Abstract | Games and knowledge broking to change decision behaviours

Environmental practitioners are at the heart of dealing with changing and uncertain environmental conditions, some of which are slowly emerging, yet require decisions today. Rising seas are one such issue which appears distant to many yet contested by some. Approaches have been developed for this type of problem, one of which, Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways planning (DAPP), assists decision makers to think and plan over long time frames by creating flexibility over the lifetime of the decision. This enables decisions to be made in the short-term without compromising further actions in the long-term. However, to enable such approaches to be taken up by decision makers and their advisers, we need to better understand what it takes to catalyse uptake of DAPP. We examined the role of a simulation game facilitated by a knowledge broker, in a real-life decision setting on flood risk management.

Four intervention phases over four years are described and their influence analysed:

1. Creating interest through framing the science,
2. Increasing awareness using the Game,
3. Experimenting with DAPP, and
4. Uptake of DAPP.

We found that a knowledge broker introducing new framing of changing risk profiles, facilitating use of the Game and the DAPP approach, with contextual support from events and (inter)national reports, catalysed the uptake of adaptive pathways thinking. Enabling requirements necessary for embedding adaptive planning into decision-making practice were also identified. This study works on the basis of shifting mind-sets and thus the behaviours of decision makers toward longer time frames thus enabling them to deal with uncertainty without delaying decisions in the short-term.

Bio | Dr Judy Lawrence

Judy Lawrence is Senior Research Fellow, at the New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute, Victoria University Wellington (VUW) and Director of PS Consulting Ltd, a strategy and policy consultancy in science, climate change adaptation and related governance and institutional issues. Prior to this she held a range of senior positions in government and local government in New Zealand. Judy has a PhD in Public Policy from Victoria University of Wellington on the adequacy of institutional frameworks and practice for climate change adaptation decision making. She is currently Co-chair the New Zealand Government’s Climate Change Adaptation Technical Working Group advising on New Zealand-wide adaptation.

Judy’s current research interests include developing design parameters for institutions for implementing climate change adaptation measures over long timeframes, including adaptation funding measures that can address uncertainty and changing risk profiles, and that are equitable across generations. She has led research on climate change adaptation and impacts and implications for decision making. Judy currently leads two Deep South Science Challenge projects— Cascading Climate Change Impacts and Implications and Adaptive Decision- making Tools and Measures and she contributes to two Resilience Science Challenge projects—The Living Edge and Resilience Governance.

Judy has led the development and implementation of the Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways (DAPP) planning approach in New Zealand that addresses changing natural hazard and climate change risk profiles and uncertainty. This research and practice are based on a collaboration with Deltares, the Netherlands, and New Zealand local government. She is Membership Chair of the Society for Decision-Making under Deep Uncertainty http://www.deepuncertainty.org/ an international multi-disciplinary network of researchers and practitioners developing tools and their application across domains such as environment, water, defence and transport.