Cities are particularly exposed to risks arising from climate change, and therefore have to adapt continuously to changing conditions that affect citizens’ health and wellbeing. As the community level is where climate change impacts are most experienced, successful adaptation necessarily implies the broad support of affected communities, including the active involvement of citizens in assessing and responding to climate risks. Yet, many studies have confirmed that urban climate adaptation is in its early stages. Several obstacles have been found to hinder the successful governance of climate adaptation in cities, including the limited availability of site-specific information with high spatial and temporal resolution to support decision-making processes, lack of citizen engagement, and difficulties in communication between individuals and institutions. This chapter explores how an approach based on citizen sensing (CS), defined as citizens acting as sensors to collect and send information using e.g. mobile devices or participatory online platforms, can help to overcome these issues and contribute to the governance of urban climate adaptation. Drawing from the experience of the European research project Citizen Sensing, which has further developed the CS approach by proposing a digital two-way communication system between citizens and relevant institutions, we discuss how and to what extent CS can increase engagement by citizens, while enhancing the preparedness of authorities for taking effective risk management actions and strengthening communication to increase urban climate resilience.

Background. Serious games are gaining increasing prominence in environmental communication research, but their potential to form an integrated part of participatory research approaches is still strikingly understudied. This is particularly the case for applications of interactive digital formats in research on environmental challenges of high complexity, such as climate adaptation, which is a specifically suitable case as it involves complex interaction between climate systems and society, but where the response also involves trade-offs with potentially negative – maladaptive – outcomes.

Intervention. This article presents the Maladaptation Game, which was designed to facilitate dialogue about potential negative outcomes of agricultural climate adaptation.

Methods. We conducted test sessions with agricultural stakeholders in Finland and Sweden, and analysed quantitative and qualitative, audio-recorded and transcribed, material for opportunities and challenges related to dialogues, engagement, interactivity and experienced relevance.

Results. The qualitative analysis of recorded dialogues shows that the Maladaptation Game has potential to support dialogue by challenging players to negotiate between options with negative outcomes. The gameplay itself presents opportunities in terms of creating engagement with options that provoke disagreement and debates between players, as well as interactivity, that players reflected upon as quick and easy, while challenges were related to the experienced relevance, in particular the options provided in the game, and its general framing.

Conclusions. The results indicate a need for complementary approaches to this type of game but also suggest the importance of moderation when the game design is aimed at creating dialogue around a complex environmental challenge such as agricultural climate adaptation.

Nordic agriculture has to adapt to the effects of climate change, both in terms of reducing the risk of negative effects, but also to draw on the opportunities that climate change might imply for agricultural production. As the implementation of adaptation measures might lead to potential negative outcomes or have trade-offs with different environmental or socio-economic goals, this project addresses the concept of maladaptation in Nordic agriculture. In order to identify and assess examples of maladaptation for the agricultural sector, we developed a novel methodology, integrating visualization, participatory methods and serious gaming. While games and gaming may be considered as a new, and innovative communication strategy to inform and engage public and citizens with scientific research, this study offers an analysis of how a research based game on climate change maladaptation can support but also hinder players' sense-making processes. Through the analysis of eight gaming workshops, this study identifies challenges and support for the player's sense-making. While it concludes that conceptual thinking of game content sometimes clashes with players' everyday experiences and practice, possibly resulting in loss of credibility, this study also concludes that gaming may function as an eye-opener to new ways of thinking. Overall, this paper suggests that the integration of (social) science and agricultural practices through serious gaming has great potential but at the same time poses challenges due to different knowledge systems and interpretive frameworks among researchers and practitioners.