Design of a Serious Game to Inform the Public About the Critical Zone

Abstract

The Critical Zone (CZ), the near surface more portion of the terrestrial Earth is a complex concept that plays a pivotal role in the food-energy-water nexus. Due to its complexity, the concept of the CZ and its components are not well understood by society. Challenges range from imagining the invisible (the soil, rock, and water beneath us) to understanding complex relations between the involved components. To create awareness on a societal level, we have initiated a transdisciplinary project driven by immersive and gaming technologies that allow for an extension of what physical reality offers society about the concept of the CZ. We have developed a serious iVR game that enables learners to have a concrete experience about the CZ, and how natural and human processes affect it.