Hull Floods Project

Flood Snakes and Ladders

dice

Flood Snakes and Ladders

Introduction to the game

Flood Snakes and Ladders is a training tool that is designed to provide an insight into the difficulties that residents can encounter during the long-term recovery process that follows a disaster. It was developed by Lancaster University using the results of research which explored people’s recovery from the floods of June 2007 in Hull. The idea for the game came from the participants involved in the research – they joked that recovering from a flood was a bit like a game of snakes and ladders – you think you’re making progress and then you have a massive setback and have to go back to square one. We thought this was an excellent suggestion and, as a result, we designed the game to simulate this ‘backwards and forwards’ nature of recovery. While flooding is the case study used, the issues raised by the game will help those interested in understanding recovery following a wide range of disasters. This guide introduces the game and provides step-by-step instructions for how to play it.



     Why Flood Snakes and Ladders?                                                  Who Can Play?





     What Equipment Do I Need?                                                       How Long does It take?



Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to all those who have given us help and feedback to develop the game. In particular, we would like to thank the project participants, who gave us the idea in the first place. We are especially grateful to Jacky and Gordon Dixon and Sandy and Paul Henderson who kindly provided many of the photographs used in the game. Special thanks must also go to the Cabinet Office and the Economic and Physical Sciences Research Council, who gave us funding to develop the game further.