The simulation game on operational flood management: the tool for implementation of IWRM in the floo

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The simulation game on operational flood
management the tool for implementation of IWRM
in the flood protection strategy
Marta Martínková1,Václav Klecka2, Pavel Eger2,
árka Blaková1
1 T. G. Masaryk Water Research Institute, public
research institution Podbabská 30, 160 00 Praha
6 Czech Republic e-mail marta_martinkova_at_vuv.cz
internet http//www.vuv.cz
2 Povodí Ohre, Bezrucova 4219 430 03
Chomutov Czech Republic
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Introduction

• Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)
• promotes the coordinated development and
  management of water, land and related resources
  in order to maximize the resultant economic and
  social welfare in an equitable manner without
  compromising the sustainability of vital
  ecosystems.
• Adaptive management
• emphasizes the limitations of our knowledge
• considers different types of uncertainty in the
  management process and the system itself
• Collaboration and learning are central elements.

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Operational flood management

• Many uncertainties (e.g. in forecasts)
• Decisions about operations have to be made in
  short time
• far-reaching consequences of decisions
• It is physically impossible to be prepared for
  catastrophic flood in such way that prevents any
  damages

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Motivation

• Increased coordination and cooperation among
  stakeholders involved in flood situation
• Flood damages distinctively decreased

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Motivation 2

• The intensity of rainfall and consequently the
  frequency of floods are expected to increase
  globally under climate change and catastrophic
  floods would occur also in areas non-affected to
  date (Bates et al. 2008).

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Motivation 3

• Active methods of learning are more effective
  than passive ones.
• Collaboration enhances learning.

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Objective

• To enhance the understanding, to increase the
  integration and the cooperation among different
  water resources management stakeholders
  preferably during the flood event.

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Method Cooperative learning

• Heterogenous groups are engaged in a common task
  in which each individual depends on and is
  accountable to each other.
• The common task
• to operate the reservoirs in an optimal way
  during a computer based simulation of operational
  flood management

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Workshop on SG

• The SG was realized during two days workshop
  (11th and. 12th November 2008)
• at the Ohre River Board (Povodí Ohre)
  headquarters in Chomotov, Czech Republic.
• To demonstrate clearly the uncertainties
  connected to using the meteorological forecasts
  and the uncertainties connected to operational
  decisions during flood.
• To check the possibilities for using the SG for
  the training of experts and water management
  students.

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4 playing teams

• Representatives of local and regional authorities
  - environment departments (3 in each team) and
  crisis management (2 in each team).
• LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
• Operational flood management experts a control
  room staff (dispatchers) of other reservoirs
  systems in the Czech Republic (2 in each team).
• EXPERT KNOWLEDGE

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Set-up of SG

• The outputs of the game software has to be
  similar to the outputs of the real operation
  software, but has to be simplified so that they
  could be quickly understood by
• non-experts.
• The information on inputs and outputs of the
  individual steps of SG has to illustrate properly
  the procedure and the involved uncertainties.

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The SG simulates precipitation (magnified
experienced event), inflow in reservoirs and the
effect of operations.
Set-up of game cont.
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Set-up of game cont.

• the standard hardware and software equipment of
  the operational control room was provided to the
  playing teams.
• Hydrological answer on individual teams
  operation was simulated and then provided to the
  teams in same form as it is provided to control
  room staff during the real flood situation.

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The tasks

• to operate the reservoirs in an optimal way,
• to decide about warnings and evacuations,
• to deal with unexpected situations.

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Simulation game

• works in virtual time steps of different length.
  Regarding the characteristics of modeled
  precipitation event the time steps are longer at
  beginning of the SG and shorter later.

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Virtual time Real time
total 213 hours
total 735 (8) hours

• RUN (12 or 24 hours)
• STOP
• STOP

• 20 min
• 10-20 min teams analyses situation available
  forecasts
• decide about operations
• 20 min Computation
• of hydrological answer for each team (effect
  of operations)

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Simulation control centre

• Organizers of SG
• Observers
• Took control of the SG process.
• Simulated the backround (media).
• Simulated the unexpected situation.

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Results
Optimal operations
Team 1
Team 2
Team 3
Team 4
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Evaluation

• effectivity criteria of participatory processes
  (Rowe a Frewer 2000, 2004).
• expectations of participants before the game
• perceptions and feedback after the game

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Results cont.

• 1) More than a half of the respondents fully
  agreed that after the SG the communication with
  other stakeholders would be easier than before.
• 2) The non-expert participants expressed that
  they better understand their own and others
  roles during the flood.
• 3) They also agreed that their view on floods had
  been shifted and that SG helped to improve their
  knowledge on floods.
• 4) More than a half of all respondents fully
  agreed that the purpose of SG had been explained
  well.
• 5) The most of the respondents agreed that they
  enjoyed the SG and that the whole workshop left a
  good impression.

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Conclusions

• The realization of the SG of operational flood
  management proved that it is effective tool for
  the enhancement of the integration and the
  cooperation among the water management
  stakeholders.
• It can be also used for the purposes of
  professionals and students training.

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Outlook

• New realisations (November 2009 Karlovy
  Vary/Karlsbad regional authority)
• Modification of SG for simulation of droughts