Summary

This Ph.D. research project investigates the potential of Augmented Reality (AR) games to foster both emergency preparedness and effective response, specifically focusing on floods.

A cross-cultural Twitter analysis of location-based tweets from New Zealand and Pakistan identified a critical need for fostering community resilience towards floods. Existing research offers numerous virtual reality (VR) applications for disaster preparedness, but AR applications remain underexplored.

We aim to use AR technology to raise awareness of natural disaster risks and empower individuals to take proactive measures. The goal is to create engaging and accessible AR tools that promote preparedness and effective response. Recognizing the diverse perspectives on resilience, the research emphasizes the importance of individual preparedness for climate impacts. Building on the promising results from an initial user study evaluating an AR game for preparedness, the project now aims to develop a new AR application specifically designed to enhance response efficacy in flood situations.

This application will be assessed for its effectiveness, game experience, and situational awareness. The goal is to provide valuable insights for empowering individuals to understand, prepare for, and respond effectively to climate-related emergencies.

The central research question guiding this project is: In what ways can the design of an augmented reality game effectively foster risk awareness in individuals facing a flash-flood situation? Overall, this research project seeks to contribute valuable insights into the potential of AR games for empowering communities to face the challenges of climate change.

Acknowledgements

This study received funding from the University of Canterbury as part of the Applied Immersive Gaming Initiative (AIGI).

Researcher

Misha Mirza

Supervisory Team

• • Assoc. Prof Heide Lukosch, HIT Lab NZ, University of Canterbury
  • Prof. Stephan Lukosch, HIT Lab NZ, University of Canterbury
  • Assoc. Prof. Adrian Clark, School of Product Design, University of Canterbury

Research Outputs

• • Mirza M, Lukosch S, and Lukosch H. (2023). Twitter Sentiment Analysis of Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Climate Change. In: Rau, PL.P. (eds) Cross-Cultural Design. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14022. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35936-1_29
  • Mirza M, Lukosch S, and Lukosch H. (2024). Exploring the effects of time pressure and distracting elements in an Augmented Reality game for emergency preparedness, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 114, 104900, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104900

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