Beat the Uncertainty: Planning Climate-Resilient Cities

Activity Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

Background

In this game, you and your fellow players are the leaders (policymakers, business leaders, nonprofit leaders, and researchers) of a coastal city. You are excited about making your city a better place, but you also face many challenges — ​like climate change. One impact of climate change is rising sea level, putting your city at risk of flooding and saltwater getting into the soil and freshwater. Other effects of climate change include more severe hurricanes, more heat waves, and heavier rainfall. While you may not know the exact impacts climate change will have on your city, how severe they will be, or when they will occur, your job is to make smart decisions to increase resilience to these potential impacts.

Materials

Procedure

  1. Use craft materials to decorate the outside of the large container to represent the city’s “coastline.” The bottom of the buildings should be in a straight line, about one inch above the container’s midline (see image).

  2. Pour water into the container until it is an inch below the coastline.

  3. Assemble the Climate Events Booklet, but do not read until after step 1 of game play!

Game Play

  1. Place the small condiment container in the water. This is your boat.

  2. Design your climate-resilient city! Look over the Resilience Measure Checklist and mark which measures you will use to protect your city from climate change. You have a budget of 70 million credits to spend on resilience measures.

  3. Roll 2 dice. Use the Booklet to identify the corresponding climate threat.

  4. Look at the resilience measures listed with the threat you rolled. “The Good” are resilience measures you might have taken. Some pages also have “The Bad,” which make your city less resilient!

  5. Check the resilience measures you selected. Use the instructions on the card to determine how many beads to add to your boat.

  6. Repeat steps 3-5 until your boat sinks.

Analysis

  1. What happened to the sea level as you added beads to your boat? What did this represent?

  2. How resilient was your city? If possible, compare your results to other groups.

  • 12+ rolls: You are Masters of Resilience!

  • 10–12 rolls: You designed a very resilient city!

  • 7–9 rolls: Your city withstood some climate impacts but not others.

  • 4–6 rolls: Your city was very vulnerable to climate change.

  • 1–3 rolls: Are you just trying to splash in the water?

  1. If you were to repeat this activity, how would you change your choices of resilience measures? Why do you think these would help your city be more resilient than your initial choices?

Further Steps

Learn more about the ocean and explore all of NOAA’s educational resources.

NGSS Connections

  • SEP: Developing and Using Models
  • DCI: ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems
  • CCC: Systems and Systems Models

SDG Connections