A framework for enabling ex-ante social impact assessment of project-based technological solutions: the case of Remote Infrastructure Inspection

Social Impact Assessment (SIA) is the systematic examination and management of both the intended and unintended social consequences, encompassing positive and negative outcomes, resulting from designed interventions (such as policies, plans, or projects) and any social changes instigated by these interventions. In this paper, we present a strategy to define and validate social impact indicators incorporating participatory approaches into the general impact assessment framework. The paper reports on the first results of an ongoing SIA developed for the evaluation of the impact produced by a Remote Infrastructure Inspection (RII) toolset developed to increase the resilience of critical infrastructures within the framework of the SUNRISE Horizon Europe project. Several stages of the indicators’ selection procedure were proposed to ensure the validity of the selection. Our approach is then applied to identify social impact subcategories within the RII Toolset, aimed to introduce less effort-consuming ways of inspecting typically large infrastructures.