The Science Impact Collaborative has developed a range of role play simulations for projects, many of which can be downloaded free of charge or at a very low cost.  Many of our simulations can be found at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School's Clearinghouse. Games Alphabetically

• Building Coast-Smart Communities: How Will Maryland Adapt to Climate Change?
• Coastal Flooding and Climate-Related Risks in Launton
• Coastal Flooding in Shoreham: Responding to Climate Change Risk
• Finn River Basin
• Flooding and Climate Change Risks in Northam
• Flooding in Milton: Collectively Managing Climate Change Risks
• Flooding Role Play Simulation
• Forest-Swamp: The Future of a River Basin
• Global Management of Organochlorines
• Ground-Level Ozone: A Negotiated Rule-Making Process on Varara’s Air Pollution Crisis
• Heat Islands
• Hydropower in Santales: Dealing with the Social and Environmental Impacts of Energy Development
• Indopotamia: Negotiating Boundary-Crossing Water Conflicts
• Joint Fact Finding Simulation – A New Discovery in the Fishery
• Long River
• The Mercury Game
• Offshore Wind Farm Role Play Simulation
• Owls: Framing a Joint Fact Finding Mission Statement in a Contested Ecosystem Management Situation Role Plays Simulation
• Rim/Sim Role Playing Simulation
• Water Use Role Play Simulation

NEW ENGLAND CLIMATE ADAPATION PROJECT

• Coastal Flooding in Shoreham: Responding to Climate Change Risk | PON 
  
  • the staff of the New England Climate Adaptation Project
  • Coastal Flooding in Shoreham: Responding to Climate Change Risks is a seven-person, multi-issue facilitated negotiation among local government, community, business, and environmental representatives trying to reach agreement on a strategy for managing climate change risks in a medium-sized coastal community. The game focuses on the difficulties of minimizing coastal flooding and storm damage through flood protection infrastructure, flood-proofing requirements, and land use planning. It is one of four exercises developed as part of the New England Climate Adaptation Project. The Shoreham game highlights the fiscal realities of climate adaptation, addressing important questions about how public money should be spent on risk management efforts, especially in the face of scientific climate change projections that involve a measure of uncertainty.
• Flooding and Climate Change Risks in Northam | PON
  
  • the staff of the New England Climate Adaptation Project
  • Flooding and Climate Change Risks in Northam is a seven-person, multi-issue facilitated negotiation among local government, community, business, environmental, and engineering representatives trying to reach agreement on a strategy for managing climate change risks in a small coastal city. The game focuses on managing increased probability of urban flooding by modifying stormwater regulations. It is one of four exercises developed as part of the New England Climate Adaptation Project. The Northam game highlights decision-making dilemmas around implementation timelines and the use of scientific models. Financial comparisons are not explicitly listed for each regulatory option, but concerns about spending are embedded in the various stakeholder interests.
• Coastal Flooding and Climate-Related Risks in Launton | PON
  
  • the staff of the New England Climate Adaptation Project
  • Coastal Flooding and Climate-Related Risks in Launton is a seven-person, multi-issue facilitated negotiation among local government, community, business, and environmental representatives trying to reach agreement on a strategy for managing climate change risks in a small, beachfront community. The game focuses on managing increased risk of coastal flooding and storm damage through construction of flood protection infrastructure, imposition of flood-proofing requirements, and land use planning. It is one of four exercises developed as part of the New England Climate Adaptation Project. The Launton game highlights possible solutions for protecting future and existing commercial and residential development, and provides detailed tables and descriptive figures that explain the economic, political, social, and environmental impacts of each option.
• Flooding in Milton: Collectively Managing Climate Change Risks | PON
  
  • the staff of the New England Climate Adaptation Project
  • Flooding in Milton is a seven-person, multi-issue facilitated negotiation among local government, community, business, and environmental representatives trying to reach agreement on a strategy for managing climate change risks in a mid-size coastal city. The game focuses on managing increased probability of river flooding through hard and soft infrastructure solutions, as well as land use planning. It is one of four exercises developed as part of the New England Climate Adaptation Project. The Milton game highlights potential financing strategies for various flood risk adaptation options, as well as dilemmas surrounding new commercial and residential development on undeveloped, flood-prone land along rivers.

  Water Diplomacy

• Indopotamia: Negotiating Boundary-Crossing Water Conflicts | PON  
  
  • Catherine M. Ashcraft, Lawrence Susskind, and Shafiqul Islam
  • Indopotamia is a nine-party, mediated, multi-issue negotiation game involving a dispute over the allocation of land and water resources shared by three countries in an international river basin. The game provides opportunities to discuss the natural, societal, and political dimensions of science-intensive policy disputes in which high levels of uncertainty are involved. The game also introduces water professionals and aspiring water professionals to the Water Diplomacy Framework (WDF).

  The Mercury Game

• The Mercury Game | download | PON
  
  • Leah C. Stokes, Lawrence Susskind, and Noelle E. Selin
  • Despite decades of scientific work on issues such as ozone depletion, climate change, and toxic chemicals, effectively communicating scientific uncertainty remains a major challenge in all environmental treaty negotiations. Strategies for incorporating scientific information into policy include developing scientific assessments, setting up subsidiary bodies to treaty negotiations, and framing the information in an appropriate manner. How scientific information is perceived has been, and will remain, a key challenge facing all international environmental treaty-drafting efforts. This mercury game is a role-play simulation aimed at scientists, students and decision makers. Playing the game will help participants explore the consequences of representing scientific uncertainty in various ways in a policy context. The game focuses on the credibility of various sources of technical information, strategies for representing risk and uncertainty, and the balance between scientific and political considerations. The game also requires players to grapple with politics – it explores the dynamic between the global “North” (the developed world) and the global “South” (the developing world) at the heart of most treaty-making difficulties. Ultimately, the role play should help to make clear how scientific information can be favorably employed in an environmental treaty making process.The results of the game will be used in a doctoral research project on the relationship between science and policy in international environmental negotiations.

 The Future of Hydropower in Chile

• Hydropower in Santales: Dealing with the Social and Environmental Impacts of Energy Development | General Instructions | PON
  
  • Jennie Hatch under the supervision of Professor Lawrence Susskind
  • The Ortega Company is a new hydroelectric company that hopes to build a hydropower plant in the Cordillerana region of Santales, a fictitious South American country. In a departure from normal operations, the company has asked several different communities if they are interested in allowing a hydropower plant to be developed within their borders. Of the nine communities originally considered, two have expressed preliminary interest in the project. One is the town of Villaverde, located along the Reposado River. The development of the project could bring jobs and infrastructure investment to Villaverde, but would probably reduce the flow of the river, which could threaten the livelihoods of many community members.The Ortega Company is seeking broad support for the project and has invited representatives from the nearby indigenous community, local residents, the mayor’s office of Villaverde, and the local environmental NGO (nongovernmental organization) to meet with a representative from the company to discuss their concerns. In addition, the company has hired a professional mediator.

Previous Project's Games

• Water Use Role Play Simulation | General Instructions | PON
  
  • Evan Thomas Paul and Jessica Agatstein under the direction of Professor Lawrence Susskind
  • River and stream levels have been remarkably volatile in the region around Evantown for the past decade, reaching record highs and lows. The major source of water both for the city and for area businesses and industry is the Foltz river, which experienced notably high water levels three years ago but has fallen to record lows for the past two years. A drought in 2008 brought the issue to a head as the city of Evantown was forced to implement a water conservation initiative due to low water levels. The mayor has now convened five key stakeholders to discuss the three major decisions that will impact future use of the rive – whether or nor to increase water allocations to several different actos, whether and how to invest in improving the efficiency of the water infrastructure, and whether and how to improve residential water use efficiency. A key criterion in determining the merit of a particular set of options is how seriously the group takes the most extreme projected impacts of climate change. Major Lessons:
    
    1. In a changing climate, rainfall and resulting water levels may become more volatile— floods and droughts are both likely to be more intense at different times of the year. The efficient and effective use of freshwater resources will therefore be a key planning issue.
    2. Major infrastructure decisions will have to be made despite the uncertainty of future conditions. Taking climate projections into account when designing infrastructure is particularly important because infrastructure is usually intended to be in place for several decades. Each city will need to discuss how conservative it wishes to be in regard to projected risk. The most successful adaptation planning efforts by cities thus far seem to be those aimed at reducing climate change risk as part of ongoing infrastructure planning, growth management, and capital budgeting activities.
    3. Whenever possible, it is critical that cities use data to guide adaptation planning, such as hydrological modeling of water resources. Climate models are becoming more accurate and can be downscaled to regional levels. For some areas, these models predict more frequent and more intense storms; the resultant flooding events will impact existing and future development.
    4. Regulations from the state and federal level will impact how local governments respond, and local laws may need to be changed in response. Cities can use changes in federal and state regulations as opportunities to assess existing city regulations, spur conversation and education around climate change adaptation, and create city-specific updates to local codes.
    5. Finally, stakeholders will place different priorities on various short- and long-term goals for your city, some of which will conflict. A short-term goal may be real estate development for economic growth, while a long-term goal may be urban growth management to protect valuable natural resources. Conducting role-playing games around issues of climate change adaptation can help to broaden perspectives, facilitate discussion, enhance scenario-planning, and work toward “no-regrets” solutions in which all priorities are met.
• Flooding Role Play Simulation | General Instructions | PON
  
  • Sarah Hammitt and Jessica Artiles under the direction of Professor Lawrence Susskind
  • Evantown Investments is in the final stages of a multi-year planning process for Riverview, a large, riverside mixed-use development. However, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), through its Map Modernization program, recently updated Evantown’s Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM), and now Riverview falls within the 100-year floodplain (defined as an area that has a 1 percent chance of flooding in any given year). In addition, a study by the local university concludes that altered precipitation patterns brought on by climate change will put more and more properties at risk of flooding in the future. Not only do Evantown’s zoning bylaws prohibit development within the 100-year floodplain, the prospect of increasing flood risks poses new questions about safety, liability, property value, appropriate protective measures, and financial responsibility. Should Evantown Investments be allowed to go through with the Riverview development? How and to what extent should Evantown take measures to protect itself against current and projected flood risks? Who is responsible for paying for whatever adaptation measures are used to protect vulnerable areas. And once the Riverview development issue is resolved, should Evantown allow future projects in current and projected floodplains. Major Lessons:
    
    1. In a changing climate, property values may change depending on the property’s location and the relative vulnerability to risk. While the ultimate extent to which vulnerabilities will change cannot be predicted, there is a general trajectory for low-lying areas to become more vulnerable to flooding. Property owners, developers and cities may need to incorporate flexible terms into property agreements to maintain fairness in the system. For example, transfer of development rights, land swaps, and flexible land uses can build more resiliency into the private property market.
    2. Whenever possible, it is critical that cities use data to guide adaptation planning, such as FEMA’s Flood Insurance Rate Maps. Climate models are becoming more accurate and can be downscaled to regional levels. For some areas, these models predict more frequent and more intense storms; the resultant flooding events will impact existing and future development.
    3. Major infrastructure decisions will be made under uncertainty of future conditions. Taking climate projections into account when designing infrastructure is particularly important because infrastructure investments are usually intended to be in place for several decades. Each city will need to discuss how conservative they wish to be with regard to projected risk. The most successful adaptation planning efforts by cities thus far seem to be those aimed at reducing climate change risks as part of ongoing infrastructure planning, growth management, and capital budgeting activities.
    4. Regulations from the state and federal level will impact how local governments respond, and local laws may need to be changed in response. Cities can use changes in federal and state regulations as opportunities to assess existing city regulations, spur conversation and education around climate change adaptation, and create city-specific updates to local codes.
    5. Finally, stakeholders will place different priorities on various short- and long-term goals, some of which will conflict. A short-term goal may be real estate development for economic growth, while a long-term goal may be urban growth management to protect valuable natural resources. Conducting role-playing games around issues of climate change adaptation can help to broaden perspectives, facilitate discussion, enhance scenario planning, and work toward “no-regrets” solutions in which all priorities are met.
• Heat Islands | General Instructions | PON
  
  • Tyler Corson-Rickert and Mónica Oliver under the direction of Professor Lawrence Susskind
  • The city of Evantown experienced two deadly heat waves last summer that revealed the extent of climate change in the region and the poor condition of the city’s low-income housing stock. The greatest casualties during the heat wave were among the elderly and the children of low-income families living in aging public and rental housing. Now the new mayor, who won election decrying the previous mayor’s stumbling response to the crisis, has called together a group of stakeholders to decide how the city should undertake a program of housing retrofits to reduce vulnerability to extreme heat. Should the retrofits focus on public housing or low-income rental housing? Should the city government bear all the cost, or should private homeowners and landlords contribute? What scale and pace of response is appropriate given the uncertainty of climate change and the high costs involved in achieving resilience? Major Lessons:
    
    1. Public policy decisions related to climate change must take into account political, economic, and historical realities. Social and environmental justice issues will certainly arise.
    2. Effective debate on climate adaptation will require a reliance on shared data and forecasts, which may be interpreted differently, but which can provide a believable basis for discussion.
    3. Agreement depends on finding ways to package multiple issues together so that different groups can secure their highest priorities while relaxing their demands in other areas. Tackling issues separately almost always leads to deadlock.
    4. The most feasible adaptation measures are those that meet multiple goals, including objectives that are independent of climate change (and all the uncertainties that come with it). We call these no-regrets actions. They can form the core of a more far-reaching response.
• Joint Fact Finding Simulation - A New Discovery in the Fishery | Complete Game
• Lawrence Dixon under the supervision of Mieke van der Wansem and Professor Lawrence Susskind
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• Offshore Wind Farm Role Play Simulation | General Instructions | PON
  
  • MIT Students in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, under the supervision of Professor Lawrence Susskind and Dr. Herman Karl
  • Wind energy is a viable source of clean, renewable energy. Large areas of America’s continental shelf along the eastern seaboard (from Maine to Virginia) are suitable sites for offshore wind farms. The first such site has been formally proposed. It is located in Nantucket Sound (Massachusetts) in federal waters. The Cape Wind Project, as it is called, is embroiled in controversy. In all likelihood, similar proposals in other locations will be controversial as well. Students in the MIT graduate seminar on "The Use of Joint Fact Finding in Science-Intensive Policy Disputes," supervised by Professor Larry Susskind and Dr. Herman Karl, have developed a role-play simulation that examines the scientific and political conflicts surrounding offshore wind energy development. The objectives of the simulation are to:
    
    1. help participants learn more about the underlying technical issues (especially the potential environmental impacts) surrounding the siting of an offshore wind farm
    2. help participants discover the value of collaborative processes when working with diverse groups of stakeholders in scientific controversies like these, and
    3. introduce the techniques of joint fact finding as a tool for resolving science-intensive policy disputes.
  • Participants who play the two-hour game learn:
    
    1. how to create “value” even in the face of substantial differences of opinion,
    2. how to produce a shared information base even when parties believe radically different things, and
    3. how to deal with uncertainty by using the techniques of adaptive environmental management.
• Rim/Sim Role Playing Simulation | Complete Game
  
  • Rim Sim is a 6-hour, eight-party negotiation that focuses on creating a framework for the long-term disaster-recovery efforts. It involves a range of players from five countries affected by two natural disasters: a typhoon about a year ago and an earthquake about 6 months ago. The players are members of an International Disaster Working Group (IDWG) that has been created by an international commission. The IDWG has been charged with drawing up a framework for managing two issues: the reconstruction of regionally significant infrastructure and the design of a mechanism for allocating funding to each country for reconstruction of local infrastructure and ongoing humanitarian needs. The first issue will involve making choices among five options (two harbor options, two airport options, and one rail-line option), each of which will have three levels at which to rebuild. The second issue will involve five starting-point options. Participants are encouraged to invent other options for both issues. The goal of Rim Sim is to raise questions about traditional approaches to disaster-preparedness planning and reconstruction efforts in an international setting, in this case the Pacific Rim. Players must confront the reverberating effects of disasters and the problems of using science and technical information in decision-making, and are introduced to a consensus-building approach emphasizing face-to-face dialog and multinational cooperation in dealing with humanitarian concerns, as well as long-term efforts to reconstruct local and regional infrastructure.
• Building Coast-Smart Communities: How Will Maryland Adapt to Climate Change? | Complete Game
  
  • Evan Paul
• Finn River Basin | PON
  
  • Danya Rumore, Anjali Lohani, and Mubarik Imam
  • Finn River Basin is a seven-party, seven-person, multi-issue negotiation game involving a dispute over inter-provincial water allocations. It explores issues of prediction and monitoring, water sharing, and the environmental adequacy of water flows. The game introduces a mutual-gains approach (MGA) to negotiation and highlights the benefits of a more collaborative, non-zero- sum approach to managing boundary waters. Concerned about continued drought and the mismanagement of water resources in the Finn River Basin, the Ministerial Council of the Alba national government has convened a meeting of key stakeholders to advise on improved water-management strategies for the Basin. A representative from the Ministerial Council, who has received specific instructions from the national government, will facilitate the meeting. The other stakeholder participants include representatives from each of the four Alban states that share the Finn River Basin—Northland, Eastland, Southland, and Darbin—along with representative from the Ministry of the Environment (a national government agency), and a representative from the Basin Authority (an independent body consisting of politically appointed leaders from each of the four states). If the Ministerial Council representative and at least five of the other stakeholders can reach agreement on a proposed package of actions, the Ministerial Council has agreed to cover the cost of implementation. If at least six of the seven participants cannot reach agreement, it is likely that the Ministerial Council will impose its own Basin-management plan and force the states to pay some or all of the cost of implementation. The seven parties have been asked to addresses three key issues:
    
    1. Water prediction and water-use monitoring: who will develop water-availability predictions and who will monitor water withdrawals?
    2.  Unused water allocations: what should be done with water allocations that are not used by any given state in any given year?
    3.  Environmental flows: should certain amounts of water be allocated to ensure minimum flows during times of drought to protect the environment, and, if so, who should decide what these flows should be and whose shares should be reduced to ensure them?
• Long River | PON
  
  • Catherine Ashcraft and Larry Susskind
  • This is a six-party, seven-person (including the mediator), multi-issue mediation simulation game involving a dispute over developing an instream flow action plan. It introduces and explores the uses of a mutual gains approach to negotiation, mediation, and coalitions in a science-intensive dispute with high uncertainty. This game can be played with either 13 (2 per negotiating role + 1 mediator) or 7 (1 per negotiating role + 1 mediator) players. A river management action team has been assembled to develop a scientifically sound instream flow action plan for the Long River. The team is made up of the governor’s special assistant and representatives from the State Department of Fish and Game, a nearby Tribe, the Regional Water Supplier, an irrigators’ group, and a coalition of environmental and recreational interests. Unless at least five of the stakeholders on this team can agree on an instream flow action plan, it is very likely that federal regulators and the courts will have to step in and impose restrictions of various kinds. A neutral mediator is assisting the negotiating team. The parties must deal with several issues:
    
    1. Instream flow goals: what kinds of values and uses should the parties try to protect and enhance?
    2. Strategies for increasing instream flow: how will the parties try to meet their instream flow goals?
    3. Future development: how should land use planning for future development be integrated into water resource management?
    4. Enforcement: how will the parties implement and monitor their agreement?
• Global Management of Organochlorines | PON
  
  • Lawrence Susskind, Sarah McKearnan, Mike Gordon, Adil Najam, Joshua Secunda, Granville Sewell, Parag Shah and Andrea Strimling
  • In light of recent evidence indicating that organochlorine compounds may pose serious risks to human health and the environment, the Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has decided to gather a Working Group composed of representatives from eight countries, as well as four representatives from various relevant non-governmental organizations to produce a draft of an international treaty which would call for a phase out some of the most harmful organochlorines. Such a process entails resolution, at some level, of the scientific issues surrounding the potential dangers of widespread chlorine usage. Some argue that scientific evidence pointing to the dangers of chlorine is inconclusive, while environmental activists cite the issue as urgent. The issues that must be addressed are (i) how quickly and at what cost should organochlorines be phased out; (ii), which parties should bear the cost of the phase out; (iii) how should the Working Group be administrated and (iv) what impact should NGO’s have on the Working Group. Major Lessons:
    
    1. Underscores the relevance of general lessons about the “basic” skills of negotiations as they apply to multi-party, multi-issue negotiation: i.e. active listening, improving one’s BATNA, focusing on interests instead of positions, inventing options of mutual gain, etc.
    2. Enhances understanding about political dynamics and substantive outcomes likely to merge during an actual negotiation of a global treaty on organochlorines. Provides a means for exploring the technical, political and economic issues likely to be at stake in such a treaty negotiation.
    3. Imparts an understanding of the dynamics of international environmental treaty negotiations as they are currently conducted.
    4. Identifies who the critical actors in international environmental treaty negotiation are, what kinds of interests they bring to the table, why these interests are often seen to be in conflict, and how they might potentially be reconciled through a process of joint problem-solving.
    5. Emphasizes the importance of understanding the interests of internal constituencies and designing negotiation strategies which manage the link between internal and external negotiations. This game also teaches the importance of creating external coalitions without letting internal coalitions crumble.
    6. Demonstrates the value of organizing informal dialogue as a precursor to the formal convention-protocol treaty-making process.
• Owls: Framing a Joint Fact Finding Mission Statement in a Contested Ecosystem Management Situation Role Plays Simulation | Complete Game
  
  • Marco Boscolo under the supervision of Mieke van der Wansem and Professor Lawrence Susskind
  • The construction of a network of new roads began five years ago across private and public lands in the Western U.S. The network cuts across large areas of forests and is meant to fulfill two main purposes. First, it is supposed to link several expanding towns. Second, it is going to allow selective cutting in forests that have not been thinned for decades and that, as a result, are experiencing more and more susceptibility to fire. Years ago, the decision to expand the road network was welcomed by many. People believed that it would increase the local forest industry’s access to timber sources thereby fostering job creation and local development. At the same time, it would make nearby protected areas more accessible to recreational users for hiking, backpacking, and wildlife viewing. Finally, but just as importantly, it was believed that some thinning of the local forests would reduce the probability that a large wildfire would affect the area in the future. A local representative had made the completion of the road network an important element of his re-election campaign. Only a local conservation organization had voiced concern with the proposed plan, arguing that the expansion of the road network would fragment one of the last large and continuous tracts of forest in the area.
• Ground-Level Ozone: A Negotiated Rule-Making Process on Varara's Air Pollution Crisis | General Instructions
  
  • Dong-Young Kim, Javier Warman, and Jedidiah H. Horne under the supervision of Professor Lawrence Susskind
  • Varara is the capital city of Camitia, a rapidly developing Third World country. Varara is the political and financial heart of the nation. It is also a federal district; much like Washington D.C. in the United States, it is a city/state that houses the federal government’s offices. Topographically and geographically, Varara is particularly susceptible to air pollution; its low latitude and high altitude aggravate airborne pollution, which is caused primarily by a surplus of old, polluting vehicles and industries.
• Forest-Swamp: The Future of a River Basin | General Instructions
  
  • Tijs van Maasakkers and Deborah Lightman under the supervision of Professor Lawrence Susskind
  • The Forest-Swamp is changing. It used to be a seemingly endless “river of trees” but in recent decades, sediment has built up, water conditions have deteriorated, and ecosystems have changed. The Sandy River is the source of the Forest-Swamp’s water and sediment (see Appendix A). It was leveed and dammed fifty years ago to provide protection from floods. These infrastructure projects altered the flow of the river and set off the changes in the Forest-Swamp. The Forest-Swamp sustains numerous industries and employs many of the area’s residents. Forestry, fishing, and energy have long been central to the local economy. Tourism is important to the region, and tourism groups believe that there is potential to further expand eco-tourism. The Forest-Swamp is also a unique ecological and cultural resource. It is home to all kinds of flora and fauna including endangered bats and frogs. Many families have lived on its shores for generations, and are passionate about its future wellbeing. Most stakeholders are worried about changes to the Forest-Swamp, but to date management efforts have not been able to halt its transformation. The Federal Water Service, the state government and the non-governmental Environmental Federation are all working to protect the future of the Forest-Swamp, but the different stakeholders do not always agree about what should be done and how to do it.