Combining ecosystem modelling with serious gaming

06/19/2023 - 10:48

Marine ecosystems are under increasing pressure because of a wide variety of human activities. It is, therefore, of international importance to manage and plan marine space well. In this article, the authors – including several BUas AGM (Academy for Games and Media) Research colleagues - examined whether this can be supported by interconnecting BUas’ Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Challenge Simulation Platform with ecosystem modelling software Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE).

Research

MSP is a political and administrative process concerning the protection of marine ecosystems and the organisation of human activities in those ecosystems considering ecological, economic and social impacts. Together with other parties, Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas) developed the MSP Challenge Simulation Platform. This is a platform that allows users to collaboratively negotiate and manipulate sea regions and learn about their broader implications. The platform helps decision-makers, stakeholders and students to better understand and manage the maritime economy and marine environment.

In order to find out whether the MSP Challenge Simulation Platform can be used to examine ecological impact, the EwE food web modelling approach was connected to this platform. In this process, they specifically looked at the changes in environmental conditions and fisheries regulations. These components were then inserted into the system, so that the influence on these components over time and space can be calculated and fed back to the users.

For this study, two existing published and previously fitted EwE models were integrated into the MSP Challenge Simulation Platform: one representing the North Sea and the other representing the Firth of Clyde (west coast of Scotland). They chose these two areas because they differ greatly in their characteristics and thus provide a broad overview of the results.

The results show that the MSP Challenge Simulation Platform, enhanced with the EwE models, can contribute to the planning of marine activities. The EwE models add ecological repercussions to the gameplay, so that they can be considered beforehand.

Future work in this area will be, among other things, exploring new geographic areas with different characteristics and ecosystems. At the time of writing this is already happening. The platform now also supports a Baltic Sea EwE model, and work is progressing on supporting the Eastern Mediterranean Sea as well as the Adriatic Sea.

To learn more about this research project, please visit our website: https://pure.buas.nl/en/publications/combining-ecosystem-modeling-with-serious-gaming-in-support-of-tr