DOZER: a toy model of coastal hazard mitigation during a storm
DOZER: a toy model of coastal hazard mitigation during a storm
Motivated by observations of emergency road-maintenance crews in coastal settings, DOZER is a video game in which the player uses a bulldozer to clear sand from a beachfront road during a storm. DOZER is also a toy model in a formal sense: a heuristic tool for insight into the dynamics of real-time intervention in the physical processes of a natural hazard. Here, I introduce DOZER as both a game and a numerical model, and demonstrate its utility for exploring divergence between a human-altered environmental system and its natural counterpart. I also situate the mechanics of DOZER in the broader context of game design principles and philosophy. For models of systems in which adaptation is an important dynamic, ceding control of adaptive behaviours to a human player can enable novel model outcomes that random, probabilistic, deterministic, or genetic-programming approaches may not produce.
Agent-based model, Coastal hazard, Rhetoric of failure
139-149
Lazarus, Eli D.
642a3cdb-0d25-48b1-8ab8-8d1d72daca6e
Lazarus, Eli D.
642a3cdb-0d25-48b1-8ab8-8d1d72daca6e
Lazarus, Eli D.
(2026)
DOZER: a toy model of coastal hazard mitigation during a storm.
Bakkes, Sander, Bellotti, Francesco, Dondio, Pierpaolo, Ninaus, Manuel, Wannick, Vanissa and Bucchiarone, Antonio
(eds.)
In Games and Learning Alliance - 14th International Conference, GALA 2025, Proceedings.
vol. 16307 LNCS,
Springer Cham.
.
(doi:10.1007/978-3-032-11043-5_14).
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
Motivated by observations of emergency road-maintenance crews in coastal settings, DOZER is a video game in which the player uses a bulldozer to clear sand from a beachfront road during a storm. DOZER is also a toy model in a formal sense: a heuristic tool for insight into the dynamics of real-time intervention in the physical processes of a natural hazard. Here, I introduce DOZER as both a game and a numerical model, and demonstrate its utility for exploring divergence between a human-altered environmental system and its natural counterpart. I also situate the mechanics of DOZER in the broader context of game design principles and philosophy. For models of systems in which adaptation is an important dynamic, ceding control of adaptive behaviours to a human player can enable novel model outcomes that random, probabilistic, deterministic, or genetic-programming approaches may not produce.
Text
Lazarus_GALA25_SLNCS_DOZER_R1_final
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
e-pub ahead of print date: 2 January 2026
Keywords:
Agent-based model, Coastal hazard, Rhetoric of failure
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 510313
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/510313
ISSN: 0302-9743
PURE UUID: eb26d384-a4d4-4d8f-8d9b-e813d5c7e33f
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 25 Mar 2026 17:38
Last modified: 26 Mar 2026 02:52
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Contributors
Editor:
Sander Bakkes
Editor:
Francesco Bellotti
Editor:
Pierpaolo Dondio
Editor:
Manuel Ninaus
Editor:
Vanissa Wannick
Editor:
Antonio Bucchiarone
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