The levee dilemma game: A game experiment on flood management decision-making

A popular flood management measure, levees can effectively protect one place from flooding but can worsen flood risk elsewhere; they can also worsen the long-term flood risk of the very place it protects because of the possibility of levee overtopping or breach. The existence of these spatial and temporal tradeoffs can lead to a dilemma-referred to as the "levee dilemma" here-in flood management decision-making. This article presents a game experiment using a serious game-the Levee Dilemma Game-to explore how people make decisions when confronted with the levee dilemma. A total of 228 participants recruited from two universities in Taiwan participated in this computer-based, interactive game to test the following factors that might influence players' levee-building decisions: (1) social information about how the player's levee may influence others' flood losses; (2) communication among the players; (3) climate uncertainty. Regression and content analyses were performed to analyze the data collected from the gameplay, as well as pre- and post-game surveys. The results indicate that social information has little influence on levee-building decisions, but communication has the potential to solve the levee dilemma, and climate uncertainty can reduce the willingness to build levees. We also found that playing the Levee Dilemma Game can increase awareness of the levee dilemma.