Watershed: Arizona — Can a strategy board game connect Arizonans to their watersheds?

As water resources get more scarce in the American West, we need to be responsive to changing conditions. While Arizona's water systems are now resilient (able to recover from shock), durable (reliable and unlikely to fail) and robust (covering the expanse of current need), they have not always been this way. Arizonans in the past were able to respond to need and develop the necessary infrastructures that result in what we have today. This was not always easy, and in many cases, the public will needed to implement the actions was not secured until after a significant shock. What shocks might be necessary to encourage ongoing investment in our resilience? If we were able to improve public awareness of the risks of inaction, might we prevent future disasters? If we could anticipate the hazards of the future and have the will to address them, couldn't we prepare by building necessary infrastructures to prevent, mitigate or reduce the impacts?

The complexity and creativity of Arizona's water and growth infrastructures result in low public awareness and appreciation. Watershed:  Arizona will allow players to rebuild these policies and tools to gain an understanding of how they relate to the resilience of our water supply and demand systems. With its close alignment with the historical implementation of policies, projects and growth, the game will help players better understand and appreciate the necessity of our policies and investments and will encourage them to want to protect and expand them if necessary.

To develop the Watershed: Arizona board game, Dowdy began by identifying the fundamental aspects of Arizona's urban growth, water resource management and watershed health. This involved extensive research into each area and the generalization of each into basic components. In order to develop a game that could be marketable, his team created basic game art and evaluated modern board games to identify game mechanics that could be translated to the Watershed project. In addition, they developed communications and marketing tools including a website, brand logos, and identity standards to support a crowd funding campaign to bring the game to market.

If appropriately designed as a fun and challenging strategy board game, Watershed: Arizona could be a very useful public education tools. Its design will integrate popular elements in turn-based games, including worker placement, asymmetrical advancement, collaborative objectives, and risk modifiers to make it on par with similar games of this era. By aligning modern board game mechanics with Arizona's storied history, watershed stewardship goals, water delivery challenges, and urban growth management, Watershed: Arizona can be much more than an education tool — it can be a fun game that challenges board game experts and casual players alike.

If Watershed: Arizona is released to the public and receives a reasonable amount of acceptance by the broader population, it will improve general awareness of the complex systems of watershed stewardship, water resource management and urban growth management. It will also be a tool that can be accompanied by educational resources that further expand understanding and build public support for protecting our water and environmental infrastructures.