Aqua Republica: the Water Game Behind the UNEP-DHI Eco Challenge 2015

The Eco Challenge is an online serious game competition for pre-college youth. Its third edition, Eco Challenge 2015, used the game to teach integrated water resources management, the coordinated management of water, land and related resources to balance economic and social welfare with healthy ecosystems.

Teams from 12 countries took part: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. They were ranked nationally, and the top teams were invited to an international round. The dates were flexible between October 2014 and March 2015, and students could play from anywhere. Every participant received a certificate, and the top three teams won cash prizes, trophies and medals. The 2014 edition had drawn 420 teams from more than 50 schools in 10 Asia-Pacific countries.

Players manage a river basin in a fictitious world, with real-time simulation of hydrological processes behind the scenes. A game lasts 12 turns that stand for 20 years, and there is no time limit per turn, so groups can argue before they commit. Each turn opens on a news screen that reports random events and events triggered by earlier decisions.

Scoring depends on applying the underlying concepts. Land fertility decides where farms belong, land gradients decide where factories go, and players have to weigh population growth against water supply and power consumption against industrial development. The highest score after 12 turns wins, whether played alone or in a group. UNEP-DHI Centre, the game's maker, was founded in 1996. It is the Centre on Water and Environment hosted by DHI, an international not-for-profit consulting and research foundation with more than 1,000 employees in offices in 26 countries. The game runs real-world data through MIKE BASIN modelling software.

UNEP-DHI still has an Aqua Republica page. It describes the game as a serious game for learning about sustainable water resource management, a virtual world that combines scientific models with game mechanics, and it states: "This game is currently unavailable." The page offers no link to play and does not mention the Eco Challenge.

The domain aquarepublica.com, which the game used as its home, now forwards to a page that lists the domain for sale. The Curtin University page that once described the Eco Challenge leads to a university sign-in screen.