Playing our way to preparedness with the Flood Resilience Challenge Game-Cambridge

On May 17, 1974, the Grand River spilled its banks, leading to the most devastating flood event in Cambridge's history, inundating the downtown core of Galt. Today, flood preparedness and awareness remains a pressing topic for the region, with climate change leading to increasingly frequent and severe flood events. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Great Flood of '74, Partners for Action (P4A) partnered with CIFAL York, Smart Waterloo Region, TRANSFORM, and Waterloo Climate Institute to engage local business owners and community leaders in flood resilience planning.

The Flood Resilience Challenge (FRC) game is an interactive serious role-playing game designed by Dr. Evalyna Bogdan and Dr. Heather Murdock to allow participants to explore flood risk reduction approaches in the fictional town of Hydrason. Creating a safe space for experimentation, play, and dialogue, the FRC game invites participants to step into the shoes of one of game's diverse stakeholders and advocate for flood resiliency measures to protect against storm surges, riverine flooding, ice jams, and flash flooding – all while navigating the complexities of competing values, limited budgets, and rapidly changing seasons.

In autumn 2023, P4A worked with the FRC team to recruit and train student facilitators, equipping them with the skills needed to facilitate interactive workshops, including the event hosted in the historic Galt District in November 2024. Learn more about the Flood Resilience Challenge-Cambridge and Cambridge's flood history in our interactive story map.