Call For Water is a serious game (developed in the CLARA H2020 project and is also part of the HEPEX initiative) and follows a storyline that sets the decision-making context. Participants play the role of reservoir managers of a fictional reservoir which supplies water to a town.

The main objectives are primarily to ensure a water supply to the “Thirsty town” for the summer season, and secondarily to manage an available budget while securing the water supply to the town. In order to supply sufficient water to the town for the whole summer season, the reservoir has to contain an adequate water volume on June 1st. The decision-making takes place from March to May each year, and participants are consecutively presented with seasonal probabilistic forecasts of reservoir levels three months, two months, and one month ahead of the beginning of the summer season. Based on these forecasts, participants decide if they should ask their neighbours to ensure the water supply, or if they can sell surplus water, or if they should do nothing.

The objective of the game is to train participants to specific forecasting concepts, and to investigate how forecasts are used in decision-making contexts. With an increasing number of hydroclimate services being developed in the past years, it becomes crucial to understand how users apprehend and make use of the forecast quality information provided alongside these services.

The game is not limited to any participant group: participants could have a background on, among others, hydrology, climate, engineering, economy, environment, and agronomy. Additionally, participants could be forecasters, consultants, researchers, decision-makers, traders and other. Through this role-playing game, one can achieve the following:

(1) train participants to the concepts of uncertainty and reliability in seasonal forecasting, and

(2) help service providers investigate the levels of uncertainty and reliability participants are willing to base a risky decision on.

Fun during the game is a key output! In addition, the participants will improve their understanding of concepts and attributes of probabilistic forecasting and decision-making.

More information HERE

Note: The game is played anonymously. However, at the very end of the game, there is an option to add “Comments”. Please indicate there the codename “PrimeWater” to help us track the responses coming from the PrimeWater network.