial modelling, geocomputation and database development with the goal for efficiency, which tend to be closely associated with the left-side/slow thinking capabilities of the human brain. In contrast, the emerging GIS themes focus more on geonarratives, qualitative/mixed methods, storytelling and synthesis with the goal for achieving equity and social justice, which tend to be more closely associated with the right-side/fast thinking capabilities of the human brain. Evidently, these new GIS practices have the potential to enable GIS users to transcend what Heidegger called the enframing nature of technology and motivate them to explore new areas of enquiry with greater sensitivities to the social and political dimensions of GIS application. Increasingly, these emerging GIS practices are transforming GIS into a liberation technology that continues empowering GIS users in their quest for a better, more equitable and sustainable world. These emerging themes also pose new research and educational challenges for the GIS community in the years ahead.
... Many tasks, such as autonomous vehicles, multiplayer games, and multiagent navigation, require multiagents to interact and communicate [27], [28]. Agents must learn to cooperate and collaborate to achieve their goals more efficiently. ...
Reinforcement learning (RL) has been widely used in intelligent transportation systems. Especially under emergent situations, RL can explore unsafe environments and make optimal decisions to guide the evacuation process for human beings. Multiagent collaboration allows agents to communicate and interact for a more efficient exploration and evacuation process, especially when the uncertainty level is high. In this study, robot agents or drones were used to explore and evacuate from environments with different levels of complexity and with or without collaboration using the RL Q-learning algorithm. The multi-agent collaboration method was found to perform better than the single-agent exploration concerning evacuation time, death counts, and reward. These results as well as, future research directions are discussed in the context of emerging literature.
... Modern tools and technologies are therefore needed to make it possible to better understand and address different aspects of such complex humanenvironment interactions [3]. In this regard, maps can play an important role, forming the basis for these tools and technologies for supporting geospatial human-environment resource management and decision making [4], among other tasks. ...
Environmental problems due to human activities such as deforestation, urbanisation, and large scale intensive farming are some of the major factors behind the rapid spread of many infectious diseases. This in turn poses significant challenges not only in as regards providing adequate healthcare, but also in supporting healthcare workers, medical researchers, policy makers, and others involved in managing infectious diseases. These challenges include surveillance, tracking of infections, communication of public health knowledge and promotion of behavioural change. Behind these challenges lies a complex set of factors which include not only biomedical and population health determinants but also environmental, climatic, geographic, and socioeconomic variables. While there is broad agreement that these factors are best understood when considered in conjunction, aggregating and presenting diverse information sources requires effective information systems, software tools, and data visualisation. In this article, we argue that interactive maps, which couple geographical information systems and advanced information visualisation techniques, provide a suitable unifying framework for coordinating these tasks. Therefore, we examine how interactive maps can support spatial epidemiological visualisation and modelling involving distributed and dynamic data sources and incorporating temporal aspects of disease spread. Combining spatial and temporal aspects can be crucial in such applications. We discuss these issues in the context of support for disease surveillance in remote regions, utilising tools that facilitate distributed data collection and enable multidisciplinary collaboration, while also providing support for simulation and data analysis. We show that interactive maps deployed on a combination of mobile devices and large screens can provide effective means for collection, sharing, and analysis of health data.
... Jogos sérios, jogos planejados para além do entretenimento, focam em "assuntos de grande interesse e importância, levantando questões difíceis de se resolver, com importantes possíveis consequências (Abt 1970, p. 10). 2 " Esses jogos podem se concentrar em questões de planejamento urbano, introduzindo uma área geográfica específica, e em tópicos que precisam do envolvimento dos cidadãos (Abt 1970, Sanoff 1979, Sanoff 2000, Borries et al. 2007, Lange 2007, Gordon & Manosevitch 2010, Gordon et al. 2011, Gordon & Schirra 2012, Poplin 2012, Poplin, 2014, Devisch et al. 2016. Esses jogos geralmente fornecem uma visualização realística da situação espacial e são caracterizados como jogos espaciais, frequentemente chamados de geogames, (Schlieder et al. 2006, Ahlqvist 2011, Ahlqvist et al. 2012, Poplin 2012, Devisch et al. 2016) ou jogos baseados na localização (Schlieder et al. 2006). As expressões "Jogos espaciais", "geogames" e "jogos baseados em localização" têm sido usadas de forma equivalente na literatura. ...
... A first-of-a-kind book on Geogames and Geoplay was published in 2018 with a collection of different perspectives on geogames [3]. The book's contributions range from an introduction to the Geographic Information System-Multiplayer Online Game framework (GIS-MOG) by Ahlqvist and his colleagues [16], building on their previous work [17] to present OriGami-a learning game to improve spatial orientation skills by youth-and a demonstration of the use of geogames in urban planning by the design of a consensus-finding game YouPlaceIt! [18]. ...
The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of Minecraft's game environment for urban planning with older and younger children in a public school in Tirol town, Brazil. Minecraft is employed as an innovative tool to tackle the present lack of engagement and involvement of key societal actors such as children and young people in urban planning. Thus, how can games support children to co-design their future city? Which heritage values do they represent graphically in the game environment? Geogames are games that provide a visualization of a real spatial context and in this study, Minecraft is the tool which we use to explore youth engagement. We designed two experiments, which tested Minecraft as a geogame environment for engaging young people in urban planning. These experiments were conducted with children, who emerged as active emancipated actors to bring their values to the planning practice. The playtesting results revealed the potential of Minecraft to keep children engaged in the design workshop, as well as their relevant ludic ability to co-create walkable, green, and interactive places. New research questions arose about the potential of creating a culture of planning among children in order to motivate other social actors to share responsibilities for sustainable development and management.
... In previous research (Ahlqvist et al., 2012) we have developed software that combine online GIS and multiplayer online game technologies to create a simulation environment called "GeoGame". Through several subsequent iterations we have further developed the technology to a browser-based, client-server architecture that allows for multiuser interactions with real-time map interactions, the use of multiple distributed data sources, and the incorporation of feature geoprocessing services. ...
As researchers start to conceptualize human-environmental interactions through coupled human and natural systems research, the non-linear, dynamic, heterogeneous, feedback loops that are characteristic of those systems challenges a long-standing Newtonian paradigm of systems reducible to component parts, deterministic behavior, and the existence of equilibrium. As an alternative, complex systems researchers often use agent-based models (ABM) or multi-agent systems (MAS) to model and simulate complexity in human-environmental interactions.
This paper briefly reports on the development of a novel cyberinfrastructure portal solution called GeoGames. This computing environment integrates and leverages web-GIS and multiplayer online game technology to enable simulations of real-world scenarios of coupled human and natural systems applicable to anything from cities, urban regions to other human settlements. While there are some similarities between GeoGames and games like SimCity, and Civilization, a fundamental idea underlying the GeoGames approach is the focus on creating an on-line world that mirrors (c.f. Gelernter, 1991) authentic real-world geography, realized by a full range of GIS supported mapping and processing services (Ahlqvist, Loffing, Ramanathan, & Kocher, P).
In the context of our prototype platform we present the emerging area of Spatial Game Analytics (Drachen & Schubert, 2013) that provides an uncharted area for data-intensive geospatial scenario analysis. Our example scenario is a game that models the relationships of land management on hydrology and water quality. Our presentation is illustrated with examples from our own prototype platform that has generated a significant amount of user data on game play decisions and behavior. Exploratory GeoGame analytics are used to mine the spatial behavior of hundreds of players in order to identify how variations in the rules (land use policies) and varying locations (spatial configurations) affect the simulation outcomes.
... This chapter explores the possibility to use an online game-based approach for negotiations and consensus building in urban planning. In general, the geo-location could be anywhere in the world, and the game implementation might result in a spatial game, sometimes referred to as a geogame (Schlieder et al. 2006, Ahlqvist 2011, Ahlqvist et al. 2012 or location-based game (Schlieder et al. 2006). In our case study we selected one of the largest low-income areas in Mumbai (India), which is called Dharavi. ...
Striving to reach consensus about the use of resources is crucial in spatial planning. Civic engagement and participatory planning support activities of negotiation and consensus building. Negotiation, as considered in this work, is a process of communication in which parties exchange their messages, opinions, or statements in order to influence the other party (Fisher 1991). In simple terms, negotiation is a discussion between two or more disputants who are trying to work out a solution to their problem. Many situations in urban and regional planning require negotiations and consensus building. Some examples may include questions like where to locate a new road; how to design the newly created park; and what is the best location for a new shopping mall. A negotiation can be interpersonal where several individuals negotiate, or inter-group in which groups negotiate among themselves. It can include different stakeholders: the residents of the planned area, various government departments, real-estate developers, industry, and non-governmental organizations (NGO’s). Reaching a consensus among different stakeholders is a challenging task which often needed to involve compromises among all involved parties. These negotiations take place because the stakeholders and individuals wish to create something new or resolve a problem or dispute. The problem usually arises when there are conflicting interests involved on how to use natural resources, land, buildings and/or how to revitalize and further develop cities and landscapes. One of the big challenges faced by planners that facilitate participatory planning and civic engagement represents the process of consensus building in which the parties can present their conflicting points of view with the goal of arriving at an agreement.
... Throughout the development the games were play-tested by researchers (iterations a-c), small focus groups (iteration c and d) and entire class sections (iteration d) at the Ohio State University. For more information about these stages in our development see Ahlqvist et al. (2012). ...
In 2008, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released the report “Fostering Learning in the Networked World: The Cyberlearning Opportunity and Challenge”. NSF argued in this report that the heavy investment and focus on Cyberinfrastructures must be complemented by a parallel investment in Cyberlearning, “…learning that is mediated by networked computing and communications technologies.” (Borgman et al. 2008). The rationale was that information and communication technologies had reached a critical tipping point where high-end computing, cyberinfrastructures and mobile technologies were readily available for billions of users, but it was still unclear what affordances they could bring to learning in structured classroom settings and more informal learning environments.
... Our team recently outlined Online Map Games (OMG!), or GeoGaming, as a potential platform for anything from simple, amusing trivia games for casual use to structured educational exercises [5,6]. Our proposed platform integrates the use of online Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMOG) technology as a novel approach to environmental modeling and simulation, and as a platform for educational games. ...
We present our work with GeoGames that are played on top of online geographic maps, using the real world as the game world. The developed technology represents an innovative potential for geographic inquiry-based, learning through play, which through the internet can reach a massive audience. The described "Green Revolution" game is meant to teach students about the challenges of farming in developing countries. The major part of the paper describes a web GIS architecture in which the game is implemented. Participants play the game and engage in an open discussion around the game. Some results from user testing, and its potential for further use in cyber-learning research are presented.
This article concentrates on ways in which novel playful technologies can engage youth in co-creation of living environments. The presented study focuses on five selected prototypes of serious digital geogames and gamified storytelling that were developed specifically for younger generations of users. The analysis concentrates on reviewing their goals, game story, outcomes, and the results of testing serious digital geogames prototypes with youth. It leads to a set of identified urban planning engagement forms that can be well supported with the help of serious digital geogames. They include exploring landscapes, learning about places, learning about specific topics, reconstructing the past, envisioning the future, connecting with action projects, and communicating. The article concludes with the discussion of the main findings and perspectives for further research.
This chapter proposes a conceptual model of mixed-methods civic engagement infrastructure using cloud-based computing combined with on-site engagement and action projects. It represents a direct response to the needs of novel approaches that may enable city officials and urban planners to engage underrepresented and marginalized residents. The model is built on the following principles of successful community engagement: mixed-methods engagement, technology-based participation, incorporation of playful elements, action projects, and novel cloud-based technical architectures enabled as Software as a Service. It combines technology-based tools with on-site engagement enhanced with action projects. On-site engagement methods bring engagement to the neighborhoods; they aim to meet the residents in their own environment. Action projects are real-world projects that contribute to a positive change in the neighborhoods and are initiated and led by the residents. They implement some of the solutions proposed by the residents and aim to increase quality of life. The discussion section stresses the importance of building trust, enabling two-way communication between the public officials and residents, respecting context factors that could possibly influence the success of engagement, and the importance of the local culture. Future research will focus on the evaluation of case studies that implement the proposed conceptual model.
In the light of climate change, rising demands for agricultural products and the intensification and specialization of agricultural systems, ensuring an adequate and reliable supply of food is fundamental for food security. Maintaining diversity and redundancy has been postulated as one generic principle to increase the resilience of agricultural production and other ecosystem services. For example, if one crop fails due to climate instability and extreme events, others can compensate the losses. Crop diversity might be particularly important if different crops show asynchronous production trends. Furthermore, spatial heterogeneity has been suggested to increase stability at larger scales as production losses in some areas can be buffered by surpluses in undisturbed ones. Besides systematically investigating the mechanisms underlying stability, identifying transformative pathways that foster them is important. In my thesis, I aim at answering the following questions: (i) How does yield stability differ between nations, regions and farms, and what is the effect of crop diversity on yield stability in relation to agricultural inputs, climate heterogeneity, climate instability and time at the national, regional or farm level? (ii) Is asynchrony between crops a better predictor of production stability than crop diversity? (iii) What is the effect of asynchrony between and within crops on stability and how is it related to crop diversity and space, respectively? (iv) What is the state of the art and what are knowledge gaps in exploring resilience and its multidimensionality in ecological and social-ecological systems with agent-based models and what are potential ways forward? In the first chapter, I provide the theoretical background for the subsequent analyses. I stress the need to better understand the resilience of social-ecological systems and particularly the stability of agricultural production. Moreover, I introduce diversity and spatial heterogeneity as two prominently discussed resilience mechanisms and describe approaches to assess resilience. In the second chapter, I combined agriculture and climate data at three levels of organization and spatial extents to investigate yield stability patterns and their relation to crop diversity, fertilizer, irrigation, climate heterogeneity and instability and time of nations globally, regions in Europe and farms in Germany using statistical analyses. Yield stability decreased from the national to the farm level. Several nations and regions substantially contributed to larger-scale stability. Crop diversity was positively associated with yield stability across all three levels of organization. This effect was typically more profound at smaller scales and in variable climates. In addition to crop diversity, climate heterogeneity was an important stabilizing mechanism especially at larger scales. These results confirm the stabilizing effect of crop diversity and spatial heterogeneity, yet their importance depends on the scale and agricultural management. Building on the findings of the second chapter, I deepened in the third chapter my research on the effect of crop diversity at the national level. In particular, I tested if asynchrony between crops, i.e. between the temporal production patterns of different crops, better predicts agricultural production stability than crop diversity. The stabilizing effect of asynchrony was multiple times higher than the effect of crop diversity, i.e. asynchrony is one important property that can explain why a higher diversity supports the stability of national food production. Therefore, strategies to stabilize agricultural production through crop diversification also need to account for the asynchrony of the crops considered. The previous chapters suggest that both asynchrony between crops and spatial heterogeneity are important stabilizing mechanisms. In the fourth chapter, I therefore aimed at better understanding the relative importance of asynchrony between and within crops, i.e. between the temporal production patterns of different crops and between the temporal production patterns of different cultivation areas of the same crop. Better understanding their relative importance is important to inform agricultural management decisions, but so far this has been hardly assessed. To address this, I used crop production data to study the effect of asynchrony between and within crops on the stability of agricultural production in regions in Germany and nations in Europe. Both asynchrony between and within crops consistently stabilized agricultural production. Adding crops increased asynchrony between crops, yet this effect levelled off after eight crops in regions in Germany and after four crops in nations in Europe. Combining already ten farms within a region led to high asynchrony within crops, indicating distinct production patters, while this effect was weaker when combining multiple regions within a nation. The results suggest, that both mechanisms need to be considered in agricultural management strategies that strive for more resilient farming systems. The analyses in the foregoing chapters focused at different levels of organization, scales and factors potentially influencing agricultural stability. However, these statistical analyses are restricted by data availability and investigate correlative relationships, thus they cannot provide a mechanistic understanding of the actual processes underlying resilience. In this regard, agent-based models (ABM) are a promising tool. Besides their ability to measure different properties and to integrate multiple situations through extensive manipulation in a fully controlled system, they can capture the emergence of system resilience from individual interactions and feedbacks across different levels of organization. In the fifth chapter, I therefore reviewed the state of the art and potential knowledge gaps in exploring resilience and its multidimensionality in ecological and social-ecological systems with ABMs. Next, I derived recommendations for a more effective use of ABMs in resilience research. The review suggests that the potential of ABMs is not utilized in most models as they typically focus on a single dimension of resilience and are mostly limited to one reference state, disturbance type and scale. Moreover, only few studies explicitly test the ability of different mechanisms to support resilience. To solve real-world problems related to the resilience of complex systems, ABMs need to assess multiple stability properties for different situations and under consideration of the mechanisms that are hypothesized to render a system resilient. In the sixth chapter, I discuss the major conclusions that can be drawn from the previous chapters. Moreover, I showcase the use of simulation models to identify management strategies to enhance asynchrony and thus stability, and the potential of ABMs to identify pathways to implement such strategies. The results of my thesis confirm the stabilizing effect of crop diversity, yet its importance depends on the scale, agricultural management and climate. Moreover, strategies to stabilize agricultural production through crop diversification also need to account for the asynchrony of the crops considered. As spatial heterogeneity and particularly asynchrony within crops strongly enhances stability, integrated management approaches are needed that simultaneously address multiple resilience mechanisms at different levels of organization, scales and time horizons. For example, the simulation suggests that only increasing the number of crops at both the pixel and landscape level avoids trade-offs between asynchrony between and within crops. If their potential is better exploited, agent-based models have the capacity to systematically assess resilience and to identify comprehensive pathways towards resilient farming systems.
Introduction and the first chapter are made available by Routledge at this web site:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429441325
The term ‘smart cities’ is contested: its interpretation is becoming ever broader, often to accommodate commercial interests. Since cities are made up of individuals, all of whom are guided by their own world views and attitudes, the residual question is not ‘what should we do?’ but ‘how should we do it and how should we encourage and enable everyone to join in?’ By exploring the ways that gamification can be used to understand the effects of ‘smart initiatives’ on cities and their operation, it was concluded that gaming has considerable potential to affect individual and societal practices by profoundly influencing the gamers themselves, while technology and the game design itself play a central role to how gamification is implemented and used. This paper proposes one way of both creating cities to which citizens aspire and delivering a beneficial change in attitudes and behaviours to make such cities work. We propose that way-finding games should be developed as the most appropriate tools for participation. Designing such serious games with sustainability, resilience and liveability agendas in mind, encouraging widespread citizen participation as gamers, and taking cognisance of the outcomes would lead to both smarter citizens and smarter cities.
Here we describe the implementation of an experimental research tool called the Decision Game that we used to collect data on household flood risk management decisions. Participants using this tool play an interactive game that involves making household decisions about place of residence and a variety of household expenditures, including spending on flood insurance and private flood risk mitigation. Participants also answer survey questions before and after playing the game; the pre-game survey collected demographic information, and the post-game survey collected information about participant experiences with flooding and flood mitigation. Online and face-to-face participants showed similar engagement with the experiment, and most participants appeared to have made deliberate and considered decisions about risk mitigation. Online study participants had similar responses to those who participated in person, although face-to-face participants seemed slightly more likely to mitigate against risk. Overall, participants in this research were younger, more educated and more likely to rent a home than the average Canadian. Serious games may be useful for augmenting existing data gathering strategies used in understanding environmental decision making, particularly for rare catastrophic events for which stated preference surveys may be less informative. Serious games allow for sharing a mixture of information with study participants, including maps, video clips, text and even immersive 3D experiences, and can be administered online to increase participation levels. Future research will consider longer duration online experiments and more immersive interaction frameworks. © 2018
Perante a relevância atual do desenvolvimento da literacia espacial e face às potencialidades
proporcionadas pelas geotecnologias, apresenta-se o OriGami, um geojogo em desenvolvimento
na Universidade de Muenster, no âmbito do projeto Erasmus+ ENAbLE. O Projeto envolve alunos na
liderança de uma comunidade de prática e de aprendizagem visando a integração pedagógica
do OriGami, concebido e desenvolvido com base em princípios de Design Centrado no Utilizador
(DCU), dando voz aos alunos e, por intermédio destes, aos seus professores. É apresentada a
dinâmica da referida comunidade, suportada por uma plataforma de trabalho colaborativo, e
são referidos os instrumentos de recolha de dados que permitem a monitorização do potencial
de integração pedagógica do OriGami. Apontam-se como principais aspetos a desenvolver
futuramente, relativamente ao OriGami, o aprofundamento das possibilidades de feedback dado
ao professor sobre as aprendizagens dos alunos, ao mesmo tempo que se multiplicam os elementos
de gamificação, possibilitando ao aluno uma experiência de jogo mais agradável.
Resumo-Perante a relevância atual do desenvolvimento da literacia espacial e face às potencialidades proporcionadas pelas geotecnologias, apresenta-se o OriGami, um geojogo em desenvolvimento na Universidade de Munster, no âmbito do projeto Erasmus+ ENAbLE. O Projeto envolve alunos na liderança de uma comunidade de prática e de aprendizagem visando a integração pedagógica do OriGami, concebido e desenvolvido com base em princípios de Design Centrado no Utilizador (DCU), dando voz aos alunos e, por intermédio destes, aos seus professores. É apresentada a dinâmica da referida comunidade, suportada por uma plataforma de trabalho colaborativo, e são referidos os instrumentos de recolha de dados que permitem a monitorização do potencial de integração pedagógica do OriGami. Apontam-se como principais aspetos a desenvolver futuramente, relativamente ao OriGami, o aprofundamento das possibilidades de feedback dado ao professor sobre as aprendizagens dos alunos, ao mesmo tempo que se multiplicam os elementos de gamificação, possibilitando ao aluno uma experiência de jogo mais agradável. Quanto à comunidade de prática e aprendizagem, depois do término do presente ano letivo, de adaptação ao geojogo, será fundamental validar e testar as potencialidades de integração pedagógica do mesmo, bem como replicar a metodologia pedagógica desenvolvida, nos contextos alemão e espanhol. Palavras-chave: Geogaming; Mobile Learning; Comunidades Virtuais de Aprendizagem e de Prática; Design Centrado no Utilizador. Introdução Tanto as competências digitais como as espaciais são essenciais em muitas atividades profissionais e quotidianas. A literacia espacial, no sentido de permitir aprender e melhorar a
The past twenty years have witnessed the emergence of alternative GIS (alt.gis) practices that are quite different from conventional GIS activities. Intellectually tied to the critical cartography pioneered by J.B. Harley in the late 1980s and early 1990s, alt.gis has evolved from early discussions on GIS & Society, critical GIS, PPGIS, feminist GIS, map stories/geonarratives, deep maps to qualitative GIS, neogeography, crowdsourcing, volunteered geographic information (VGI), geoweb, post-colonial computing, geogames, geodesign, and spatial humanities. This paper develops a preliminary framework to loosely knit together the diverse intellectual threads for Alt.gis. This paper argues that Daniel Pink’s framework for the six senses of the whole new mind (design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning) captures the six major Alt.gis practices remarkably well. Mainstream GIS development has been predominantly concentrating on automated cartography/map-making, spatial modeling, geo-computation, and database development with the goal for efficiency, which tend to be closely associated with the left-side/slow thinking capabilities of the human brain. In contrast, Alt.gis focuses more on geo-narratives, qualitative/mixed methods, story-telling, and synthesis with the goal for achieving equity and social justice, which tend to be more closely associated with the right-side/fast thinking capabilities of the human brain. Evidently, Alt.gis has enabled GIS users to transcend what Heidegger called the enframing nature of technology and has led them explore new territories with greater sensitivities. In this sense, Alt.gis has become an enabling technology that continues to empower GIS users in their quest for a better, more equitable and sustainable world.
There is an increasing drive to combine agent-based models with empirical methods. An overview is provided of the various empirical methods that are used for different kinds of questions. Four categories of empirical approaches are identified in which agent-based models have been empirically tested: case studies, stylized facts, role-playing games, and laboratory experiments. We discuss how these different types of empirical studies can be combined. The various ways empirical techniques are used illustrate the main challenges of contemporary social sciences: (1) how to develop models that are generalizable and still applicable in specific cases, and (2) how to scale up the processes of interactions of a few agents to interactions among many agents.
Andrew Colman provides an accessible introduction to the fundamentals of mathematical gaming and other major applications in social psychology, decision theory, economics, politics, evolutionary biology, philosophy, operational research and sociology.
River discharge is an important issue to be monitored because of its significant influence on environmental systems, on human lives for water resource exploitation, and hazards related to floods and landslides. In this context, we have designed and developed a web-based Geoportal for hydrological applications that integrates geospatial processing services and web mapping viewers to provide an interactive and user-friendly interface to hydrological modelling experts and sci- entists. The server side provides hydrological model logic through a library of dis- tributed geospatial processing services that prepares and presents all geospatial data -satellite imagery, cartography, digital elevation models, and sensor meas- urements- necessary for running the hydrological (river runoff) model .The Geo- portal's client side facilitates catalogue service searching for appropriate geospa- tial data, interacts with the geoprocessing services according to the hydrological model parameters, and displays the results into a web mapping viewer by using the Google Map API to provide quick feedback to scientists about the status and behaviour of the hydrological model. This chapter provides an overview of the proposed Geoportal by integrating standards both for geospatial processing ser- vices and for geospatial data visualization. We emphasize the challenges and prob- lems encountered during implementation regarding the interoperability of different geospatial standards and components.
Over the recent years, spatial data have become more accessible to members of the public, and there is an increased awareness that spatial data are an essential ingredient in the development of governance policies. In parallel, computing devices that can render real-time 3D environments in nearly photo-realistic quality have become a common household item. Integrating spatial data and virtual environments opens the possibility of presenting spatial data in a highly visual way—the same way we experience our everyday world. We have developed a landscape planning tool called SIEVE (Spatial Information and Visualization Environment), which allows users to explore existing spatial data and hypothetical future scenarios in a real-time 3D environment, links to environmental process models outcomes, and also provides a collaborative decision-making environment. SIEVE has an automatic model-building component that allows users to select a region on a 2D map using a web portal and to download automatically generated 3D landscape environments. SIEVE not only models above-ground features but also incorporates underground features. This allows users to see the connection between below- and above-ground processes. Lastly, SIEVE incorporates a multi-user environment that allows users from different locations to gather in the virtual landscapes for exploring and decision-making purposes.
New methods of using on-line interactive mapping are reported with a specific focus on how citizens can participate in the delivery and management of everyday services in their neighbourhood. Particular emphasis will be placed on how ICTs can be used to facilitate the regeneration of inner city neighbourhoods through more integrated approaches to spatial data management. The paper examines how internet mapping is used by the public through an interactive Public Participation GIS and illustrates how public access to on-line maps can help deliver improved services to local communities through the integration of GIS with a range of public services. This has raised some interesting issues in relation to how people understand mapping and their methods of navigation using such a system. With governments across the globe investing heavily in e-Government which includes on-line mapping facilities it is interesting to examine how the public actually perceive and use such systems.
At 11.35 am PDT on 18 September 2007 at Vandenberg Air Force base in California, DigitalGlobe’s new WorldView-1 satellite launched into orbit. The satellite is capable of collecting imagery over as much as three-quarters of a million square kilometers a day in resolution as fi ne as 0.5 m. A second satellite will be launched in 2008, capable of photographing nearly a million square kilometers daily at the same high resolution. The data are twice the resolution of the pre-vious industry leader, the IKONOS satellite launched in 1999 and close to the military’s own resolution of 10 cm (Monmonier, 2002).What is significant about the launch is not only the extent and resolution of the imagery (which from all vendors now covers over half of the world’s population) but also the fact that this imagery will be available commercially (look for it in Google Earth). Such imagery, alongside the tremendous possibilities of ‘crowdsourced’ geospatial data, represent interesting new develop-ments in cartography.In the fi rst of three reviews assessing the current state of cartography, I focus on the explosion of new ‘spatial media’ on the web. This topic goes under a bewildering number of names including the geospatial web or geoweb (Scharl and Tochtermann, 2007), neogeography (Turner, 2006), locative media (Rheingold, 2002), DigiPlace (Zook and Graham, 2007a), spatial crowdsourcing or geocollaboration (Hopfer and MacEachren, 2007) and map hacking (Erle
International media have recognized the visual appeal of geo-browsers such as NASA World Wind and Google Earth, for example,
when Web and television coverage on Hurricane Katrina used interactive geospatial projections to illustrate its path and the
scale of destruction in August 2005. Yet these early applications only hint at the true potential of geospatial technology
to build and maintain virtual communities and to revolutionize the production, distribution and consumption of media products.
This chapter investigates this potential by reviewing the literature and discussing the integration of geospatial and semantic
reference systems, with an emphasis on extracting geospatial context from unstructured text. A content analysis of news coverage
based on a suite of text mining tools (webLyzard) sheds light on the popularity and adoption of geospatial platforms.
In an effective e-learning game, the learner’s enjoyment acts as a catalyst to encourage his/her learning initiative. Therefore, the availability of a scale that effectively measures the enjoyment offered by e-learning games assist the game designer to understanding the strength and flaw of the game efficiently from the learner’s points of view. E-learning games are aimed at the achievement of learning objectives via the creation of a flow effect. Thus, this study is based on Sweetser’s & Wyeth’s framework to develop a more rigorous scale that assesses user enjoyment of e-learning games. The scale developed in the present study consists of eight dimensions: Immersion, social interaction, challenge, goal clarity, feedback, concentration, control, and knowledge improvement. Four learning games employed in a university’s online learning course “Introduction to Software Application” were used as the instruments of scale verification. Survey questionnaires were distributed to students taking the course and 166 valid samples were subsequently collected. The results showed that the validity and reliability of the scale, EGameFlow, were satisfactory. Thus, the measurement is an effective tool for evaluating the level of enjoyment provided by e-learning games to their users.
Companion Modelling (ComMod) is an iterative approach of modelling in interaction with local stakeholders. KatAWARE is a multi-agent model constructed through a ComMod process with the Water User Association of the Kat River Valley, Eastern Cape, South Africa. By describing the construction of the KatAWARE model, the aim of this paper is to propose a detailed methodology to formalize and to systematize the modelling phases of Companion Modelling. The Kat River catchment will serve as case study for the application of the proposed methodology. This methodology is composed of four steps: (1) the specification of the structure of the system, its dynamics and the indicators one wants to monitor, (2) the description of the initial state of the simulation, (3) the implementation of the model which can take the form of a computer program or of a role-playing game, (4) the reflection step to criticize the model and to propose further improvements. For the first two steps, we propose to use a representation based on the Unified Modelling Language.
Technologies associated with the second-generation of the World-Wide Web enable virtually anyone to share their data, documents, observations, and opinions on the Internet. In less than three years, mapping platforms such as Google Maps have sparked an exponential growth in user-generated geographically referenced content. However, the “serious” applications of Web 2.0 are sparse and this paper assesses its use in the context of collaborative spatial decision-making. We present an online map-based discussion forum that enables Internet users to submit place-based comments and respond to contributions from other participants. We further use the geographic references in a thread-based master plan debate for a university campus to simulate this debate in the map-based forum. This allows us to demonstrate how the online map provides an overview of the status and spatial foci of the debate, and how it can help us understand the spatial thought processes of the participants.
Technology doesn't flow smoothly; it's the big surprises that matter, and Yale computer expert David Gelernter sees one such giant leap right on the horizon. Today's small scale software programs are about to be joined by vast public software works that will revolutionize computing and transform society as a whole. One such vast program is the "Mirror world." Imagine looking at your computer screen and seeing reality--an image of your city, for instance, complete with moving traffic patterns, or a picture that sketches the state of an entire far-flung corporation at this second. These representations are called Mirror worlds, and according to Gelernter they will soon be available to everyone. Mirror worlds are high-tech voodoo dolls: by interacting with the images, you interact with reality. Indeed, Mirror worlds will revolutionize the use of computers, transforming them from (mere) handy tools to crystal balls which will allow us to see the world more vividly and see into it more deeply. Reality will be replaced gradually, piece-by-piece, by a software imitation; we will live inside the imitation; and the surprising thing is--this will be a great humanistic advance. we gain control over our world, plus a huge new measure of insight and vision. In this fascinating book--part speculation, part explanation--Gelernter takes us on a tour of the computer technology of the near future. Mirror worlds, he contends, will allow us to explore the world in unprecedented depth and detail without ever changing out of our pajamas. A hospital administrator might wander through an entire medical complex via a desktop computer. Any citizen might explore the performance of the local schools, chat electronically with teachers and other Mirror world visitors, plant software agents to report back on interesting topics; decide to run for the local school board, hire a campaign manager, and conduct the better part of the campaign itself--all by interacting with the Mirror world. Gelernter doesn't just speculate about how this amazing new software will be used--he shows us how it will be made, explaining carefully and in detail how to build a Mirror world using technology already available. we learn about "disembodied machines," "trellises," "ensembles," and other computer components which sound obscure, but which Gelernter explains using familiar metaphors and terms. (He tells us that a Mirror world is a microcosm just like a Japanese garden or a Gothic cathedral, and that a computer program is translated by the computer in the same way a symphony is translated by a violinist into music.) Mirror worlds offers a lucid and humanistic account of the coming software revolution, told by a computer scientist at the cutting edge of his field.
This chapter provides a critical review of GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA) for supporting group (collaborative and participatory) decision making. The review is based on a survey of referred papers that have been published over the last 15 years or so. The chapter offers a classification of the GIS-MCDA approaches for group decision making. First, the articles are classified according to the generic elements of the MCDA methods. Second, the GIS-MCDA methods are classified according to the various perspectives on collaborative decision support. These taxonomies of the GIS-MCDA approaches provide a background for an evaluation of the contribution of MCDA to GIS-based collaborative decision making.
Scientists and policymakers have realized that localities are central to addressing the causes and consequences of global environmental change. The goal of the Human-Environment Regional Observatory project (HERO) was to develop the infrastructure necessary to monitor and understand the local dimensions of global change. This book presents the philosophy behind HERO, the methods used to put that philosophy into action, its results, and the lessons learned from the project. HERO used three strategies: It developed research protocols and data standards for collecting data; it built a web-based networking environment to help investigators share data, analyses and ideas from remote locations; and investigators field-tested these concepts by applying them in diverse biophysical and socioeconomic settings - central Massachusetts, central Pennsylvania, southwestern Kansas, and the US-Mexico border region of Arizona. The book highlights the unique focus of HERO regarding thinking and acting on complex, integrative, and interdisciplinary global change science at local scales, and is valuable for global change scientists.
Identifies both the deficiencies of many existing teaching methods and ways in which the teaching of geography may be improved. Overall the study has two general objectives: to help to defend teaching as an important aspect of work in higher education; and to supply a guide to good educational and geographical practice. Following an introduction examining specific teaching methods, the chapters cover: lectures, fieldwork, practical and project work, teaching geography through discussion, resource-based learning and computer-assisted teaching and learning, issues involved in assessing students, how courses can be evaluated and improved, and designing a geography curriculum. Finally the book sketches out ten guiding principles that underpin much of the discussion and adds some thoughts on the nature of good teaching. -from Authors
This chapter provides a critical review of GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA) for supporting group (collaborative and participatory) decision making. The review is based on a survey of referred papers that have been published over the last 15 years or so. The chapter offers a classification of the GIS-MCDA approaches for group decision making. First, the articles are classified according to the generic elements of the MCDA methods. Second, the GIS-MCDA methods are classified according to the various perspectives on collaborative decision support. These taxonomies of the GIS-MCDA approaches provide a background for an evaluation of the contribution of MCDA to GIS-based collaborative decision making.
Supported by a grant from MASIE Center e-Learning CONSORTIUM.
Erosive runoff is a recurring problem and is a source of sometimes deadly muddy floods in the Pays de Caux (France). The risk results from a conjunction of natural factors and human activity. Efficient actions against runoff in agricultural watersheds are well known. However they are still difficult to implement as they require co-operation between stakeholders. Local actors thus need tools to help them understand the collective consequences of their individual decisions and help to initiate a process of negotiation between them. We decided to use a participatory approach called companion modelling (ComMod), and, in close collaboration with one of the first group of local stakeholders, to create a role-playing game (RPG) to facilitate negotiations on the future management of erosive runoff. This paper describes and discusses the development of the RPG and its use with other groups of local stakeholders within the framework of two game sessions organized by two different watershed management committees. During the joint construction step, stakeholders shared their viewpoints about the environment, agents, rules, and how to model runoff in preparation for the creation of the RPG. During the RPG sessions, two groups of eight players, including farmers, mayors and watershed advisors, were confronted with disastrous runoff in a fictive agricultural watershed. Results showed that they managed to reduce runoff by 20-50% by engaging a dialogue about grass strips, storage ponds and management of the intercrop period. However, further progress is still needed to better control runoff through the implementation of better agricultural practices because, during the RPG sessions, the watershed advisors did not encourage farmers to do so. Because of the complexity of management problems, results of jointly constructing the game and the RPG sessions showed that modelling and simulation can be a very useful way of accompanying the collective learning process. This new way of working was welcomed by the participants who expressed their interest in organizing further RPG sessions.
EcoTRADE is a multi player network game of a virtual biodiversity credit market. Each player controls the land use of a certain amount of parcels on a virtual landscape. The biodiversity credits of a particular parcel depend on neighboring parcels, which may be owned by other players. The game can be used to study the strategies of players in experiments or classroom games and also as a communication tool for stakeholders participating in credit markets that include spatially interdependent credits.
The HiPAC project is investigating active, time-constrained database management. An active DBMS is one which automatically executes specified actions when specified conditions arise. HiPAC has proposed Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules as a formalism for active database capabilities. We have also developed an execution model that specifies how these rules are processed in the context of database transactions. The additional functionality provided by ECA rules makes new demands on the design of an active DBMS. In this paper we propose an architecture for an active DBMS that supports ECA rules. This architecture provides new forms of interaction, in support of ECA rules, between application programs and the DBMS. This leads to a new paradigm for constructing database applications.
This article reports on how a social sciences instructor teaching contemporary global issues implemented collaborative learning among students in a virtual environment. A substantial part of this particular course was delivered at a distance with the help of the Web. The bulletin board feature of WebCT was used to implement a simulation game where students role-played different countries and discussed issues online. At the end of the course, a total of over 480 messages were posted. A summative evaluation was conducted to examine the online collaborative experiences of the students. It was found that more than 90% of students reported that they gained from either actively participating in the online discussion or from just reading others' messages. In light of the present results, factors that would promote online collaboration among students were explored.
Role-playing activities are an example of active learning that introduces students to "real-world" situations. This paper discusses the development and assessment of a role-play that involves an undergraduate geography class in a local public land management process. This particular case study is useful because it reflects broader themes and relates to many students' recreational pursuits. Student evaluations of the activity demonstrate its effectiveness in capturing student interests, advancing their understanding of public land issues, and enhancing their academic skills. The exercise complements existing educational standards and is transferable to other university-level geography courses and possibly advanced high school classes.
In the UK and elsewhere, planning public inquiries are held to allow public debate when there is concern over a land development decision. Using the format of the inquiry provides geography students, usually working in teams, with the opportunity to investigate an environmental issue from a particular point of view and then to present their case as an oral presentation and a written report. Students have to take responsibility for managing the project, collecting supporting information and preparing their presentation. The format therefore allows the delivery of part of a geography curriculum as well as the development of key skills in a non-didactic setting. Experience shows that students greatly enjoy working within this non-standard format, and are highly motivated to produce good performances at the 'inquiry'.
This paper explores some of the unique opportunities and challenges of integrating participatory action research into undergraduate GIS courses, drawing evidence from two undergraduate courses that contributed to a long-term participatory action research project. The author shows that incorporating participatory action research in undergraduate GIS courses can enhance students' learning of fundamental concepts in GIS, as well as their understanding of the social and political construction and impacts of digital spatial data and GIS technologies. As well, this approach can foster critical reflection on research design and methodologies.
Geographic information systems and the technological family associated with them—global positioning systems, geodemographics, and remote surveillance systems—raise important questions with respect to the issue of privacy. Of most immediate import, the systems store and represent data in ways that render ineffective the most popular safeguards against privacy abuse. But the systems are associated with more fundamental changes in the right to privacy and even, some would say, with challenges to the possibility of privacy itself. They make reasonable and acceptable the view that technological change is inevitable and autonomous, and therefore, too, are the development of increasingly comprehensive dossiers on individuals and households and the use of increasingly powerful means for the technological enhancements of vision. And their use in the creation of data profiles supports a wide-ranging reconceptualization of community, place, and individual. Nonetheless, in the ways they create and use digital profiles, the systems do offer suggestions for a partial remedy to the problems that they have created.
A tool for participative business process development is the so-called social simulation game method. The social simulation game method is like a ''role-play'' but is tailored to an organisation's own business processes. The main purpose is to develop business processes, i.e., to analyse present processes, to test alternative process modes and to train employees. The authors have carried out and studied simulation games in different industrial organisations over the past ten years, though these have been more focused during the last four years. According to these research results, the participative simulation game method has proven to be an effective facilitator in business process development and training in industrial organisations. This article is based on 32 case studies, including 88 simulation games, which are briefly described. Our primary aim is to describe how the social simulation game method is used in training and participative development for different processes and purposes. Results indicate that the method enables individual learning as well as promotes both single-loop and double-loop types of organisational learning. The simulation game method underscores the problems and development needs of the simulated business processes. The short-term and long-term qualitative (soft) and quantitative (hard) as well as the so-called future results and implications of the cases in implementation are reported and discussed. The concept of tacit and explicit change as a result of the interplay of tacit and explicit knowledge and soft, hard and future results has been created.
An irrigation management training game is described. This game is based on the Juba Sugar Estate in Somalia and it involves the management of scarce inputs (water and fertiliser) and resources (labour, capital equipment, money and fuel). Participants take roles within small management teams and they make decisions concerning fertiliser application, irrigation, maintenance, harvest and cane haulage. The major objective of the game is to give the participants insights into the complex interactions between resources, inputs, activities and management decisions. A secondary aim is to encourage team work and mutual understanding of complementary job functions.
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Simulation is becoming increasingly popular in teaching in higher education. Dissatisfaction with traditional teaching techniques such as the lecture, the need to understand processes and to teach problem‐solving skills are some of the reasons for this. The roots of simulation are in war‐gaming, in management and business studies, and in psychologists’ approaches to ‘experiential learning’. Simulation in geography developed in the late 1960s. The example of the Caribbean Fishing Game is used to demonstrate flexibility of gaming. Three styles of simulation are outlined: role‐play, operational games and individual exercises. To be most effective, simulations need to be carefully prepared and properly integrated into the course. Simulation's open‐endedness makes evaluation difficult.
This report documents a review of 48 empirical research articles on the effectiveness of instructional games. It also includes summaries of 26 other review articles and 31 theoretical articles on instructional gaming. Eased on this review the following 5 conclusions and 4 recommendations are provided. Conclusions: (1) The empirical research on the instructional effectiveness of games is fragmented, filled with ill defined terms, and plagued with methodological flaws. (2) Some games provide effective instruction for some tasks some of the time, but these results may not be generalizable to other games or instructional programs. (3) No evidence indicates that games are the preferred instructional method in all situations. (4) Instructional games are more effective if they are embedded in instructional programs that include debriefing and feedback. (5) Instructional support during play increases the effectiveness of instructional games. Recommendations: (1) The decision to use a game for instruction should be based on a detailed analysis of learning requirements and tradeoffs among alternate instructional approaches. (2) Program managers and procurement officials should insist that instructional game developers demonstrate how their game will support instructional objectives. (3) Games should be used as adjuncts and aids, not as stand-alone instruction. (4) Instructor-less a roaches (e.g., web-based instruction) must include all "instructor functions."
The HiPAC project is investigating active, time-constrained database management. An active DBMS is one which automatically executes specified actions when specified conditions arise. HiPAC has proposed Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules as a formalism for active database capabilities. We have also developed an execution model that specifies how these rules are processed in the context of database transactions. The additional functionality provided by ECA rules makes new demands on the design of an active DBMS. In this paper we propose an architecture for an active DBMS that supports ECA rules. This architecture provides new forms of interaction, in support of ECA rules, between application programs and the DBMS. This leads to a new paradigm for constructing database applications.
Starting from a simple gaming-simulation experiment about the management of a common resource, two modelling experiments were conducted in different settings. In the first experiment, the game was played by farmers and the modeller subsequently inferred a model from behaviour observed during the game. In order to address the validation problems underlying this type of modelling, a new experiment was conducted, in which computer science students played the game and then "self-modelled" their behaviour. We shall present, compare, and discuss both these modelling processes. We show that self-modelling facilitated a better understanding of the players' behaviours, although it is not a complete solution.
Many public policies and decisions deal with geospatially expressed problems that are complex and controversial in nature. Broad participation of all interested parties in the form of deliberative dialogues is crucial to making trustworthy decisions. However, supporting deliberative dialogues on spatial problems places unique requirements for technology mediation that go beyond the current state of research on public participation geographical information systems (PPGIS) and related tech-nologies. In this article, we analyze the challenges of facilitating effective deliberation processes and highlight the progress needed to support spatially-enabled public deliberation technologies. Then, we present our GeoDeliberative Annotation Tech-nology (GeoDAT) as a framework for addressing the above challenges. GeoDAT uses spatial annotation objects as models for deliberative artifacts, and manages annotations by a spatial data model that reflects the ecological relationships among annotations, visual contexts, discussion threads, spatial referents, and the cognitive states of their holders. As a proof of the concept, we have implemented GeoDelib-erator based on the GeoDAT framework. GeoDeliberator is based on Web 2.0 technology and implemented in AJAX technology, and it offers some unique spatial annotation capture, retrieval and visualization capabilities, such as context memory, reference to multiple geo-objects in one annotation, inferring and visualizing new relations using spatial-temporal and thread-based reasoning, and user-controlled annotation sharing. We demonstrate the utility of GeoDeliberator through a simulated scenario where a community in a university campus deliberates on the alternative courses of actions available for building a smoke-free campus.
Neogeography combines the complex techniques of cartography and GIS and places them within reach of users and developers. This Short Cut introduces you to the growing number of tools, frameworks, and resources available that make it easy to create maps and share the locations of your interests and history. Learn what existing and emerging standards such as GeoRSS, KML, and Microformats mean; how to add dynamic maps and locations to your web site; how to pinpoint the locations of your online visitors; how to create genealogical maps and Google Earth animations of your family's ancestry; or how to geotag and share your travel photographs.
The landscape of Internet mapping technologies has changed dramatically since 2005. New techniques are being used and new terms have been invented and entered the lexicon such as: mash-ups, crowdsourcing, neogeography and geostack. A whole range of websites and communities from the commercial Google Maps to the grassroots OpenStreetMap, and applications such as Platial, also have emerged. In their totality, these new applications represent a step change in the evolution of the area of Internet geographic applications (which some have termed the GeoWeb). The nature of this change warrants an explanation and an overview, as it has implications both for geographers and the public notion of Geography. This article provides a critical review of this newly emerging landscape, starting with an introduction to the concepts, technologies and structures that have emerged over the short period of intense innovation. It introduces the non-technical reader to them, suggests reasons for the neologism, explains the terminology, and provides a perspective on the current trends. Case studies are used to demonstrate this Web Mapping 2.0 era, and differentiate it from the previous generation of Internet mapping. Finally, the implications of these new techniques and the challenges they pose to geographic information science, geography and society at large are considered.
Public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) pertains to the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to broaden public involvement in policymaking as well as to the value of GIS to promote the goals of nongovernmental organizations, grassroots groups, and community-based organizations. The article first traces the social history of PPGIS. It then argues that PPGIS has been socially constructed by a broad set of actors in research across disciplines and in practice across sectors. This produced and reproduced concept is then explicated through four major themes found across the breadth of the PPGIS literature: place and people, technology and data, process, and outcome and evaluation. The themes constitute a framework for evaluating current PPGIS activities and a roadmap for future PPGIS research and practice.
Abstract Serious games open up many new opportunities for complex skills learning in higher education. The inherent complexity of such games, though, requires large efforts for their development. This paper presents a framework for serious game design, which aims to reduce the design complexity at conceptual, technical and practical levels. The approach focuses on a relevant subset of serious games labelled as scenario-based games. At the conceptual level, it identifies the basic elements that make up the static game configuration; it also describes the game dynamics, i.e. the state changes of the various game components in the course of time. At the technical level, it presents a basic system architecture, which comprises various building tools. Various building tools will be explained and illustrated with technical implementations that are part of the Emergo toolkit for scenario-based game development. At the practical level, a set of design principles are presented for controlling and reducing game design complexity. The principles cover the topics of game structure, feedback and game representation, respectively. Practical application of the framework and the associated toolkit is briefly reported and evaluated.
In recent months there has been an explosion of interest in using the Web to create, assemble, and disseminate geographic
information provided voluntarily by individuals. Sites such as Wikimapia and OpenStreetMap are empowering citizens to create
a global patchwork of geographic information, while Google Earth and other virtual globes are encouraging volunteers to develop
interesting applications using their own data. I review this phenomenon, and examine associated issues: what drives people
to do this, how accurate are the results, will they threaten individual privacy, and how can they augment more conventional
sources? I compare this new phenomenon to more traditional citizen science and the role of the amateur in geographic observation.
Little attention has been given to the psychological and sociological value of play despite its many advantages to guiding the design of interactive multimedia learning environments for children and adults. This paper provides a brief overview of the history, research, and theory related to play. Research from education, psychology, and anthropology suggests that play is a powerful mediator for learning throughout a person's life. The time has come to couple the ever increasing processing capabilities of computers with the advantages of play. The design of hybrid interactive learning environments is suggested based on the constructivist concept of a microworld and supported with elements of both games and simulations.
This paper proposes a review of the development and use of multi-agent simulations (MAS) for ecosystem management. The use of this methodology and the associated tools accompanies the shifts in various paradigms on the study of ecological complexity. Behavior and interactions are now key issues for understanding and modeling ecosystem organization, and models are used in a constructivist way. MAS are introduced conceptually and are compared with individual-based modeling approaches. Various architectures of agents are presented, the role of the environment is emphasized and some computer tools are presented. A discussion follows on the use of MAS for ecosystem management. The strength of MAS has been discussed for social sciences and for spatial issues such as land-use change. We argue here that MAS are useful for problems integrating social and spatial aspects. Then we discuss how MAS can be used for several purposes, from theorization to collective decision-making support. We propose some research perspectives on individual decision making processes, institutions, scales, the credibility of models and the use of MAS. In conclusion we argue that researchers in the field of ecosystem management can use multi-agent systems to go beyond the role of the individual and to study more deeply and more effectively the different forms of organization (spatial, networks, hierarchies) and interactions among different organizational levels. For that objective there is considerably more fruit to be had on the tree of collaboration between social, ecological, and computer scientists than has so far been harvested.
System models in agriculture and natural resource management are usually developed by researchers to advise policy makers on the likely outcomes of alternative scenarios. Except for data collection, stakeholders—like farm households—are rarely involved in the research process. Companion modeling (ComMod) has been developed as a modeling approach to include various stakeholders in a continuous feedback loop between researchers and stakeholders. Whereas other ComMod approaches have used role playing games as an interface between researchers and stakeholders—assuming that stakeholders have difficulties understanding a computer model—this paper explores the potential of a participatory modeling approach in which stakeholders are directly confronted with the model by assessing its assumptions, interpreting simulation results, and suggesting scenarios.
The resilience perspective is increasingly used as an approach for understanding the dynamics of social–ecological systems. This article presents the origin of the resilience perspective and provides an overview of its development to date. With roots in one branch of ecology and the discovery of multiple basins of attraction in ecosystems in the 1960–1970s, it inspired social and environmental scientists to challenge the dominant stable equilibrium view. The resilience approach emphasizes non-linear dynamics, thresholds, uncertainty and surprise, how periods of gradual change interplay with periods of rapid change and how such dynamics interact across temporal and spatial scales. The history was dominated by empirical observations of ecosystem dynamics interpreted in mathematical models, developing into the adaptive management approach for responding to ecosystem change. Serious attempts to integrate the social dimension is currently taking place in resilience work reflected in the large numbers of sciences involved in explorative studies and new discoveries of linked social–ecological systems. Recent advances include understanding of social processes like, social learning and social memory, mental models and knowledge–system integration, visioning and scenario building, leadership, agents and actor groups, social networks, institutional and organizational inertia and change, adaptive capacity, transformability and systems of adaptive governance that allow for management of essential ecosystem services.