Sustainability you can see

Augmented reality (AR) isn’t just about adding immersive elements to games. Perhaps the most powerful use of this technology – which overlays digital images on real-world settings – is when it’s used for educational purposes.

And that’s exactly what the beautifully brilliant WWF Free Rivers app does.

Using the power of AR, the app lets you view a digital diorama of a rural landscape – complete with a free-flowing river and all the nearby farms and villages – right in the room you’re in. And this detailed landscape of hills, river and agricultural ecosystem is interactive.

By tapping the information icons you’ll see what happens when a dam is placed in such a way that it cuts off the water supply to the people, animals and plants downstream. You’ll see how droughts and flooding can destroy land and life. And you’ll learn how a dam can be built to have as little effect on a flowing river as possible.

Using your device you can move in and out from the floating landscape to get a more detailed or broader view, and follow the effects we as a species have on our environment.

“With WWF Free Rivers, when people see it, they get it really quickly and more deeply than any infographics, papers or presentations we could have offered,” says Catherine Blancard, the World Wildlife Fund’s director of freshwater strategy.

“Classrooms, governments, energy companies and dam builders, local communities that live along rivers – they’re all very different audiences, but we’re trying to get them to understand the same thing: how they can live in harmony with the world around them.”

Whether you fit into one of those brackets or you’re just a standard user, there’s plenty WWF Free Rivers can teach you about how rivers shape our world.

WWF Free Rivers

Experience the power of rivers

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