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Collaborative infrastructure systems are vital for managing scarce resources, particularly where user behaviors influence system sustainability. This study examines the relationship between design of constructed water infrastructure and strategic behaviors, focusing on flood irrigation systems as an example of collaborative infrastructure. The objectives are to investigate 1) whether shared water infrastructure can be effectively modeled using the stag hunt game framework and 2) how network topology impacts the strategic stability of user cooperation. Flood irrigation relies on collective action, where users balance risks of collaboration failure against benefits of successful cooperation. This situation closely aligns with stag hunt dynamics, in which users choose between a higher-value but riskier collaborative strategy or a lower-value, safer independent option. A key challenge arises when users opt out, increasing the burden on remaining collaborators. We apply a game-theoretic model using risk dominance criteria to analyze stability across four distinct infrastructure topologies: linear, tree, bus, and star. Results identify star and bus topologies as Pareto efficient, where a bus topology offers greater economic efficiency through reduced infrastructure costs and a star topology enhances stability due to equitable distribution of influence and reduced dependencies. An agent-based simulation validates analytical findings by dynamically captures user interactions under uncertainty and showing a strong correlation with game-theoretic results. Consequently, this study confirms the applicability of stag hunt frameworks for analyzing collaborative water infrastructure and provides practical insights into how topology design can influence cooperative resilience. These findings enhance knowledge for sustainable improvement of collaborative infrastructure. 

In collaborative systems, both technical and social factors influence decisions. While collaborative options may yield desired outcomes, a lack of understanding between parties can hinder collaboration. Effective communication facilitates information exchange and comprehension of partners' intentions, guiding designers toward collaborative decisions. This study examines the impact of a communication channel designed to share actors' collaboration intentions on the accuracy of information exchange and strategic decisions in a collaborative design process. The research uses secondary data from a human experiment involving a collaborative system design problem to assess the intervention's effects. The experimental procedure involves actors completing 30 paired tasks, earning or losing points based on joint decisions with their partners. Participants represent decision-makers from different car manufacturing companies. The experimental data includes 28 junior-year plus STEM undergraduate and graduate students completing paired decision-making collaborative tasks allowed to exchange verbal information and have an additional communication channel to share intentions. The usage of the communication channel is investigated using multiple statistical tests. Results indicate that actors share their intentions accurately and honestly via the communication channel. Even in inaccurate cases, actors’ decisions shift significantly due to their partner's reported strategic intentions. This research underscores the importance of communication for better management of collaborative systems.