Safe Haven – Landslides: A Serious Game for Enhancing Landslide Risk Awareness and Management

Effectively communicating natural hazard risks to diverse audiences remains a critical challenge in fostering resilience. Safe Haven – Landslides, developed within the Horizon Europe The HuT project, is a tabletop serious game designed to enhance understanding and management of landslide risk through an engaging, interactive approach.

The game employs simple yet dynamic card-based mechanics to simulate real-world challenges associated with landslide hazard and risk. Participants need to manage the landslide risk in a region. During the game, they gain insights into the complex interplay of factors influencing landslide risk and explore effective mitigation strategies. Target audiences include high-school students, educators, and different stakeholders offering them a collaborative, interactive environment to discuss and experiment with risk management concepts.

Preliminary testing has demonstrated Safe Haven’s ability to foster engagement and improve participants’ awareness of landslide dynamics and mitigation strategies. Building on this success, the game has been adapted for other hazards, such as floods (Safe Haven – Floods), and further developments are underway to address heatwaves (Safe Haven – Heat Waves), broadening its relevance and impact.

This presentation will explore the design, implementation, and preliminary outcomes of Safe Haven – Landslides, illustrating how game-based approaches can serve as powerful tools for geoscience communication, education, and training.