Participatory simulations of urban flooding for learning and decision support

Gilligan, Jonathan M.; Brady, Corey; Camp, Janey V.; Nay, John J.; Sengupta, Pratim

doi:10.1109/WSC.2015.7408456

Jonathan M. Gilligan, Corey Brady, Janey V. Camp, John J. Nay, & Pratim Sengupta, Participatory simulations of urban flooding for learning and decision support, in L. Yilmaz, W. K. V. Chan, I. Moon, T. M. K. Roeder, C. Macal, & M. D. Rossetti (eds.), Proceedings of the 2015 Winter Simulation Conference, 3174-3175 (IEEE Press 2015). DOI PDF

Abstract:

Flood-control measures, such as levees and floodwalls, can backfire and increase risks of disastrous floods by giving the public a false sense of security and thus encouraging people to build valuable property in high-risk locations. More generally, nonlinear interactions between human land-use and natural processes can produce unexpected emergent phenomena in coupled human-natural systems (CHNS). We describe a participatory agent-based simulation of coupled urban development and flood risks and discuss the potential of this simulation to help educate a wide range of the public—from middle- and high-school students to public officials—about emergence in CHNS and present results from two pilot studies.