P.E.I. news: Immersive video game reveals vulnerability to flooding, erosion

CHARLOTTETOWN –

At the end of his presentation at an Earth Day event in Charlottetown, Adam Fenech, a professor at the University of Prince Edward Island, used a video game to simulate the effects of sea level rise in the province.

Fenech said the audience gasped as they saw areas they knew, maybe even their homes, swamped with water. As he gauged the reaction in the room, he thought, “Oh, we’re onto something here.”

That was about 10 years ago.

Today, the video game — now updated and with better resolution — has become an important tool in helping P.E.I. residents understand what coastal erosion caused by sea level rise and flooding can do to communities.

Called CoastaL Impacts Visualization Environment, or CLIVE, the game will soon be linked to the provincial government’s website, and next month Fenech is travelling to eight communities on the Island to present the technology and show people “the vulnerability of their own properties or of …