Groundwater Conservation through Digital Games

Introduction

Climate change's most significant initial impact on the American West is on water resources. Securing water stability amidst climate change is essential for communities dependent on irrigated agriculture, as it can preserve local economies and strengthen water management practices. Behavioral game research techniques can illuminate community behaviors toward water conservation practices. This study explores a digital behavioral economics game's development and evaluation using data from the San Luis Valley to augment understanding of agricultural community groundwater consumption and conservation in Colorado, going beyond traditional study methods. In 2023, stakeholders were recruited to validate the game's efficacy as a tool for understanding groundwater conservation. The benefits of this study approach compared to traditional methods (e.g., surveys) not accounting for dynamic, interactive decision-making are discussed. Results indicate financial incentives notably influenced participants' crop selections and water use patterns, demonstrating the impact of data transparency and collaborative behaviors' development.

Citation: Demaree K, Kurli V, Magnuszewski P, Andersson K, Thomas E (2024) Development and evaluation of a digital behavioral economics game towards improved understanding of groundwater conservation in southern Colorado. PLOS Water 3(12): e0000298. \n https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000298

Methods

A behavioral economics game was devised and evaluated as a study tool to enhance understanding of groundwater conservation behaviors and governance, contrasting it with qualitative and quantitative social science methods. This stakeholder and data-informed behavioral game was integrated using groundwater pumping data from representative geographies of an agricultural community relying on groundwater in Southern Colorado. This game's potential efficacy as a means to assess local governance measures related to water use and improve understanding of farmers' groundwater behaviors was gauged by stakeholder game sessions followed by focus group discussions.

In-situ data sources

The data-informed behavioral game was designed to mimic crop selection and groundwater withdrawals for agricultural producers in Southern Colorado. The San Luis Valley receives minimal annual precipitation, so farmers rely heavily on irrigation. The complex interactions between surface water and groundwater and the two aquifer layers require careful management to avoid depletion. In-situ groundwater pumping data was collected from June 2022 to November 2023 over two growing seasons from the partnering communities to inform the game's groundwater pumping behaviors and incentives. Five groundwater pumping sensors were installed in the San Luis Valley to monitor groundwater extraction from the Rio Grande aquifer. These sensors' measured trends were utilized to simulate groundwater pumping forecasts for the digital behavioral game.

Game scenario choices

Agricultural practices within the game, including crop choice, anticipated water use, and common regenerative agricultural techniques, were informed by regional practices in the SLV and subsidy data from the USDA. Five production packages—choosing among them is the game's primary decision—describe agricultural practices. These packages were verified by local agricultural producers in the SLV as accurate representations of local practices. The game included another version with identical packages but omitted subsidized income for regenerative agricultural practices. Crop type is the core component of each package and directly impacts net water extraction, potential revenue, and visibility, so local practices relating to crop choice are a viable means of limiting groundwater extraction. Regenerative agricultural practices offer long-term advantages in arid farming communities, potentially increasing soil water retention, improving crop yield, sequestering soil carbon, and reducing erosion. Farmers often require incentives to adopt these practices due to their costs. In Colorado, the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) provides funding through the Department of Natural Resources; this program informed subsidy incomes used in the behavioral game and forecasted reduced water use for implementing regenerative practices.

Digital game design

The system dynamics model behind the behavioral game illustrates all players drawing from a shared groundwater resource that is consistently regenerated at the end of each round (representing an agricultural season or year) with randomized drought events where recharge varies. The groundwater table's resulting changes from the water pumped by participants affect future rounds' pumping costs (described by Eqs 3 and 4). These factors contribute to a crop yield estimate (Eq 2) which affects participants' income in each round. As pumping effectiveness (Eq 1) decreases with a decreasing water table, it is assumed that crops will not receive irrigation levels needed for a full harvest, and crop losses can occur. These nonlinear relationships between key variables are derived from real-world scenarios, including the collected in-situ pumping data and research. The players' individual decisions regarding crop planting and corresponding water use at the beginning of each round affect the common pool groundwater resource and their income. The game is won by the player with the highest accumulated income at the end of all rounds.

Three versions of the behavioral game were designed following Ostrom's Common Pool Resources appropriation game. The experiment, moderated by a trained facilitator, consists of groups of five irrigators making individual appropriation decisions in multiple experimental stages, as outlined below. By using actual groundwater pumping data collected, the game is designed to test the behavioral effects of three different treatments on groundwater conservation:

Internal validity is difficult to assess when gathering data using common pool resource games, so the validation of this tool with stakeholders will help make the simulation as realistic as possible and presumably more effective. Behavioral game sessions were run with various stakeholders representing agriculture and local policy implementers to validate the usefulness of this tool and provide feedback on its potential utility in simulating local policy changes.

Ethics statement

This study was conducted in accordance with the guidelines of Institutional Review Board protocol 21-0502. All procedures involving human participants were approved by the Institutional Review Board. The protocol included a waiver of the written consent requirement, and formal verbal consent was obtained from all participants prior to their involvement in the online decision-making activity conducted between May and December 2023. After an initial review of the process, the moderators asked participants for their verbal and affirmative consent to proceed. Once consent was obtained from all participants, the exercise began, ensuring adherence to ethical considerations regarding participant welfare and data integrity.

Results

Overall, game sessions were characterized by strong participant engagement, encouraging dialogue between farmers, ranchers, and other relevant community members. When unexpected drought events caused the water table to drop in the game, players worked together to create strategies for stabilizing it, demonstrating the game's utility as a tool to observe community conservation practices.

Similar game methods to the one described in this work were used in a pilot study in Andhra Pradesh, where collective action games were used to simulate crop choice and the aquifer's consequences. The game sessions allowed community members to discuss different mechanisms to find an appropriate compromise and triggered discussions about groundwater's relationship to agricultural practices and the steps that could be taken to slow aquifer decline. Notable here is the long-term outcome this study had on community behavior: communities that participated in game playing were more likely to develop new rules about ground water extraction than in communities where the game was not played. The game can help stimulate deliberations within groups, a first step toward self-governance.

In all sessions played with farmers who irrigated crops with groundwater, participants shared that the simulated game design accurately represented key aspects of local agricultural practices, validating the game design. Notably, farmers recognized economic values' realism for crop payments, water pumping costs, crop choices, subsidy values, and regenerative practices. They also acknowledged the accuracy of groundwater parameter dynamics, including recharge rates, pumping efficiency, and crop yields for the tool's objective. While the game simplified real-life decision-making processes, particularly regarding detailed irrigation scheduling, it focused on eliciting specific behaviors and decision-making factors related to long-term resource management. Of all stakeholder groups that played the game, farmers were most excited to provide direct feedback into their decision-making processes, often sharing their motivations for continuing irrigated agricultural practices despite extreme economic variability. Most farmers participating in game sessions had additional income sources to supplement revenue from agriculture, with one player comparing farming to gambling. The game's design, which introduced dynamic parameters, engaged farmers in a unique way. These discussions demonstrate the usefulness of games in elucidating insights into behaviors and motivations around groundwater pumping for irrigated agriculture that may have been challenging to obtain using traditional survey methods alone. By focusing on specific behavioral factors rather than detailed irrigation scheduling, the game provided a versatile tool for studying a busy demographic in a more engaging and time-efficient manner than conventional methods or full simulations. This approach allowed for valuable insights into farmers' decision-making processes regarding long-term water resource management and conservation strategies.

One of the greatest advantages of using behavioral games as a study method is the proclivity for lively discussions and debates among participants, a rarity with traditional methods. This can further illuminate motivations to behavior patterns and community dynamics. Future work should quantify this difference through monitoring dialogue frequency and sentiment in games compared to standard interview methods.

Introducing subsidies for regenerative agricultural practices impact on the groundwater table