A Game-Based Service to Mitigate the Risk of Inundations Caused by Solid Waste Accumulation

Abstract

The number of people living in metropolitan areas of Mexico has steadily grown over the last decades. However, a lack of proper regulations has led to various consequences. An example of this is the mishandling of solid waste. A 2018 study reported that, in our country, 27% of solid waste remains in the cities, and only 12% is recycled. For that reason, garbage accumulation on urban areas is an environmental concern. To address this problem, a law for the management of waste was promulgated. Nevertheless, despite government efforts, the issue continues to aggravate with time. Another dilemma that affects our territory is that many regions are flood-prone. Together, solid waste and seasonal floods result in blockages of the drainage systems in cities, which in turn leads to the stagnation of large amounts of water and inundations. To mitigate the risk of inundations caused by solid waste accumulation, we developed a game-based service. The name of the ludic tool that we developed for this purpose is Wood of War: a pervasive, mobile serious game that motivates players to register places with a high concentration of solid waste. The service works as follows: first, we contrast game-generated registers with information of rainwater flow to determine high-risk zones and to create heat maps; then, we present the maps to the corresponding (local) authorities, so that they may optimize their garbage collecting efforts. To explore the viability of our approach, we tested our service in a pilot study. Additionally, we conducted interviews with government officials to learn their impressions. In this chapter, we present a summary of the results, a discussion of the benefits and limitations of our project, and our plans to consolidate the service.