Water You Gonna Do? is a game about managing stormwater and community flood risk. Stormwater, the accumulated runoff from rain events, and flood risk can be managed in many ways, but there is often a lack of understanding of the full breadth of the options available and the implications and tradeoffs. For example, decisions are limited to the jurisdiction in which they occur (i.e. city limits, the county line, state borders); however, water does not follow jurisdictional boundaries. Water You Gonna Do?, through facilitated game play, introduces players to many of the tools available for managing stormwater, asks them to consider the consequences of decisions made, and introduces the real world need to work across jurisdictions to better manage stormwater and flood risk.

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Objectives

  • Learn about and consider the use of a wide range of programs and policies available for stormwater management and flood risk reduction.

  • Understand the pros and cons of various stormwater management and flood risk reduction decisions.

  • Consider the potential for coordination across political boundaries to manage stormwater and flood risk.

How to Play 

Divide participants into at least 3 groups of no more than 6 people per group. Each group should have a different game board (Urban, Rural, and Suburban) and the cards that correspond to that game board. If you have more than 3 groups of people simply introduce more game boards and their cards. Try to keep an equal number of each game board and it is best to have a facilitator for each group. This should be someone who is familiar with the subject matter and how the game is played.


Materials needed to play Water You Gonna Do?

Using the Game Boards and Action Cards, each team works to manage their water (Water Pieces) within their budget (Money Pieces).


Game Boards

The three game boards each represent a different land use context within a watershed: Rural, Suburban, and Urban. The game can be played without the game boards but they are highly recommended as they will help organization and prioritization of the action cards.

 


Action cards

The 16 action cards describe programs and policies with which to manage water. These cards give details on what the action is and does, how much water it manages, and the cost of using it.

There is a set of cards specific to each land use context (Rural, Suburban, and Urban). The costs and benefits vary among the Rural, Suburban, and Rural cards so using the appropriate cards is critical.

There are 3 unique action cards:

  • Increase Community Revenue (Taxes/Fees): Playing this card does not manage any water but adds a specified amount of money to a team's bank.

  • Conduct Educational Campaign: This card is added to another action card. By conducting an educational campaign around a specific policy or program it increases its effectiveness thereby managing more water.

  • Regional Policy/Program: A Regional Policy or Program card makes the chosen program or policy more effective at managing water; however, in order for it to work every team in the watershed must agree to implement the policy or program chosen.

You can download these materials by clicking on the respective images above. Printing the Game Boards on 3’x4’ is recommended.

Pro tip: Laminating game boards and action cards will make them more durable and allow notes to be written on them with a dry erase marker. This is especially useful for the blank cards that allow participants to develop their own policy or program

 
 

Water Pieces

  • Small counters are needed to represent stormwater (We used little blue glass pieces). Each game board starts the game with a different amount of water to be managed.

    • Rural: 16 water pieces 

    • Suburban: 17 water pieces

    • Urban: 18 water pieces

Money Pieces

  • Small counters are needed to represent dollars/costs (Poker chips work great). Each game board starts the game with a different amount of available funds with the potential to increase funds by raising taxes or revenues.

    • Rural: $9 (+$1 if taxes are raised)

    • Suburban: $10 (+$2 if taxes are raised) 

    • Urban: $12 (+$3 if taxes are raised)

 

Supplemental Video

This is a video presentation of the Water you gonna do? game given at the Association of State Floodplain Management Annual Conference 2020.  The presentation provides a high level overview of watershed management, how flood risk is conceptualized and managed, and includes an overview of the game. It concludes with some key takeaways and observations from our experiences playing the game. 

If you would like a copy of the presentation in PPT/PDF format, contact us!

 

Step-by-step game play: 

Overall, each team works to manage their water (glass pieces) within their budget (poker chips). Regional coordination may help you achieve your goals, but all teams in a watershed have to participate in that coordination.

Each group should follow these steps to play the game (~45 Min):

  1. Review the game materials and discuss the actions available to manage water.

  2. Discuss the benefits and tradeoffs of the available options.

  3. Prioritize the action cards on the board - build consensus on which actions should have the highest priority - these priorities may change as you move through the exercise.

  4. Pay for your actions and see if you can take care of all of the water you have

  5. Consider using a regional policy or program card to magnify the impact of one of your priority actions. Build consensus among your team which regional policy/program is desired and engage the other teams to advocate for its implementation. 

  6. Reconvene the whole group for a discussion on the decisions made, how options were prioritized, remaining questions, and regional decisions, if any.


For Facilitators:

The following is a series of questions that will help promote constructive dialogue both in small groups when discussing and prioritizing actions as well in the whole group discussion.

  1. How did you prioritize? Who benefits and loses from the strategies you chose?

  2. What are the short-term and long-term costs and benefits of your choices?

  3. How do your decisions affect the flow of water?

  4. Who bears the costs of maintenance or compliance for your choices?

  5. How might your actions impact economic development choices?

  6. Who would benefit from regional coordination? Who bears/shares the cost?

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