Ciudadanos del Agua
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What does Ciudadanos del Agua mean ?
Ciudadanos del Agua is a mobile application structured under the metrics of a serious game. This initiative aims to meet the need of an innovative technological tool for awareness and training on water resources.
Motivation of Ciudadanos del Agua "Serious game"
The difficult implementation of water management awareness processes, the need for more innovative training methods for new generations, the low valuation of natural resources and the underestimation of the consequences of not caring for and conserving water is a latent reality.
Nowadays, technological advances, individual learning and personal management of information are becoming increasingly popular, making it necessary to create awareness-raising and training tools in line with this new culture. For this reason, the implementation of serious games applied to easy-to-use and accessible technological platforms has become an indispensable tool that generates change.
What is the objective of Ciudadanos del Agua?
Ciudadanos del Agua is a Sustainable Social Awareness Game, It is purpose is to create citizen awareness, facilitate the development of decision-making capabilities in the community in terms of water resources (water care, environmental care, and water availability in the region), and through the contribution of citizens, obtain data and information that can help in the knowledge and understanding of reaction to the situations raised in the game while promoting the concept of citizens and researchers in the area of water resources
Ciudadanos del Agua
Ciudadanos del Agua
Whose initiative is the serious game Ciudadanos del Agua?
In the framework of the S-MULTISTOR project and its interest in the Magdalena River basin, strategic alliances have been created in Colombia between the Colombian School of Engineering Julio Garavito led by Dr. German Ricardo Santos Granados Co-Director of the project, and Laura Viviana Garzón Useche Project Coordinator and IHE Delft Institute for Water Education Netherlands led by Dr. Gerald Augusto Corzo Pérez Co-Director of the project. These alliances have allowed the development of research and modeling of the Magdalena River since 2017, with the aim of facilitating better management and contributing to decision-making on water resources. In this same sense, in line with the need to create innovative tools for environmental awareness and training, since October 2019 and part of 2020, the cellular application called Ciudadanos del agua (Water Citizens) was created.
An initiative that together with Tolima government entities such as Asocentro del Tolima, Academies such as the Cooperative University of Colombia Ibagué- Espinal headquarters, and the energy company CELSIA will carry out the implementation process in the Coello river basin. These three institutions together with the School and IHE Delft will lead the implementation in the region which will be accompanied by a reforestation program implemented by the energy company CELSIA called ReverdeC and a joint research project implemented by all the academic institutions involved.
What region is the Ciudadanos del agua App based on?
What region is the Ciudadanos del agua App based on?
Location
Location
Ciudadanos del Agua is a game that represents the Coello River basin, which is located in the west of the Tolima Department in the Central-Eastern side of the Central Mountain Range, center of Colombia. Among its characteristics is that the Coello river begins in the cone of the Nevado del Tolima at an altitude of 3,600 m.a.s.l. with a slope of 18%. It has a length of 124.760 km draining an extension of 184,257.1 ha corresponding to approximately 7.8% of the total area of the Department of Tolima.
It is of great importance to emphasize that within the Greater Coello River Basin is part of the Los Nevados National Natural Park and its Buffer Zone, which has forest relicts that are within the Regional System of Protected Areas (SIRAP), becoming a biological corridor that shelters not only resident species of the area, but also resident species at a regional level. Also within it is a large part of the Anaime Paramo, which is of great importance because the Anaime River is born there and IT is a reservoir of water, flora and fauna in danger of extinction (Characteristics of the study area major basin of the Coello river, CORTOLIMA).
Economic description
Economic description
The agricultural activities, the industry and the services are the basis of the economy of the Tolima department. Rice, sesame, sorghum, coffee, cotton, sugarcane, soya, corn, tobacco, cassava and fruits are the products of the, largely industrialized, agricultural activity that this region has. The livestock sector is led by cattle with 599,711 specimens in 2015, followed by swine, horses, goats, sheep and buffaloes. The poultry sector and aquaculture production are also of great importance here. In this department, services are mainly commercial, of transport and of communications. Also, the development of the industry is given with the production of food, beverages, soaps, textiles, cement and some construction materials. The mining activity is not very developed, but precious metals are mined and crude oil and natural gas are extracted.
The agricultural activities, the industry and the services are the basis of the economy of the Tolima department. Rice, sesame, sorghum, coffee, cotton, sugarcane, soya, corn, tobacco, cassava and fruits are the products of the, largely industrialized, agricultural activity that this region has. The livestock sector is led by cattle with 599,711 specimens in 2015, followed by swine, horses, goats, sheep and buffaloes. The poultry sector and aquaculture production are also of great importance here. In this department, services are mainly commercial, of transport and of communications. Also, the development of the industry is given with the production of food, beverages, soaps, textiles, cement and some construction materials. The mining activity is not very developed, but precious metals are mined and crude oil and natural gas are extracted.
Climatology
Climatology
There is a great diversity of climates in the greater Coello River basin, including cold humid, cold semi-humid, temperate humid, temperate semi-humid, warm semi-humid and warm semi-arid. The average temperature in this basin is 19.8°C, with a minimum temperature of 9.3°C and a maximum temperature of 28.6°C. The average precipitation in the basin is 1517.8 mm/year, with annual maximums close to 2230 mm/year and minimums close to 1075 mm/year. All this information is based on data from climatological stations for the period between 1987 and 2002.
¿How to play Ciudadanos del Agua?
The game is represented with the Coello river basin in the form of 4 3D puzzles, each of these representations will show relevant information of the basin such as: areas affected by each sector, rainfall gift, topography of the region, among others. The pieces of the puzzle simulate all the activities that involve or affect the water resource, based on the current reality. Each piece is related to a location in the basin and a sector which the player will identify with a color as follows: Engineering(purple), environment(green), health(red), agriculture(lime green), livestock(orange) and education(blue).
Ciudadanos del agua is a team game, each team consists of 4 people, where the user will have 3 ways to create his team: 1. he can play with his group of friends, 2. challenge online users or 3. invite friends from his social networks. When the team is formed, the system randomly assigns a role to each player. This role is related to a sector (engineering, environment, health, agriculture, livestock and education) which the player must represent during the game, and this role will also be related to a sustainable development goal SDG assigned as a goal to follow and to ensure the stability of the sector.
When the players have their assigned role and have identified their pieces in the puzzle and the watershed, the game begins. It shows the future of the basin affected by climate change, overpopulation, misuse of water resources, pollution of tributaries and overdemands in the basin. This situation will be represented by means of two diagrams, the first is a circular diagram showing the percentage of sustainable development indicators in the region, the second is a linear diagram representing the stability of the indicators. The player's objective will be to travel to the past and carry out 4 actions: one in 2019, the second in 2009, the third in 1999 and the fourth in 1989. Each of the actions will be represented by moving an icon to the basin where its sector has missing puzzle pieces. The icons are assigned with different actions for each sector and these in turn are related to an indicator and a specific water consumption or saving. As the player and decision-maker of the sector to which you have been assigned, you will have to evaluate which action (represented by the icons) will be the most appropriate according to the year in which you will execute it, the basin's problems and the level of the indicator you are in charge of. To make a decision, each player will have 5 minutes, which will be counted by means of the stopwatch. At the end of the time, the four players will receive the state of the basin by means of the 2 diagrams where the stability of the water resource in the region will be evidenced. Subsequently, the following year will be assigned with a new problem, but starting from the state corresponding to the first 4 actions. The game continued in this way until each player performs the actions and completes the pieces in the basin. Their mission will be to carry out the most appropriate actions in each situation, taking into account that the basin is variable, that they must overcome obstacles, that they must increase the assigned indicator and that the actions of their opponents also affect the performance and stability of their sector.
River basin model of the Coello
River basin model of the Coello
Characteristics of Ciudadanos del Agua
Characteristics of Ciudadanos del Agua
Ciudadanos del Agua is a unique and different tool because:
1. It is a tool that integrates the simulation of water resources in a serious gaming environment that allows generating scenarios, get feedback from people and provides a concept of environmental awareness adapted to the current technological culture (Tel. Cellular).
2. It is a tool that monitors knowledge before and after each game, allowing in a simple way to monitor people's answers and knowledge.
3. The concept used required the reduction of complex watershed interactions and therefore advanced hydrology model replacements trained with artificial intelligence were used.
4. The game has been designed in such a way that it can be adapted to be used with models from any other hydrological zone and to adapt questions to the different water cultures of the different regions.
¿What is the technical structure of Ciudadanos del agua?
¿What is the technical structure of Ciudadanos del agua?
Ciudadanos del agua is a serious game built with 5 essential pillars that can be changed in the game, to be applied in other regions. These pillars are described as follows:
Graphical representation of the 3D model of the Coello river basin.
The basis of questions is based on the problems of the region regarding the water resource, the socioeconomic activities of the region and their relationship with water.
The hydrological model of the Coello river basin created using the Weap tool.
Artificial intelligence model called "Surrogate model" which can be recalibrated for any river basin.
The database is in a firebase system and Flutter (mobile phone) which is from Google and its scalability limitations are almost null.
Each of the pillars is designed as executable files that allow to create new adaptations to other basins easily and without the need to generate changes in the base structure.
How was the modeling in WEAP performed?
How was the modeling in WEAP performed?
The modeling of the Coello river basin for the Ciudadanos del Agua application was developed using the Weap tool. A tool created by the Stockholm Environmental Institute to support water resources planning.
The models were created based on the need to recreate the reality in the basin for each year according to the decisions to be made by the players. Based on this, 5 models were created, one for each year. The first one represents the year 2039, evaluating climatological variations affected by climate change projections. For the 2019, 2009, 1999 and 1989 models, climatological data were downloaded and adjusted by WEAP, evaluating the corresponding time series for each year. This allowed the simulation of variables such as: precipitation, base flows, and groundwater recharge from precipitation; analysis of sectoral demands; water conservation; allocation priorities; reservoir operations; hydropower generation; pollution monitoring; vulnerability evaluations; and ecosystem requirements. The relationship of these variables in the model involved 2 types of data. The first were supplied by governmental entities such as Cortolima, the Mayor's Office, Ideam, Ibal, among others. The second type of data related to the topic of sectoral demands was related to articles on cases and conditions similar to those present in this basin. In this way, the characteristics of the basin and its real water availability for the study years are represented, but scenarios that evaluate the demands represented in the basin are generated.
The created scenarios correspond to distribution, prioritization, allocation, decrease or increase of water demands in the basin. For each of the sectors (engineering, environment, health, education, agriculture and livestock) related to the game, actions such as variation in efficiency of treatment plants and hydroelectric plants, losses in conduction systems, variation in capacity and quantity of water for irrigation, variation in land cover and land use, variation in the amount of savings or consumption in domestic areas, hospitals and education sectors, among others, were generated. Each change that corresponds to a scenario is given by a Python script where it relates 4 possible combinations according to the sector that corresponds to each player.
Co-Director Ciudadanos del Agua
PhD. German R. Santos Granados
Co-Director Ciudadanos del Agua
Ing. Laura Garzón Useche
Coordinator Ciudadanos del Agua
Ing. Carolina Serrano Ortíz
Professional in charge in Colombia
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