Can a video game help coastal communities adapt to climate change?
What if, for a moment, you became the mayor of a coastal town facing the realities of climate change?
Sea level rise threatens the harbor. Storms damage coastal defenses. Saltwater intrusion affects agriculture and local livelihoods. Economic pressures collide with environmental priorities. Every decision has consequences.
This is the premise behind Coastal Challenge, a new serious videogame developed by the CMCC Foundation – Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (https://www.cmcc.it), designed to explore how climate adaptation decisions shape the future of coastal communities.
A game that puts players in charge of coastal resilience
In Coastal Challenge, players step into the role of a coastal decision-maker responsible for managing one of three types of coastal territories: a commercial port city, a small tourism and fishing town, or a coastal agricultural wetland area. Over a simulated 30-year timeline, participants must respond to evolving climate pressures such as rising sea levels, extreme weather events, ecosystem degradation, and economic tensions.
The game forces players to balance environmental protection, economic development, and social stability, all while managing limited financial resources. Players can experiment with different strategies, from engineering solutions such as seawalls to nature-based solutions like restoring wetlands and coastal ecosystems.
Unlike traditional awareness campaigns, the goal of the game is experiential learning. By making decisions and observing their consequences, users begin to understand the complexity of coastal adaptation and the trade-offs that policymakers face. Serious games like this are increasingly used in climate education because they transform complex scientific knowledge into interactive experiences that encourage reflection and action.
The target audience is broad. Students, researchers, policymakers, coastal managers, and citizens can use the game to explore how choices influence the resilience of coastal communities over time.
Curious to experience the challenge yourself? Try the game here:
https://lnkd.in/dwMvjJMJ
The European REST-COAST project behind the game
The videogame was developed as part of REST-COAST, a major European research initiative funded by the Horizon 2020 programme. The project aims to restore coastal ecosystems at large scale by reconnecting rivers, wetlands, and coastal areas and improving the natural capacity of these systems to absorb climate impacts.
More information about the project is available here:
https://rest-coast.eu
REST-COAST addresses some of the most pressing challenges facing coastal regions today: coastal erosion, flooding, habitat degradation, and the loss of ecosystem services that support fisheries and local economies. By implementing restoration actions in several pilot sites across Europe’s regional seas, the project seeks to demonstrate how nature-based solutions can strengthen coastal resilience while delivering environmental and socio-economic benefits.
Within this framework, CMCC contributes scientific modelling, risk assessments, and climate scenarios to understand how restoration measures influence coastal protection and ecosystem services under future climate conditions.
The Coastal Challenge game complements these scientific activities by translating complex data and adaptation strategies into an accessible tool for education, dialogue, and decision-making.
Learning to govern the coast before the crisis arrives
Coastal areas are among the most vulnerable territories in the world. They host ports, fisheries, tourism infrastructure, and millions of people whose livelihoods depend on the stability of marine ecosystems.
Yet adaptation decisions often involve uncertainty, conflicting interests, and limited resources.
Tools like Coastal Challenge offer a new way to explore these dilemmas before they unfold in reality. By allowing players to experiment with strategies and witness long-term consequences, the game becomes more than entertainment. It becomes a training ground for understanding the complexity of governing coastal systems in a changing climate.
And perhaps that is the real challenge: learning how today’s decisions will shape the coastline of tomorrow.
Can a video game help coastal communities adapt to climate change?
