The H₂Ours game to explore water use, resources and sustainability: connecting issues in two landscapes in Indonesia

Restoring hydrological functions affected by economic development trajectories faces social and economic challenges. Given that stakeholders often only have a partial understanding of functioning socio-hydrological systems, it is expected that knowledge sharing will help them to become more aware of the consequences of their land use choices and options to manage water collectively. This facilitates the collective learning tools needed to represent the essential social and technical aspects of a socio-hydrological system in simple terms. However, data-driven simplification can lead to very site-specific models that are difficult to adapt to different conditions. To address these issues, this study aims to develop a highly adaptable serious game based on process understanding to make it easily applicable to any situation and to facilitate co-learning among stakeholders regarding complex socio-hydrological problems. We developed and tested a serious game that revolves around a simple water balance and economic accounting, with environmental and financial consequences for land users. The game is based on process understanding of the system, allowing for both relevant site specificity and generic replicability. Here, we describe the development of the Water: Use, Resources and Sustainability (H2Ours) game and explore its capacity to visualise, discuss and explore issues at the landscape level. The H2Ours game was designed using a combination of the Actors, Resources, Dynamics and Interaction (ARDI) and Drivers, Pressure, State, Impact and Responses (DPSIR) frameworks. The design steps for constructing the game led to a generic version and two localised versions for two different landscapes in Indonesia: a mountain slope to lowland paddy landscape impacting groundwater availability in East Java and a peatland with drainage rewetting, oil palm conversion and fire as issues triggering responses in West Kalimantan. Based on an evaluation referring to credibility, salience and legitimacy criteria, the H2Ours game met its purpose as a tool for knowledge transfer, learning and action triggering. We discuss the steps that can lead to re-designing and adaptation of the game to other landscapes and their policy-relevant issues.