MAHIZ – serious board game
MAHIZ is a role-playing board game for 2-4 players, designed to analyze the people and farmers’ behaviors regarding climate change, policy implementations, and technological adaptations in maize agriculture.
Research project
One of the challenges of the study of the interdependence of agriculture and water resources is the understanding of the rationale of the stakeholders’ decisions for adaptation when climate, land, and food markets are increasingly variable. This board is part of an on-going research project where a companion modeling approach (ComMod https://www.commod.org/en/) is being developed. It consists of two main parts: (1) a rules-based modeling and simulation of the interdependencies of hydroclimatic, crop production and economic parameters combined with behavioral strategies and feedback based on the stakeholders’ decision making, and (2) a simplified representation using a cooperative and competitive serious board game to emulate the socio-hydrological dynamics to find an integrative solution to the tragedy of commons.
Development team
Malena Orduña Alegría contact
Acknowledgments
This research was carried out within the International Research Training Group "Resilient Complex Water Networks“ (https://www.ufz.de/cawr/index.php?en=43129). The authors would like to express our gratitude for all the technical support from staff at the Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology and major support from family and friends throughout the playtesting stage of the board game.