Community Corner
Game Of Floods: Can Climate Change Have A Fun Side?
Developed by Marin County employees, the board game, that challenges players to survive amid sea-level rise, now is for sale in a boxed set.
MARIN COUNTY, CA – Need a new addition to game night?
Pre-orders are being taken for a boxed version of award-winning "The Game of Floods," created by Marin County employees, a board game that teaches players to survive amid sea-level rise.
Recipient of the Gold 2017 National Planning Achievement Award for Public Outreach, The Game of Floods is designed to engage and educate about sea-level-rise vulnerability and adaptation, allowing players to design solutions to protect communities and properties from permanent flooding.
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The game challenges participants to work around the board collaboratively to build solutions and strategies to maintain access, airports, wastewater-treatment facilities, as well as smaller communities, while dealing with uncertainty, balancing priorities, effectiveness, impacts and relative costs.
The new boxed game features include a fixed budget, news cards, special action cards and social and environmental health indicators.
Find out what's happening in Larkspur-Corte Maderafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Initially created by the county's Community Development Agency and the Department of Public Works staff with financial support from the North Bay Watershed Association, the county enlisted Berkeley-based game designer Alfred Twu to develop the boxed version.
“We face difficult and complex decisions in responding to increasing threats of sea-level rise, and playing the game helps people become our partners in this process,” said Public Works Senior Engineer Roger Leventhal, who came up with the idea for the game.
The fun factor of The Game of Floods, which also earned California APA’s Public Outreach Award of Excellence, a California State Association of Counties’ Merit Award and the top County of Marin Innovation “Inny” Award, was tested at county staff-hosted "sea-level-rise-adaptation planning parties." The response was that game players displayed energy and enthusiasm that translated the fun into grassroots actions in their neighborhoods.
Marin County is taking online pre-orders through April 5. Each set will sell for an estimated $36, to recover costs, plus around $10 for shipping, officials said.
Game on!
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