Research on Network Public Opinion in War Damage Incident of Major Water Conservancy Projects

Abstract

Major water conservancy projects face the risk of damage from conflict, and the potential consequences of dam failure can lead to widespread public outrage, posing a threat to social stability. This study analyzed the formation model of network public opinion risk, using the Kakhovka Hydropower station damaged during conflict as a case study. Based on data analysis of netizen’ comments on Twitter and Weibo (a Chinese social media platform similar to Twitter), we used data mining algorithm to identify the primary topics of interest and examine the evolution of public opinion. The findings indicate that attention to incident resulting in war damage has a negative impact on social stability through a feedback loop. Netizen on Twitter and Weibo were primarily focused on “Flood” “Crisis” “Charge” and “Help” topics. Among them, Twitter was more popular in terms of public opinion and had faster dissemination speed. “Crisis” and “Charge” were more likely to generate public opinion risks. The potential impact of war damage on social stability is noteworthy, and social stability is largely dependent on the attention level of netizen.

Keywords

• Major water conservancy projects
• network public opinion
• social stability risk
• war damage incident
• Twitter and Weibo