The global increase in renewable energy initiatives has been followed by the need to include the social impact of any project as a core element. Significant challenges for renewable energy development include uncertainty in assessing social impacts at local scales, participation and social acceptance. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approaches have been widely used in energy planning to address these challenges. This article reviews how social criteria and participation mechanisms have been incorporated into decision-making processes for renewable energy projects. A total of 184 articles were analyzed. A total of 490 indicators that estimated social impacts were identified and organized into nine criteria: employment, social acceptance, social development, health impact, governance, visual impact, knowledge and awareness, cultural value and social justice. Most research included analytical hierarchy process methodologies, and the articles were geographically concentrated in Asia and Europe. Most articles included a participative component (92.3%), and the majority of them were based on expert consultation (75.4%). Of the articles that exclusively considered experts, almost 40% did not provide any description of the expert elicitation process. Results revealed advances in the use of MCDA but highlighted important challenges—related to improving expert consultation methodologies and broadening the participation of stakeholders—when developing renewable energy initiatives and policies.

Quantifying drought's economic impacts has been key for decision-making to build future strategies and improve the development and implementation of proactive plans. However, climate change is changing drought frequency, intensity, and durability. These changes imply modifications of their economic impact, as longer droughts result in greater cumulative economic losses for water users. Though the longer the drought lasts, other factors also play a crucial role in its economic outcomes, such as Infrastructure capacity (IC), the Amount of Water in Storage (AWS) in reservoirs and aquifers, and short- and long-term responses to it. This study proposes and applies an analytical framework for the economic assessment of long-run droughts, assessing and explaining central Chile megadrought economic effects through the factors that begin to influence the economic impact level in this setting. High levels of both IC and the AWS, as well as short- and long-term responses of water users, allow for high resilience to long-run droughts, tolerating extraordinary water disruption in its society with relatively low total economic impacts. Despite this adaptability, long-term droughts bring places to a water-critical threshold where long-term adaptation strategies may be less flexible than short-term strategies, escalating the adverse economic effects. This fact suggests that the economic evaluation of megadrought needs to focus on future tipping points (substantial water scarcity). The tipping point depends on the IC, how water users manage the AWS, and adaptation strategies. Establishing the tipping point should be a priority for future interdisciplinary research.