2015/05/28 by Eugene Ch’ng, Ch'ng, Eugene, Vincent Gaffney +3 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Coastal and Marine Dynamics #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis #Land Use and Ecosystem Services #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1506.05421
openalex publication_date 2015/05/28 · openalex created_date 2022/10/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Decisions on settlement location in the face of climate change and coastal\ninundation may have resulted in success, survival or even catastrophic failure\nfor early settlers in many parts of the world. In this study we investigate\nvarious questions related to how individuals respond to a palaeoenvironmental\nsimulation, on an interactive tabletop device where participants have the\nopportunity to build a settlement on a coastal landscape, balancing safety and\naccess to resources, including sea and terrestrial foodstuffs, whilst taking\ninto consideration the threat of rising sea levels. The results of the study\nwere analysed to consider whether decisions on settlement were predicated to be\nnear to locations where previous structures were located, stigmergically, and\nwhether later settler choice would fare better, and score higher, as time\nprogressed. The proximity of settlements was investigated and the reasons for\nclustering were considered. The interactive simulation was exhibited to\nthousands of visitors at the 2012 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition at\nthe Europes Lost World exhibit. 347 participants contributed to the simulation,\nproviding a sufficiently large sample of data for analysis.\n