IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v15y2025i1p14-d1568341.html

Playing for the Planet? A Serious Game Approach to Land Use Planning with Students in Rural Iceland

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin D. Hennig

    (Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland)

  • Ben F. Roberts

    (Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland
    Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, Postbus 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands)

  • Johannes T. Welling

    (Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland)

  • Marissa Pinal

    (Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies, School of Humanities, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland)

  • Jón Ólafsson

    (Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies, School of Humanities, University of Iceland, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland)

Abstract

Effective nature conservation and citizen participation are essential for sustainable development and biodiversity preservation. This paper introduces the ‘Land Use Game’, a prototype serious game designed to engage citizens—particularly younger demographics—in participatory land use planning. Developed within the context of the EU Horizon 2020 PHOENIX project, the game was tested with students in two rural Icelandic municipalities as part of a pilot study. The game enables participants to assign land use preferences through interactive mapping, supporting a better understanding of land use complexities while promoting active learning and dialogue. The study evaluates the game’s feasibility, technological features, and practical applications, highlighting insights from gameplay observations, participant feedback, and spatial analysis. The results demonstrate the potential of serious games to collect meaningful data, support inclusive decision-making, and empower citizens to contribute to sustainable policies. By incorporating such tools, planners can enhance public understanding, promote equitable land use, and strengthen participatory democracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin D. Hennig & Ben F. Roberts & Johannes T. Welling & Marissa Pinal & Jón Ólafsson, 2025. "Playing for the Planet? A Serious Game Approach to Land Use Planning with Students in Rural Iceland," Societies, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:15:y:2025:i:1:p:14-:d:1568341
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15/1/14/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15/1/14/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Precious Sihlangu & Kola O. Odeku, 2021. "Critical Analysis Of International And National Laws Redressing Past Apartheid Land Discrimination And Injustice In South Africa," Perspectives of Law and Public Administration, Societatea de Stiinte Juridice si Administrative (Society of Juridical and Administrative Sciences), vol. 10(3), pages 308-317, December.
    2. Cristina Ampatzidou & Katharina Gugerell & Teodora Constantinescu & Oswald Devisch & Martina Jauschneg & Martin Berger, 2018. "All Work and No Play? Facilitating Serious Games and Gamified Applications in Participatory Urban Planning and Governance," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(1), pages 34-46.
    3. Bernd W. Wirtz & Peter Daiser & Boris Binkowska, 2018. "E-participation: A Strategic Framework," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(1), pages 1-12, January.
    4. David Adade & Walter Timo de Vries, 2023. "Digital Twin for Active Stakeholder Participation in Land-Use Planning," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-17, February.
    5. Sanford, Clive & Rose, Jeremy, 2007. "Characterizing eParticipation," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 406-421.
    6. John F. Forester, 1999. "The Deliberative Practitioner: Encouraging Participatory Planning Processes," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262561220, December.
    7. Olivier Boiral & Iñaki Heras-Saizarbitoria, 2017. "Managing Biodiversity Through Stakeholder Involvement: Why, Who, and for What Initiatives?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 403-421, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sissal Dahl & Loes Bouman & Benjamin David Hennig & Dimitris Ballas, 2025. "SimIceland: Towards a Spatial Microsimulation Approach for Exploring ‘Green’ Citizenship Attitudes in Island Contexts," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-19, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Radtke, Jörg, 2025. "E-participation in energy transitions: What does it mean? Chances and challenges within Germany's Energiewende," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    2. Wijitbusaba Marome & Boonanan Natakun & Diane Archer, 2021. "Examining the Use of Serious Games for Enhancing Community Resilience to Climate Risks in Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-14, April.
    3. Micael Sousa, 2024. "Moving Pieces and Allocating Budget Together: A Framework for Using Analog Serious Games in Sustainable Collaborative Planning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-24, September.
    4. Rekha Rao-Nicholson & Htwe Htwe Thein & Yifan Zhong, 2024. "A thematic analysis of the links between multinational enterprises’ corporate social responsibility and the Sustainable Development Goals in Myanmar," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(2), pages 203-223, June.
    5. Rizwan Ali & Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez & Beatriz Aibar‐Guzmán & Ramiz ur Rehman, 2024. "Is biodiversity disclosure emerging as a key topic on the agenda of institutional investors?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 2116-2142, March.
    6. Reusser, Dominik E. & Loukopoulos, Peter & Stauffacher, Michael & Scholz, Roland W., 2008. "Classifying railway stations for sustainable transitions – balancing node and place functions," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 191-202.
    7. E. Melanie DuPuis & Brian J. Gareau, 2008. "Neoliberal Knowledge: The Decline of Technocracy and the Weakening of the Montreal Protocol," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1212-1229, December.
    8. Plantinga, Paul & Ayodele, Odilile & Sanchez, Diana Carolina & Daniels, Chux & Davids, Yul Derek & Dlamini, Simangele & Mosiea, Tshepang, 2025. "Can e-participation be a transformative innovation in South African policymaking?," SocArXiv j5s6w_v1, Center for Open Science.
    9. Carla Oonk & Judith Gulikers & Martin Mulder, 2016. "Educating collaborative planners: strengthening evidence for the learning potential of multi-stakeholder regional learning environments," Planning Practice & Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 533-551, October.
    10. Makena Coffman & Karen Umemoto, 2010. "The triple-bottom-line: framing of trade-offs in sustainability planning practice," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 12(5), pages 597-610, October.
    11. te Brömmelstroet, Marco, 2017. "Towards a pragmatic research agenda for the PSS domain," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 77-83.
    12. Ali Termos & Neil Yorke-Smith, 2022. "Urbanism and Geographic Crises: A Micro-Simulation Lens on Beirut," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(1), pages 87-100.
    13. Primmer, Eeva & Kyllonen, Simo, 2006. "Goals for public participation implied by sustainable development, and the preparatory process of the Finnish National Forest Programme," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(8), pages 838-853, November.
    14. Juval Portugali & Nurit Alfasi, 2008. "An Approach to Planning Discourse Analysis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(2), pages 251-272, February.
    15. Muhammad Nadeem & Stephen Bahadar & Ammar Ali Gull & Umer Iqbal, 2020. "Are women eco‐friendly? Board gender diversity and environmental innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3146-3161, December.
    16. Ana Guzmán Ruiz & Meredith Dobbie & Rebekah Brown, 2017. "Insights and future directions of transdisciplinary practice in the urban water sector," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 7(2), pages 251-263, June.
    17. Marleau Donais, Francis & Abi-Zeid, Irène & Waygood, E. Owen D. & Lavoie, Roxane, 2022. "Municipal decision-making for sustainable transportation: Towards improving current practices for street rejuvenation in Canada," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 152-170.
    18. Shivanand Balram & Suzana Dragicevic & Thomas Meredith, 2003. "Achieving Effectiveness in Stakeholder Participation Using the GIS-Based Collaborative Spatial Delphi Methodology," Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(03), pages 365-394.
    19. Lara, Jesus J., 2020. "Problem-Based solutions from the classroom to the Community: Transformative approaches to mitigate the impacts of boom-and-bust in declining urban communities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    20. Liz Barry, 2022. "Community science and the design of climate governance," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 171(3), pages 1-17, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:15:y:2025:i:1:p:14-:d:1568341. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.