Desarrollo de una herramienta Serious Gaming para la toma de decisiones en la Gestión Integrada de Recursos Hídricos en la cuenca del río San Pedro.

Abstract

Nowadays, a poor integrated water resources management (IWRM) can occur due to a lack of communication between stakeholders, water users and institutions within a river basin, among other reason. Each one of the stakeholders has a separate agenda, and therefore, there is a duplication of efforts, interference in the management and even contradiction in the decisions taken. The objective of this study is to develop a serious game of simulation and strategy to stimulate communication among stakeholders and improve decision making based on a common vision, applied to a case study in the upper part of the San Pedro river basin. In the game's story, players represent the Watershed Council, who will decide the future of the watershed by making decisions on new demands, land use change, conservation areas, among others. The game has a total period of 30 years, divided into 3 subperiods, in which decisions will generate impacts that will be simulated in the WEAP modeling software. The decisions are represented by indicators in a graphical interface allowing the user to observe the behavior of the water resource in a visual and playful way. The results reflect the experience and feedback obtained in two workshops carried out to evaluate the usability of the tool with 26 participants. In conclusion, it was determined that the game is a tool that allows the acquisition of knowledge on complex issues, facilitates communication among stakeholders and thus, improves decision making in IWRM.