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Effective disaster risk reduction (DRR) presupposes awareness among key stakeholders on the causal factors that exacerbate disaster risks as well as a feeling of ownership over proposed DRR measures. Yet, the prevailing top-down communication of risk and the expert-centered knowledge have a limited impact in bringing significant positive change. Serious games respond to the need for a community-based DRR approach as they encourage a collective recognition of societal issues and co-learning at the different levels of the DRR governance system. However, there is still a gap in understanding how serious games facilitate co-creation of knowledge. In this article, we introduce DisCoord, a serious game first implemented in the landslide- and flood-prone Rwenzori mountains in South-West Uganda. Designed as a public pedagogy tool, Discoord bridges diverse views and sets of knowledge of DRR stakeholders separated by spatial and socio-cultural domains. Secondly, through a qualitative analysis of the dialogues, narratives and observation notes during the actual game sessions and debriefings, we explored the factors and processes that influence knowledge co-creation. Three different knowledge actors are involved in the co-creation process, namely the game designers, game facilitators and players. These actors have diverse pre-game views, which are expressed through the game rules, arguments, game strategies, and game outcomes, and are confronted within the public space provided by the game. We find that crises experienced during the game, real-life based arguments provided by the players and own interpretations by the players are key factors in the co-creation process. This study leads us to conclude that games like DisCoord are useful as a public pedagogy intervention as they bring different forms of knowledge together in a public space and facilitate co-learning. This paper also contends that countering a top-down approach of risk communication using a public pedagogy approach requires an openness towards the unpredictable, de-centered DRR, and plural co-learning outcomes.

Thousands of poor, marginal communities’ residents die due to landslide events every year. The quick urbanization of mountainous areas, combined with an increased frequency of landslide events induced by heavy rains due to climate change, is leading to increased deaths year after year, and the problem will only get worse. Landscape Architects, trained to analyze and intervene in situations with complex natural and social territorial dynamics, are in position to make positive contributions to mitigating risks in such situations. A collaborative effort between a team of landscape architects from Germany and Urbanists in Medellín Colombia is carrying out a four-phased research and implementation proposal to anticipate and mitigate risk in low-income settlements on Medellín's urban periphery. They propose five pilot projects to test risk mitigation strategies through monitoring and early warning systems, drainage improvements, urban agriculture, slope forestation, and developing sites with the supplied services.

Thousands of poor, marginal communities’ residents die due to landslide events every year. The quick urbanization of mountainous areas, combined with an increased frequency of landslide events induced by heavy rains due to climate change, is leading to increased deaths year after year, and the problem will only get worse. Landscape Architects, trained to analyze and intervene in situations with complex natural and social territorial dynamics, are in position to make positive contributions to mitigating risks in such situations. A collaborative effort between a team of landscape architects from Germany and Urbanists in Medellín Colombia is carrying out a four-phased research and implementation proposal to anticipate and mitigate risk in low-income settlements on Medellín's urban periphery. They propose five pilot projects to test risk mitigation strategies through monitoring and early warning systems, drainage improvements, urban agriculture, slope forestation, and developing sites with the supplied services. Resumo Milhares de moradores de comunidades pobres e marginais morrem em eventos de deslizamento de terra a cada ano. A rápida urbanização das zonas montanhosas, combinada com um aumento da frequência de eventos de deslizamento de terra induzidas por fortes chuvas devido às alterações climáticas, está levando ao aumento de mortes ano após ano, e o problema só tende a piorar. Arquitetos paisagistas, treinados para analisar e intervir em situações com dinâmicas territoriais naturais e sociais complexas estão em posição de fazer contribuições positivas para a mitigação de riscos em tais situações. Um esforço de colaboração entre uma equipe de arquitetos paisagistas da Alemanha e urbanistas em Medellín, estão realizando uma proposta de pesquisa e implementação de quatro fases para antecipar e mitigar riscos em assentamentos de baixa renda na periferia urbana de Medellín. Eles propõem cinco projetos piloto para testar estratégias de mitigação de riscos através de sistemas de alerta precoce e de monitorização, melhorias de drenagem, agricultura urbana, inclinação da arborização, e sites em desenvolvimento com os serviços prestados.