Jogos sérios e redução dos riscos de inundações urbanas: proposta metodológica

Abstract

The increase in the planet's global population has a direct impact on the environmental system, the hydrological cycle and global climate. This problem demands prevention and preparation with a focus on people, but especially the most vulnerable communities. In this context, it is essential to train all different segments of society to raise awareness and change individual and collective behavior capable of contributing to facing concrete situations that demand creativity in reducing the risks imposed by current systemic imbalances. Serious games are characterized as an alternative instructional learning tool to traditional methods and relevant for overcoming complex socio-environmental challenges, capable of: 1. improving knowledge, communication and qualifying risk perception; 2. develop complex skills to deal with the demands of reality and the needs of those affected by disasters; 3. formulate new hypotheses, situations and solutions to problems created in scenarios that simulate situations experienced in the real world. Such signs justify the initiatives to characterize these games, which took place through a systematic procedure of reviewing scientific literature with the application of the PRISMA Protocol, involving the survey of publications relating to this theme in the Web of Science and Scopus collectives, between 1945 and 2023, in addition to the application of the VosWiewer software indicating the interrelationships of groups and trends in the studies and development of serious pedagogical games. Bibliometric and content analysis of the identified articles was developed. In the analyses, elements of the HYOGO and SENDAI frameworks for disaster risk management and reduction, the Plan, Policy and the National Civil Protection and Defense System were considered, in addition to the UN Agenda for 2030 of the Sustainable Development Goals, with emphasis on for SDGs 6, 11 and 13. This broad analysis allowed, among others, the identification of the “PreventionWeb” Portal of the United Nation Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and also in this context the IMPREX game, which became especially interesting for presenting the possibility of a game in the context of predicting the occurrence of floods under a scenario of exceptional rain, and with presentation in Portuguese. The main objective of the thesis is to present a methodological proposal involving the application of serious games in the training of subjects who work in disaster prevention in the Situation Rooms of the National Civil Defense and Protection System. 18 of the 27 Brazilian Situation Rooms were involved. Participatory research was carried out: before the game, guided game practice, and after game practice. The results indicated that the methodological proposal of using serious games to train subjects involved in disaster prevention in Brazil was well received. Collaterally, gaps were identified in the Disaster Prevention System, especially in relation to the multiple functions of specialists, the tenuity of employment relationships, turnover of part of the specialist staff, decline of the technologies involved.