# GIS-Based Solar Radiation Mapping, Site Evaluation, and Potential Assessment: A Review
## 3 Solar Site Evaluation Using GISs
### Solar Site Evaluation for Specific Objects  
As mentioned above, most solar site evaluation studies involving GISs have been focused on selecting and prioritizing suitable areas from a macroscopic view. These studies were conducted mainly from the regional scale to the national scale and rarely on the continental scale, because solar site evaluation studies using GISs can play an important role in decision making. However, some studies have been performed on more specific objects, rather than land for solar power plant installation.  
[PERSON] and [PERSON] [54] assessed the PV potential at abandoned mine reclamation sites in Korea. A spatial DB was constructed for 218 abandoned mine reclamation sites (Figure 5) according to reclamation type. By combining the solar energy resource and mine reclamation maps using overlay analysis, mine sites with high annual GHI were selected and energy simulations were conducted based on the system advisor model (SAM) by NREL in the US. [PERSON] et al. [55] estimated the priorities and potential of floating PV for 3,401 reservoirs in Korea. To select a suitable reservoir for floating PV installation, a water depth DB of reservoirs was constructed using OpenAPI (Figure 6a). The annual power production for all possible reservoirs was calculated by considering solar radiance, topographical information (Figure 6b), and solar panel parameters.  
Figure 5: Spatial DB for abandoned mine reclamation sites in Korea: (**a**) Locations of abandoned mine reclamation sites; (**b**) Composition according to reclamation type in each administrative district ([PERSON] and [PERSON] [54]).  
[PERSON] et al. [56] rated roof surfaces in terms of solar potential and suitability for PV systems. The solar potential was determined by combining the urban topography extracted from LiDAR data with pyranometer measurements and analyzing the shadowing effect. After the roofs were split into segments, a filtering process was conducted to identify buildings unsuitable for PV installation. Then, the solar potential rating was employed for the suitable buildings. [PERSON] et al. [57] evaluated the rooftop solar PV suitability of a building from a microscopic view. To consider not only its technical performance, but also its economic performance, hillshade analysis and life cycle cost analysis were conducted. To develop a rooftop solar PV rating system, cluster analysis based on the technical and economic suitability criteria was performed. The rating system was applied to 21,681 buildings in the Gangnam district in Seoul, South Korea by dividing them into four grades according to their rooftop solar PV potentials, investment returns, and payback periods.  
Because only one type of renewable energy system cannot provide continuous power generation, there have been site selection studies for two or more renewable energy systems including solar PV or CSP energy. When multiple renewable energy sources are used in combination, they can compensate for each other when one of them is not available.  
In some studies, a Boolean overlay method or weighted sum method was applied to find suitable locations for hybrid solar-wind power station construction by considering factors such as the resources, topography, and environmental and economic viewpoints [29; 30; 34; 45]. In addition, an MCDA framework incorporating an FAHP was applied for hybrid solar-wind renewable energy system site selection [35]. The OR-SAGE tool was developed to analyze the impacts of future energy technology while balancing competing resource use [36]. The tool considers population growth, water availability, environmental indicators, and tectonic and geological hazards and was applied to the western US. The final map categorized and showed the most suitable region for each energy source (solar, nuclear, advanced coal, and CAES).