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Smart Technology and Gamification for Exploring the Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 2544

Special Issue Editors

School of Business, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, ‎Australia
Interests: coastal systems and ecosystem services; social-ecological modelling; system dynamics modelling; serious games and gamification; Bayesian modelling; decision support systems; app development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Engineering & Built Environment, Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia
Interests: waste management; systems thinking; system dynamics; serious gaming; product stewardship; decision-support system; data science

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There is a growing realisation that research on social–ecological systems should integrate key drivers, processes and responses that interact within, and have feedback on, the system that is being investigated. Often, this integrative approach requires combining knowledge and data from a variety of sources, including the participation and collaboration of researchers from diverse domains, decision makers and other stakeholders. This holistic approach is particularly relevant for ‘wicked problems’ because it reflects the challenges in disentangling the suite of human- and natural-related drivers that are acting and interacting on the system.

Smartphones and touchscreen tablets (virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality) have collectively emerged as an effective mechanism for participatory engagement and for bridging the gap between science and policy (uptake). Whilst much of the development of this smart and experiential technology has only occurred over the last decade, its already widespread use means that there is strong familiarity and acceptance amongst the community.

In parallel to this, gaming technology software such as Unity3D is becoming increasingly powerful in their capacity to create realistic and dynamic 3-dimensional ‘landscapes’. These landscapes provide an avenue for immersing the ‘user’ into a system where they can interact directly within the environment and see the consequences of their decisions manifest in front of them. These gaming software readily allow multiplayer modes so that the dynamics of the system are responding to the decisions of multiple users. Furthermore, coders have access to the algorithms controlling the system, entailing that elements of system dynamics, agent-based modelling and statistical relationships (for example) can be integrated into the game environment. In essence, gaming software provides a way of modellers and nonmodellers to engage in a visually rich numerical playground that can be used for exploring and managing social-ecological systems. 

The purpose here is to provide an opportunity for researchers to share their research in this new frontier of using smart technology and gamification for exploring the sustainability of social–ecological systems.

The SI editors invite the submission of papers that provide research insights into the use of smart technology and/or gaming-style software for understanding and managing social–ecological systems.

Dr. Russell Richards
Prof. Dr. Oz Sahin
Dr. Hengky Salim
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • social–ecological systems
  • gamification
  • co-design
  • experiential
  • end-user engagement

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 3406 KiB  
Article
R3SOLVE: A Serious Game to Support End-of-Life Rooftop Solar Panel Waste Management
by Hengky Salim, Rodney Anthony Stewart, Oz Sahin, Birthe Sagstad and Michael Dudley
Sustainability 2021, 13(22), 12418; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132212418 - 10 Nov 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1944
Abstract
A complex systems model is necessary to holistically address the end-of-life (EoL) solar panel waste problem. However, there is a significant challenge in communicating such a model to stakeholders. Serious games can overcome this challenge by simplifying a complex model via a user-friendly [...] Read more.
A complex systems model is necessary to holistically address the end-of-life (EoL) solar panel waste problem. However, there is a significant challenge in communicating such a model to stakeholders. Serious games can overcome this challenge by simplifying a complex model via a user-friendly interface. It enables stakeholders to experiment with different decisions and understand their long-term impacts in a safe environment. In this paper, a serious game called R3SOLVE was designed from a previously developed system dynamics (SD) model. The goal of the game is to achieve certain collection and recovery outcomes through a mix of decisions ranging from product stewardship strategies, landfill regulation, technological investment, promotional effort, reuse strategy, and infrastructure improvement. The game has a single player mode, where a player can access all decisions, and a multiplayer (turn-based) mode, where two players with different roles work collaboratively to achieve the desired outcome. Rewards and penalties also exist in the game to promote players’ extrinsic motivation to use critical thinking. Both game modes have been tested in separate workshops to identify bugs and issues regarding goal clarity and in-game information. Future directions to conduct stakeholder workshops and the evaluation approach are also suggested at the end of this paper. Full article
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