Resolving stakeholder conflicts in high-speed railway route planning: An overlapping network and evolutionary game approach

Abstract

The planning of high-speed railway corridors in ecologically sensitive areas faces significant challenges. Stakeholder conflicts arising from multi-objective conflict often induce decision-making impasses and project delays. Effectively identifying pivotal decision makers and facilitating consensus constitutes a critical challenge. This study first applied the Lancichinetti–Fortunato method to stakeholder relationship networks, detecting overlapping communities that revealed two distinct decision-maker categories: overlapping and non-overlapping decision makers. Subsequently, the most conflicted subgroup pairs and decision-maker dyads were identified using decision maker weights and community weights. To resolve decision conflicts during the consensus-building, a two-party evolutionary game model was constructed to examine strategic interactions between overlapping and conflicting decision makers. Finally, a consensus adjustment method based on the decision makers of the largest conflict is proposed to determine the final solution choice. Sensitivity analysis of the evolutionary game revealed that public attention significantly drives strategic shifts for both overlapping decision makers and conflicting decision makers. In contrast, moral hazard losses only regulate strategy evolution speed without altering direction. Additionally, the conflict intensity between construction and ecological spaces exerts opposing regulatory effects on the two groups’ strategic choices. This study provides theoretical foundations for managing non-cooperative behavior and achieving consensus equilibrium among heterogeneous subgroups.