“My responsibility is to protect the MARY A. WHALEN and to protect her from doing damage to the property of others.”
Carolina Salguero
Peter Rothenberg
Shipcat Chiclet
Co-creation workshop with PortSide NY
G0-bag?
The memory of Hurricane Sandy is f
Risk is rising.
Are we prepared?
Emergency plan? evacuation?
RED HOOK
A historically overlooked
neighbourhood in Brooklyn
Mary A Whalen
yearly population growth
Increasing gentrification
Increasing house rentals over ownership
GROUPS
approximately 10,000 - 12,000 individuals
Moved to Red Hook for better school options for her two kids.
“Honestly, I know floods are a thing here, but it’s not something we ever dealt with back home. I wouldn’t even know where to go if something happened.”
USER PERSONA
International grad student from Nigeria. Chose redhook for affordability.
“It sounds serious, but it also feels... distant. Until someone shows me exactly what to do, it’s hard to imagine it being real.”
Born and raised in Red Hook.
Owns a small café.
“During Sandy, the water came right into my house. It wasn’t a warning it just happened. A lot of people here now have no idea how fast it can turn bad.”
LINDA MALIK ELENA
WHAT STOPS PEOPLE FROM TAKING ACTION?
Myopic Behavior
Lack of trustable resources
Complexity of existing resources
Ineffectiveness of existing solutions
Lack of mandates or incentives
What comes to mind when you think of ‘disaster preparedness’?
What if flood preparedness didn’t have to be full of stress and anxiety?
INTRODUCING HiGH TIDE
A Pokémon Go-Style Treasure Hunt for Resilience
Community Collaboration Play-Based EDUCATION Behavior Change
High Tide transforms real community gaps into active learning moments through localized, collaborative, and urgent play.
LACK OF PERSONAL PREPARDNESS
LOCAL MAPS SPATIAL IMMERSION
LOW COMMUNITY COMMUNICATION INACTION AND ANXIETY
COLLABORATIVE TEAM PLAY
URGENCY SIMULATION GO-BAG BUILDING
REALISTIC CHALLENGES
COLLABORATIVE STRATEGY
REFLECTIVE LEARNING
EXPLORE GATHER DECIDE
RISKS IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT
CRITICAL SUPPLIES
STRATEGIES UNDER PRESSURE
REFLECT
REINFORCE LEARNING & IMPROVE RESPONSE FOR THE FUTURE
EXPLORE
Neighborhoodbased challenges
GATHER DECIDE REFLECT
A data informed map based simulation of real world flood scenario.
SAFE ZONES AND DANGER ZONES EVOLVE OVER TIME
LOCATION-BASED CHALLENGES
Build your Go-Bag essentials
Scavenger missions to build emergency plan and go-bag, interacting with local business owners in neighbourhood.
MANAGING RESOURCES WITHIN LIMITED TIME AND MONEY
BALANCING SELF & COMMUNITY NEEDS
DECIDE REFLECT EXPLORE
Collaborate under uncertainty
Dynamic task cards and challenges simulate real choices
LIMITED RESOURCES FORCE TRADEOFFS
PRIORITIZE SPEED VS SAFETY VS SUPPLIES
HIGH TIDE COMING IN 1:00
Turn play into preparedness
Celebrating winners and sharing reflections.
Connecting gaming goals to real world.
ACTIONABLE TAKEWAYS REAL WORLD RESOURCES
Survey Responses
Interviews
Iterations
Event organised by community
orgs
Governmentmandated
drill
VISION
Onboarding requirement for schools
Top-Down
HIGH TIDE
Individual consumption Tabletop Boardgame AR Mobile Game
Bottom-Up
Iterative generation and testing of data-sensitive flood scenarios
Testing policy changes in a low-impact environment
Analyse perceived preparedness levels and deploy adequate support
$107.3 billion
BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE
Consumer spending on mobile games (2023)
101.8 million people
Affected by natural disasters worldwide (2021)
43 million people
Affected by 132 flood events (2024)
A for-profit ‘Games for Disaster Preparedness’ company
Social vulnerability indices reveal the stark contrast in flood readiness across neighborhoods. Low-income areas face compounding risks.
Sofya Krasnaya, Urban Systems Lab
Disasters don’t create inequity—they reveal them. Vulnerable communities are already at a disadvantage when flood hits. Climate Policy Expert
NYC residents didn’t know evacuation zones existed.
People hesitate to act on flood warnings when they perceive information as incomplete or irrelevant Behavioral research (Harvard, 2021)
The Knowledge-Action Disconnect
Communities often lack the tools or motivation to act on available disaster preparedness information.
We know floods are coming, but we don’t know what to do or who to turn to for help.
NYC Resident, Focus Group.
Disaster communication often assumes a baseline of digital literacy and access that many communities simply don’t have Matthew Robb, Behavioral Economics Expert 64% Action Gap
Disaster alerts lack contextualized, real-time solutions for affected populations
Suspended service is suspended because of flooding across New York City
Please avoid non-essential travel.
Natural disasters are communication disasters
Disaster communication isn’t just about information; it’s about usability and trust.
During Hurricane Sandy, we just wanted information that made sense—where to go, who to ask. But nothing was clear. NYC Resident, Focus Group.
Our communication systems are designed for 'the average person, ' but that person doesn’t exist in a city as diverse as NYC Matthew Robb, Behavioral Economics Expert
Bridging the Data Divide
Disaster resilience hinges on making complex data actionable and inclusive for all stakeholders.
I just want a simple map on my fridge, not some complicated app on my phone.
NYC Resident, Focus Group.
Climate literacy varies widely, and tools must simplify data without oversimplifying solutions.
Daniel Sauter, Data Visualization Expert
Balancing a system approach & a community approach
Key takeaway
Stakeholder Dynamics
The game helped me understand what the perspective of each role might be. Through the discussions, the complexity of so many groups adressing the same issues were highlighted.
Collaboration
"Collaboration is very important to overcome a situation like this."
Human Behavior Under Crisis
People behave very differently than usual in a panic situation.
Shared biases, like distrust of authority, run deep—even without proof.
Creative ProblemSolving
Sometimes I don't think creatively in urgent problems; this workshop helped me think outside the box.
Gaps in public trust & engagement
There was a big spike in govt. website visits reflecting the public's need to seek trustworthy and timely information during critical situations.
Delay in govt responses
We only knew what to do because our neighbor had been through this before. The officials? They were silent." -Flood Survivor
Integrate participatory approaches in building neighborhood resilience and recovery to rebuild trust and foster collective resilience
Reliance on local business
Companies offering free services versus charging fees during emergencies raises ethical and logistical questions.
PHASE 01 (SEM 03)
Awarness & Onboarding
Sign up, receive game instructions, and select a role (resident, responder, etc.)
Facilitators onboard players at the Mary A. Whalen ship using digital & physical materials.
Registration kiosk, mobile app, facilitator dashboard.
Scenario-based Gameplay
Use AR-enabled devices to explore flood-risk areas and learn about past flood events.
Team Coordination & Problem Solving
Players form teams and receive scenario-based tasks (e.g., find evacuation routes, protect assets).
AR overlays guide players through different locations, showing past flood levels & risks.
AR-enabled maps, geofencing technology, historical data API.
Facilitators prompt players with scenario challenges using AR cues and real-world props.
Emergency Response Simulation (Challenges)
Engage in an emergency simulation where players must make real-time decisions to mitigate flood risks.
Players interact with AR emergencies (e.g., simulated rising water, NPC rescue challenges).
Game server with real-time role management, interactive task triggers.
Reflection & Learning
Discussions about individual and team performance, reflecting on decision-making strategies.
Facilitators debrief players using AR replays, discussions, and preparedness scoreboards.
AR-based emergency simulation, NPC AI for in-game responses.
Community Integration & Next Steps
Get access to real-world preparedness resources, connect with local groups, and discuss improvements.
Players get post-game insights, access to community preparedness plans, and discussion forums.
Player performance tracking system, AI-based decision assessment.
Community engagement platform, flood risk resource hub.
Educators widely utilize Cranky Uncle in various subjects to teach students how to evaluate information critically and identify misleading arguments.
Within 6 months of launch, 800,000 people had played the game 1.7 million times, and tens of thousands had forwarded it to friends or sent a letter to an elected representative.
As of May 2021, Plague Inc. had been downloaded over 160 million times and received positive reviews from critics.
The game has repeatedly surged in popularity following major virus outbreaks, including the 2014–16 Ebola outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic.
AR AND VR
MOBILE
AI AND MACHINE LEARNING
CROSSPLATFORM SOCIAL OR COMPETITIVE NFT AND BLOCKCHAIN
