Public Perception of Bioenergy Chain: an Integrated Evaluation Based on Semantic Differential Approach and Multi-Criteria Analysis

Stakeholders perception of biomass chain – in terms of socio-economic and environmental sustainability – is an important topic in territorial planning. On this subject rational and emotional aspects of perception have to be taken into account in participative approaches. The innovation of the present research was the application of semantic differential approach for the evaluation of bioenergy chain perception. The methodology was applied for the investigation of three types of bioenergy chain (biogas, vegetable oil and woodchips). Results were aggregate and evaluated by means of multi-criteria analysis (MCA). The case study area was located in Tuscany region (central Italy). The main outputs of the work highlighted how sustainability perception is linked to the characteristics of interviewed (e.g. age and localization of residence) as well as to specific context. Moreover the research emphasized the differences among renewable energy typology for each sustainability pillars.