Gaming for change: Pathways to seismic risk awareness in urban areas

Discussing risk management in the specific field of urban and territorial planning is a complex issue that involves multiple actors, various disciplines, and different interests of civil society. In light of the recommendations from major international frameworks on the subject, it is considered useful to identify innovative methodologies to encourage community involvement in the key issues that characterize our cities, sparking interest in the spaces we live in daily. The use of serious games in relation to learning in complex problem fields, such as those posed by socio-spatial issues, is now recognized as an effective way to stimulate understanding of essential questions, engage communities in matters of collective interest, and imagine possible alternatives. In this context, the article presents "Sismopoli", a board game focused on seismic risk reduction from an urban perspective, as a tool to make complex issues more manageable and understandable. The game experience is part of a broader educational pathway aimed at stimulating knowledge processes looking at the territory as a common good, where risk reduction is a crucial component. The goal of the study is to contribute to the debate by exploring how game-based learning methodology can influence community awareness processes on priority items in urban contexts. To this end, three educational paths have been introduced and explored, specifically targeting socio-spatial problems, through which some existing serious games were interpreted and which guided the development of Sismopoli: educating about caring for the territory, understanding risk, and fostering community participation.