A serious gaming approach to understanding household flood risk mitigation decisions

Abstract

Voluntary household decisions about whether or not to structurally mitigate or insure can directly and indirectly influence the flood vulnerability of a community. We look to understand the factors that influence flood risk mitigation decisions using a serious game experiment. Serious games can augment existing data collection methods used to understand flood risk mitigation by tracking decisions over multiple turns within an experimental research framework. In this game, participants choose where to live and how to distribute income given information about flood risks. We analysed data using a generalised linear mixed model that accounted for repeated-measures effects. Experiencing an in-game flood had a strong positive association with mitigation decisions, compared to a much weaker effect of a participant having experienced a flood in real-life. We find that real-life low-income individuals were no less likely to implement in-game mitigation measures than their higher-income counterparts, suggesting that low income and/or cost is a practical barrier to risk mitigation. Our findings also suggest that incentivising flood risk mitigation should be done quickly following a flood.