New online game launched to teach Yorkshire children about preparing for flooding

Called ‘Flood Alert!’, the fun but informative game will teach children about property flood resilience measures and their benefits, explaining the important role they play in protecting people’s homes from flooding and how they can speed up the recovery process when flooding does occur, enabling people to move back in more quickly.

Yorkshire Flood Resilience Project Officer Lauren Davidson worked with Yorkshire-based BetaJester and The Serious GeoGames Lab at The University of Hull to develop the immersive and interactive digital experience.

Lauren explained: “The game is really fun and interactive, and features many of the elements that we know that children of the target age group enjoy about other games that they’re familiar with, including avatars, a companion animal, a reward-based approach and a leader board. However, it also has an important message because it helps children and their families to understand that there are simple steps they can take to protect their homes and minimise the risk they face from flooding.

“At various stages of its development, we gathered feedback from a focus group of children aged between seven and eleven years, as well as an educational psychologist at City of York Council. We’re very grateful to everyone who helped us with its development, especially BetaJester and The Serious GeoGames Lab. It’s a really welcome addition to the range of resources featured on the website and is something that can be used by schools, as well as individual families, to help children understand the importance of preparing for flooding and introduce the concept of flood resilience in an engaging and accessible way.”

‘Flood Alert!’ is one of an extensive range of free tools and resources on the Yorkshire Flood Resilience website (www.yorkshirefloodresilience.co.uk). It appears in the Kids’ Space section of the website, alongside other educational resources for children, but the website also features a wealth of free information and resources aimed at homes owners, as well as business owners and landlords.

Funded by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and led by City of York Council, Yorkshire Flood Resilience was set up to raise awareness of property flood resilience measures, a term used to describe measures that reduce the risk of flood damage to properties, speed up recovery and minimise the amount of time businesses are out of action after flooding.

To view and play the game, click here.