Els van Daalen

Functional design of games to support natural resource management policy development

This article works toward a conceptual framework for designing games to support policy development for managing natural resources. The point of departure for this framework is a typology for functions of games in support of policy. This typology consists of six classes of functions of a policy game: research and analyze policy contexts as systems, design and recommend alternative solutions to a policy problem, provide advice to a client on what strategy to follow in the policy process, mediate between di ferent stakeholders, democratize policy development by actively bringing in stakeholder views, and clarify the values and arguments pertinent to the policy discourse. These functions are illustrated using specific examples of games that have been used in the domain of natural resource management (NRM). The framework discussed in this article may help game designers to match specific game properties (players, roles, rewards, and representations of the NRM context) with the intended function of the game in the policy-development process.

Investigating the effects of uncertainties in the upstream gas sector

Natural gas is expected to become more important in the future to support the energy transition. However, the upstream gas sector faces many uncertainties which complicate the decision making to supply the required amounts of natural gas. This study deals with these uncertainties, by framing the natural gas production in a system of systems perspective, building a system dynamics model, carrying out an exploratory analysis and testing policy options. The results show that the annual production volume, energy consumption, onshore land use and CO2 emission objectives can be achieved in the Netherlands only in a small portion of the future scenarios. Policies such as production limits and end of field life techniques are beneficial to increase the production, but also increase CO2 emissions. In future studies, more policy alternatives can be generated and tested, the uncertainty analysis can be extended and the model can be used in broader energy models.

Uncertainties in the development of unconventional gas production in Europe

As increasing import dependency raises doubts about the future security of gas supply in Europe, indigenous production especially from unconventional resources emerges as a promising solution for this problem. However, the development of unconventional gas production in Europe is challenged by several uncertainties related to the technology, reserves, societal and political issues. For a better analysis of the development of unconventional gas, and for better decision support, these uncertainties should be clearly identified. This paper systematically identifies and categorizes the uncertainties challenging the European unconventional gas development, and highlights the causal relations between the uncertainties in order to enhance their understanding. The impacts of the uncertainties discussed in this study on the development can be investigated in detail in future scenario analysis or modeling studies.

Veerkracht 2.0

Veerkracht is a game for servant-leadership development. Although the first version of the game already provided a rather authentic environment for professional training, some players reported that it did not sufficiently provide the rich and meaningful interaction required to practice leadership skills. To revise the game we took inspiration from the literature on embodied cognition and added embodied interactions with non-player characters. An evaluation of the revised game, Veerkracht 2.0, yielded significant increases in some of the learning effects when compared to the original game. Further analysis showed that the increased learning was to a large extent due to the revised (embodied) interactions in the game. We concluded that, although some questions remain unanswered, embodied cognition seems a promising area of research for improving game designs and game design theories.

Changing Influence of Factors Explaining Household Car Ownership Levels in the Netherlands

To contribute to existing research on the influence of various factors on household car ownership in the Netherlands, this study addressed the question whether and to what extent the influence of economic, sociodemographic, and spatial factors on the number of cars owned by households has changed over time. There seems to be an absence of studies investigating the changing influence of these factors on car ownership in recent decades, and in the Netherlands. The study used the statistical method of ordered logistic regression on household mobility data on 162,593 households, collected by the National Traffic Survey of the Netherlands in 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2010, and 2014. The results show that the influence of household income, size, composition, gender, age, education, working status, and suburbanization levels on car ownership changed substantially between 1987 and 2014. The strong influence of household income on household car ownership diminished quite remarkably between 1987 and 2014, whereas the influence of household size grew significantly during the period. The results could serve as a first step toward a predictive model that endogenously estimates household car ownership levels in the Netherlands.