GIS-integrated multi-criteria decision-making for sustainable energy facility site selection: A systematic review and bibliometric mapping
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58712/jerel.v5i3.224Keywords:
energy facility site selection, GIS, MCDM, systematic literature review, bibliometric mapping, renewable energy planningAbstract
GIS-integrated multi-criteria decision-making (GIS-MCDM) is used to assess sites for energy-generation facilities and related infrastructure. This systematic review examines 87 studies published from 2023 to 2025, selected from 554 Scopus-indexed records. MCDM methods, publication years, study locations, facility types, and siting criteria were coded at the study level; a VOSviewer overlay was used to describe keyword co-occurrence. The included studies numbered 22 in 2023 (25.29%), 36 in 2024 (41.38%), and 29 in 2025 (33.33%). Turkey was the most frequently examined setting (n = 22), followed by China (n = 15), India (n = 7), and Iran (n = 6), after subnational location labels were harmonised. AHP was coded in 60 studies (68.97%), TOPSIS in 14 (16.09%), and fuzzy AHP in 10 (11.49%); a study could use more than one method. Solar (n = 31; 35.63%), wind (n = 22; 25.29%), and hybrid renewable applications (n = 15; 17.24%) were the most common facility types. Slope (n = 56), proximity to electrical networks (n = 52), road access (n = 49), and proximity to residential areas (n = 47) were the most frequently coded criteria. The concentration of study locations and variation in reported criteria limit direct comparison across studies. Future GIS-MCDM applications should state their spatial criteria, decision rules, and sensitivity analyses clearly.
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