Virtu@lis

Notes: (1) The Work Package lead partners are indicated by the highlighted box in the matrix. (2) A significant part of the work in these Work Packages has been undertaken by tenured researchers of university institutions, working together with contract staff and post-graduates, hence the full effort is not accurately represented in the person-months specified.

Objectives:
The 'virtual worlds' developed have all related lifestyles and stakeholder activities to impacts on ecosystems and environmental quality. This Work Package Set 2 dealt with developing a conceptual, as well as computer interfaces between individual lifestyles and stakeholder activities and ecosystems or ecological-economic models. Hence, at a conceptual level it refers to the actual "translation" of individual lifestyles and stake-styles, and the collective challenges of resource access, management and governance, to model inputs and subsequently model outputs. (Here we refer to stake-styles as the activities that characterise the stakeholders of the region of concern, and to governance as the institutional mechanisms and customs that regulate resource use and conflicts).
The general objective was that, through the proposed tool, users may, for example, on the one hand visualise and explore the impacts of current water usage on the region of concern and on the other hand, explore the required changes in lifestyle or stakeholder activities that desired water quality levels imply
The Work Package Set 2 provides the foundations for the subsequent domain implementations (WP4) and also provides for the reviewing and tuning on a formal and informal basis the prototype ICT creations (WP3).

WP2.A "ICT Conception and Design"
For each of the four domains - agriculture, climate change, fisheries and surface & underground water - it has been created a virtual world that features four different inter-connectable interactive modes: a Personal Barometer, a Scenario Generator, a Virtual Visit, and an Interactive Game.

This Work Package WP2.A has developed full specifications for design choices. It deliberately has a very strong collaborative character involving, in a structured way, almost all partners, so as to ensure a high level of synergy for the ensuing work.
The computer interfaces has deployed the 'virtual reality' technology. The idea was to have the users absorbed into their world, as an observer or as part of the world itself and gauge their impacts in the spaces and worlds outside theirs and subsequently explore alternative 'styles' those being alternative lifestyles, alternative economical and industrial activities, alternative ways of relating to ecosystems and living resources.
The global architecture is illustrated in the Figure below. For each of the selected environmental domains, the product has consisted of models (both physical and economical, which are developed already) or libraries or other sorts of information that has ultimately responded to the users needs - the interactive responses. Models and data-bases have provided the knowledge (scientific and other) that has supported the Features of the product. For each environmental domain, the system has featured 4 different Features (types of functionality):

N.B. Multi-player games may potentially not only facilitate effective consensus and efficient policy delivery but they also shift cultural perception towards recognition of mutual interdependence - an important pre-requisite of effective governance.

Interface: the interface proposed here has been built using virtual reality modelling and programming; the final product is accessible by an ordinary PC. (see section below for details of development and implementation).
Interactive responses refer to the types of functionality the user may expect from using the system. The desired types of responses have been identified a priori based on the experience of some of the partners - in many cases more than 10 years of experience - on developing stakeholder concertation and educational tools and implementing software for social learning processes. Clearly the kinds of responses that this system may provide are subject to TUNING - that is during the knowledge assessment phase other functionality may be identified as fundamental whereas other may be seen as obsolete and useless.

In a rapidly emerging field, permanent reassessment of concepts and software capacities is necessary. Overall options for prototype conception and design has been defined in close collaboration between the WP leader ISIS (Partner 2), YDREAMS (Partner 3, a SME specialist in virtual reality development with spatial and environmental applications) and the scientific/programming teams from the C3ED (Partner 1), Cranfield (Partner 4 and CoMPLEX (Partner 10) all of whom bring programming, multi-agent simulation and multi-media expertise.

For the Virtual Visit/Trip, the envisaged technologies are Multimedia 3D modelling and Virtual Reality (VR) supported by recent technological evolutions in the field of Computer Graphics (via ISIS, YDREAMS and CoMPLEX). Environmental learning concepts adapted to the multi-media will be furnished by the Open University (Partner 6), Dundee University (Partner 7), the GRIC (Partner 8) and the University of Milan (Partner 9).
For multi-agent game implementations, choices have been made for each environmental domain, that reconcile programming options, game concepts, and underlying model requirements (viz., hydrosystems or fisheries or climate change impacts or agriculture and soil and water pollution at various scales). Provisional choices for programming/architecture have already been made for Agriculture (C3ED) and for Fisheries (Cranfield with CoMPLEX). Features of these two solution concepts have been compared, and discussed with ISIS and YDREAMS, in order to decide the approach to be used for Water (which will be a joint responsibility between Cranfield and C3ED, in collaboration with ISIS and YDREAMS). A similar collaborative approach has been used for Climate change (ISIS, C3ED and YDREAMS). The 'game' concepts are based in political economy analysis of environmental issues, notably problems of common property, social choice and stakeholder concertation (C3ED, CoMPLEX, Cranfield). Final selection of 'game' concepts has been co-ordinated by Martin O'Connor (C3ED), based on bringing together the technical (architecture) considerations with key concepts about resource governance and conflict resolution.
The need to identify and optimise commonalties (if any) in architecture and development across different environmental domains is emphasised (see WP2.D below). The starting point for the common underlying design concepts can be presented as follows. The four Features (of forms of functionality) of the system can be understood as progressive extensions from a virtual visit to a multi-player game. A user's interaction becomes gradually more sophisticated and also the types of knowledge and interpretation challenges that are disclosed: this exploits the principle of progressive disclosure of knowledge. The virtual visits provide the user with access to refereed knowledge; the barometer develops an engine to evaluate impacts also through the access to the models and the databases, the scenario generator calls a scenario simulator accessing models and databases but also the impact evaluation engine developed to the barometer, and finally the multi-player game has made use of all these items as well as governance concepts, and has extended usage of the system to more than one user. The Figure below illustrates this generic conception for the ICT systems.

Here are examples of the virtual worlds to be explored for each of the environmental domains considered in this project:

Agriculture: The land productivity, as well as the landscape will be affected by pollution levels or other land "stress" factors in a particular agricultural region. Using Augmented Reality techniques - see WP 2 Toolkit, users can visualise those changes in real time and space. The use of the very real image to compose the virtual output elements directly from computer simulations allows a better realism and a much stronger perception of the cause-effect correlation related with agricultural production and pollution problems.
Climate Change: A virtual home, where the user visualises the connection of every day activities with the emission of greenhouse gases and impacts at different scales. A virtual reality - see WP 2 toolkit - game is developed so that the user become the housemate of the virtual house and may explore alternative lifestyles (what if I do…) or strategic choices (what if they do… - what if those who have the power to take certain decisions, for instance about the fuel mix to produce electricity) to enhance his/her emissions. Trade-offs of alternative lifestyles have been presented and explored for economical, environmental and social aspects.
Fisheries: A Virtual Reality trip around the world, as part of a shoal of migratory fish. During the trip, it is possible to visualise several steps of that fish's life cycle, from the egg to the egg, and appreciate the kind and intensity of pressures they are subject to. These pressures may be related to pollution, predation, fishing and others. So, in this virtual trip, following a migratory shoal of fish around the world, it is possible to link some different economical, social and environmental aspects that depend or affect a fish population and try to understand the way they are related. For example, if pollution increases in estuarine zones or dams are build in rivers, a large amount of the juvenile population of fish is destroyed and, consequently, much farther away, the fishing boats will catch less fish.
A Virtual Reality game variant has been designed developed so that the user may become not a fisher but a fish of the shoal being subjected to the same problems and pressures that real fish are. In this game, the user may have to avoid fishing boats, run from sharks, look for food, find a partner and find his way home again. By increasing some external pressure factors (like the number of fishing boats), the number of times the virtual player is caught determine the "damages" of that fishing activity in our fish population.
In the VR game, action takes place at a micro-scale (the fish scale) but the performances of his behaviour and his capabilities to survive will be extrapolated to a macro economical and ecological perspective. The idea is to realize that simple local actions may have strong macro consequences. The micro scale has evolved in a totally visual context (the Virtual Reality game) but the macro-scale consequences are represented only in terms of global statistical data.
Water Resources: Groundwater resources are complex systems that can only be visualised and analysed on a detailed level using complex 3D computer Graphic techniques. Virtual Reality provides an excellent tool for exploring 3D data with spatial distribution. Some applications exist already for proprietary scientific and commercial purposes (e.g., visualisation for mineral and hydrocarbon exploitation), but exploitations for wider public learning are still rare. Using the right approach, it is possible to select and isolate different layers of information and use a VR environment to visualize and explore the 3D perspectives of relevant data, for example water flows into the soil and through the ground, changes in water table, rises and falls in contamination, extraction through pumping, and so on. YDREAMS (Partner 3 )and Cranfield (Partner 4) already possess experience with implementation of such models for European catchments.

WP2.B "Programming and Multi-Media"
In this work package, building on the generic concepts to be detailed in WP2.A, the partners has made detailed choices about efficient ICT tools and programming in order to make it easy and useful for people to explore and interact with the information generated throughout the course of the project. This WP is led by YDREAMS (Partner 3) supported by the programming Partners 1 (C3ED), 2 (ISIS), 4 (Cranfield) and 10 (CoMPLEX) all of whom have programming, multi-agent simulation and multi-media expertise.
At the analytical level, evaluation of resource or environmental impacts is supported by state of the art modelling about the four domains: climate change (the linkage between lifestyles and emission of greenhouse gases), agriculture (namely fertilisers usage and impacts), fisheries and underground water quality. Generic choices about programming frames have been taken early in the project, which have oriented the type of information systems and visualisations that are exploited in the VIRTU@LIS products. Some key elements are:
Some software design concepts for the Personal Barometer and Scenario Generator components are already stabilised through existing work by the ISIS and C3ED. Decisions have nonetheless been made, for example precisely which integrated models will be exploited for each environmental domain, which choices of software that are feasible for the models chosen and that provide flexibility with users, what will be the principles for interfacing the Personal Barometers with underlying integrated models, GIS, multi-criteria DSS (etc.) that support the Scenario Generators, etc.
Notions for the Interactive Games (see WP2.A) have been translated into detailed software programmes allowing individual 'role exploration' and also multi-player interactive use, first on local networks and eventually through the Internet. Also, the games must be embedded in the overall Virtual Visit environment.
Within the Virtual Visit environment is embedded a 3-D Virtual Library facility. It is intended, inter alia, to tap systematically into GEMET, the General European Multilingual Environment Thesaurus, developed for the EEA as a reference indexing and retrieval tool for the EEA Catalogue of Data Sources and other EEA databases. Not limited to GEMET, the VIRTU@LIS Virtual Libraries for each environmental domain are customised in appropriate style (e.g., swimming underwater for the fisheries) and are multi-language; the choices for these applications have been made under the supervision of the ISIS and YDREAMS (Partners 2 and 3).
Outlines of the concepts and perspectives for implementation to be systematically developed within WP2.B, are provided in Section 13 of this Description of Work, "ICT CONCEPTS FOR THE PROJECT", in particular within:
13.A Architecture globale pour la plate-forme de modélisation et de simulation ViRTU@LiS
13.B Conception of the Virtual Reality Module for ViRTU@LiS
13.C Concepts généraux pour une modélisation organisationnelle générique en adéquation avec la vision "tétraédrique".

WP2.C "Evaluation of Existing Concepts and Interface Tools"
This WP was planned tightly in parallel with the conception work in WP2.A and as an input into it. Within Virtu@lis, one fundamental issue is to understand how the computer-based simulations act as mediators of the processes of negotiating understanding and knowledge. In other terms, what types of interactions do the ICT tools act as mediators for, and what co-operative learning mechanisms are associated with these types of interactions ? One source of inspiration is the theory according to which 'epistemic interactions' (i.e., argumentative and explanatory interactions, are the means by which conceptual understanding is co-elaborated. Different mechanisms that could explain the processes of emerging understanding from interaction was reviewed, from the co-operative learning literature. For example, it has been shown that 'explainers' can benefit just as much as the people who 'receive' explanations, that negotiated outcomes of argumentation can lead to knowledge co-construction, and that argumentative interactions can be effective means for differentiating domain concepts.
The task of this work package WP2.C was to build knowledge within the consortium of what types of learning (e pistemic) interactions can take place and be favoured by the ICT tools developed in Virtu@lis. An inventory was made of relevant ICT products available on websites, CD or software packages (including those of the consortium partners themselves). A selection of these was "tested" with individuals and small groups of users for their effectiveness in learning situations with a variety of groups and individual users. The question was asked: to what extent do ICT tools and tasks act as effective mediators for the interactive elaboration of knowledge?In this way, a systematic 'laboratory' appraisal has been made of existing ICT products oriented to environmental education and information to citizens. This WP was led by the GRIC (Partner 8) which specialises in the design of multi-media interfaces for learning and the evaluation of learning effectiveness. The testing work will be undertaken by the GRIC (led by Michael Baker), supported by Jim Ewing (University of Dundee, Partner 7) and by the environmental education team at the University of Milan (Partner 9).

WP2.D "Proof of Generic Concepts"
The IST programme puts strong emphasis on the development of generic tools and concepts. For ViRTU@LiS, this relates notably to the prospect of implementing a similar ICT architecture (etc.) for a wide range of different environmental domains. The aim of this WP2.D 'Proof of Generic Concepts' is to demonstrate that the interface design and ICT concepts developed for each of the four selected environmental domains (as outlined in the WP4), can plausibly be generalised and that, hence, the ViRTU@LiS prototypes are examples of generic ICT of high social usefulness.
This investigation of prospects for, and possible limits to the pertinence of generic concepts, has been built directly on the reports from WP2.A and WP2.B (established at Month 18), and on experience from the four environmental domain implementations (established over Months 12-24 in WP4). In assessing user requirements, close reference is made to the emerging environmental information structures at European Union level. This includes notably (though is not limited to) the data sets, indicator systems, country reporting and outlook frameworks administered by the European Environmental Agency (EEA); it has also included reference to sectoral information, reporting and communication systems (e.g., in the case of climate change, the reporting procedures for greenhouse gas emissions; in the case of water, the reporting and performance criteria of the Water Framework Directive; etc.).
This WP2.D was led by the C3ED (Partner 1), with participation from programming and ICT specialists at ISIS (Partner 2), YDREAMS (Partner 3), Cranfield (Partner 4) and CoMPLEX (Partner 10). A specialised meeting was held at about Month 21, in order to bring together experience from the four domains and to define the steps for the generic concepts demonstration (see later sections of this document). This lead to a Technical Report at Month 25. The working group for this WP2.D needed to give attention to:

A generic product description
Audience Definition(s)
Design Goals
Use of storyboard techniques to demonstrate a 'typical user session'
Evaluation of platform performance as compared with objectives
Assessment of technical issues and operational support requirements
Strengths and weaknesses (including technical constraints) of the platform for different application types
Training needs for platform use or facilitation
Agree on the architecture of a working prototype(s)
Requirements for developing further domain implementation plans, with timelines and projected resource cost


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