Choose Your Avatar: Intel Enters the Water Wars

I know - I'm supposed to eschew the term 'water wars.'

And yes, I do mean 'Intel' the company, not 'intel' as in 'intelliegence.' But I don't mean 'water wars' in the usual sense. In fact, what Intel's doing, along with Sandia National Laboratories, may prevent conflict over water.

[Disclosure notice: my wife is the Intel corporate libraries manager. She has no connection to the program I'm about to describe. I served on Intel's community advisory board for several years when I lived in Albuquerque, NM.]

Can Intel make a difference when it comes to better water management, grassroots participation in and access to decision-making and policy-making, and conflict management and resolution? That's a tall order, but they are working on it.

Yesterday I spoke with Tad Hirsch, a designer who works for Intel's People and Practices group. He described a 'water wars' game they are developing with my friend Dr. Vince Tidwell of  Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque.

Now, before you say 'Big deal!' let me say that this game is different from some other games used in decision-making and conflict management, such as the system dynamics (SD) models described in Marjan van den Belt's Mediated Modeling: A System Dynamics Approach To Environmental Consensus Building.

The Intel game involves an open-source platform that mimics Second Life,  the 3D virtual world where individuals create avatars, then socialize and connect with others. In other words, you can take role-playing to a higher level. I'm guessing an SD or some similar model is embedded in the platform. 

Intel's game allows role-playing in a water context. You can become a farmer, and specify what you're going to grow, how many acres you will plant, etc.  You can assume the mantle of a homeowner, who wants to know how much water she'll save if she resorts to xeriscaping. Or maybe you would like to see water use and availability throught the eyes of a land developer. Or perhaps you want to be a state water official.

You get the picture. You can view water through the eyes of others, and deal with the constraints and problems they must face.

A working version of this will be ready in a few weeks. I am hoping to have my class in Water Resources Management in the US (begins 29 March 2010) use it a little. A demo should be ready by June 2010 and a pilot version should be available by the end of 2010. Intel and Sandia are already using it in the Middle Rio Grande Basin (MRGB).

Vince sees this game as a way for people to interact with modeling; he and his colleagues have already done SD modeling in the MRGB to facilitate community-based water planning. The Intel model will enhance that effort.

Tad is more focused on how you 'do democracy' when dealing with contentious issues, and how citizens can be given direct access to decision-makers and policy-makers. 

What will be interesting is to see whether or not this tool can be adapted to account for a variety of cultural viewpoints on water, and not simply the Anglo 'water as commodity' perspective (see Eric Perramond's comment below). Tad did note that his group has anthropologists so I suspect that they are addressing this issue. But that will be a challenging task. 

I see a great deal of potential for this tool and am very enthused. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

My avatar? Hmmm....Who could that be?

"Before you abuse, criticize and accuse, walk a mile in my shoes." - Joe South, Walk a Mile in My Shoes, (1970)

Comments

[Barbara Tinker]

A simpler but certainly less vibrant water conflict game was developed a decade ago for our Global Laboratory project sponsored by the National Science foundation. I have just webbed it and it might be useful to them:
http://www.concord.org/~btinker/GL/web/water/upstream_downstream_index.html

[PAUL F MILLER]

Mediated Modeling: A System Dynamics Approach To Environmental Consensus Building...I rise to salute any honest process including computer games which are designed to facilitate CONSENSUS building as personally I have seen in the last 30 years, especially in Arizona, the pitiful repercussion when disclosure and transparency are forsaken for political expediency.

Respectfully,

PAUL F MILLER

[Rebecca Hale]

One role that may be overlooked is "Mediator", "Peace-Maker" ? Games tend to foster polarized positions even if there are multiple nodes and shifting "team" alliances. Are there any professionals whose stake in the outcome will be enhanced without resort to face-to-face conflict and possibly violence ? My mind tends to think more of mothers, children, and teachers for that role so I hope they will be represented. My vote says we should develop many tools and techniques to help a wide range of individuals cope with the reality of hydrology in life and the economy. One person's "silly game" could be another person's awakening epiphany.

[Eric Perramond]

An interesting post, AquaDoc, but I wonder how useful such modeling approaches are (even though I use and teach them myself in classes at Colorado College) when these are all "stakeholder avatars" as opposed to cultural perspectives that may not be commensurate. Is water sacred to you, in other words, and how do you incorporate this into a model that is meant to put all views on equal ground of some sort.
I met Vince at the MRG Water Assembly, and have heard of his work through a colleague at Sandia, so I admire these approaches to use empirical and theoretical constructs to approach water conflicts. But I also worry that Polanyi was right - the "marriage" between state and capital here seems pretty complete in creating his version of a market society. Interesting post... will have to follow these efforts over time.