A 3D-serious game for teaching the environmental sustainability of pig farming systems
Résumé
Models have been developed in the literature to evaluate the environmental sustainability of pig fanning systems. These models require a precise description of the farm, including feed composition, animal performance, housing and manure management. Criteria are calculated, such as N or P Joad per ha or ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions. Environrnental impacts can also be determined using !ife cycle assessment (LCA). However, these models are generally complex to understand and difficult to teach to students or fanners, mainly because of their lack of realism and anractiveness. The idea of this project was to develop a 3D serious game using a pig fann simulator, in order to facilitate this learning process. A farrow-to-finish farm was designed with a realistic 3D representation of the different fann components: pigs, buildings, equipments, manure storage, field s, crops ... The user !ravels in his farm, may enter the different rooms and modify their characteristics, just by 'touching' a component, e.g. the sow for modifying reproductive perfonnance, or the feeder for feed composition. A dashboard shows in real ti me the situation of the farm, as regard to different environmental indicators. Red lights are put on when N or P loads per ha exceed maximal allowed amounts. Overflow of man ure storage is also detected as weil as inconstancy between availability of man ure and the ir spreading, as regard to the crop rotation. The user has access to a detailed report with different graphs and tables. It a lso is possible for the teacher to build scenarios in order to address a specifie topic (e.g. LCA of pork) orto explore different strategies aiming at achieving a given objective.