Dear Samiksha,

yours is an interesting project!

To clarify your inquiry: are you looking for a methodology for impact assessment -as you wrote in the heading of the question- or for parameters (KPIs?) as you wrote in the details of the question. 

Moreover, it seems to me that you are already considering the plant beneficial for farmers, but it would be wise to consider the circumstances in which it might not be beneficial (to keep your research unbiased), not only for them but also for other types of stakeholders you might want to include in your analysis. 

All the best 

Ilaria

Thanks for your answer. I am looking for methodology for impact assessment. I am agreed that it can not only beneficial for farmers but other stakeholders as well for business purpose. I will add other stakeholders in my question.

Dear Samiksha,

As you are looking for various different methods to perform impact assessment for a small scale biogas plant, in my opinion, it will be also as per the country Specific EIA norms.  Like for country like India, EIA  methodology will be according to the classification of projects as per EIA notification and CPCB guidelines. As you mentioned it is small scale Biogas Plant so , in many such cases, there is no requirement for SIA (Social Impact Assessment). However, for research work, the entire methodology will be a mixed methodology [Creswell,( 2003) ] which will  include the technical specification with following aspects like the baseline environmental conditions of the area

• Description of the nature and design of the project

• Description of the major activities at the site during construction, operation and

decommissioning phases of the project

• Provisions of the relevant environmental laws

• Identification of materials to be used and by-products and wastes

• Identification and discussion of the potential adverse impacts to the environment from the site

• Establish appropriate mitigation measures for these impacts

• Provision of an environmental management plan

and the same time, you need to think of the Stake holder perceptions. Please find attached EIA reports. I think it will help you to understand my point and design a mixed methodology.

To get an overview of the landscape of the methods for sustainability assessment suitable for your project, you might read 

Sustainability Assessment Tools – State of Research and Gap Analysis by Taisch et. al (2013) https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-41263-9_53  

I believe the methods that are relevant to you are in the realm of project-related assessments, in which EIA is included. 

Including social sustainability is in my experience the most challenging part.

The paper by Assefa and Frostell (2007) puts forward an interesting way to evaluate social sustainability by three indicators that asses the social acceptance of the technology: knowledge, perception, and fear associated with four chains of energy technologies.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X0600042X 

Although your case study looks at biogas production, I believe it is an interesting read to get inspiration. 

A social sustainability indicator that is usually used in technology evaluation is number of jobs being created/destroyed, although I don't know if it might be relevant to your case. 

Good luck!