Integrating a Land Use Transport Model with a Serious Game for Supporting Planning Decisions under Rising Energy Prices

Abstract

This article presents and evaluates the integration of a land-use and transport model with a political serious game. This methodological design was tested within a research project, which intended to assess the impacts of energy price increases in the metropolitan region of Hamburg. Models are tools commonly employed by planners to describe, explain and forecast land-use and transportation-related processes. However, the sole use of models has some major limitations. Models are not able to simulate the political decision-making process that can radically change outcomes and scenarios used for model forecasts. Particularly, models designed for facilitate long-run decisions at the strategic level can produce distorted outputs and scenarios if policies in response to major structural changes are not (well) assessed. Connecting a modeling framework to a qualitative experiment in an interactive way could enhance quality of supporting tools for planners and stakeholders dealing with complex issues. A serious game can contribute to enhance the quality of model input-data and, hence, to enhance the reliability of model outputs. By reporting the experience of the project “€LAN – Energy prices and land use” this paper contributes to expand the empirical knowledge on the potentials of employing serious games in the planning field. Within the research project, it could be observed that the use of the framework has helped decision-makers to gain a better understanding of complex problems, to deepen spatial policy integration, and to design innovative strategies coping with increasing energy prices.