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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2010.05.010 Byline: Leda-Ioanna Tegou, Heracles Polatidis, Dias A. Haralambopoulos Abstract: This paper develops an integrated framework to evaluate land suitability for wind farm siting that combines multi-criteria analysis (MCA) with geographical information systems (GIS); an application of the proposed framework for the island of Lesvos, Greece, is further illustrated. A set of environmental, economic, social, and technical constraints, based on recent Greek legislation, identifies the potential sites for wind power installation. Furthermore, the area under consideration is evaluated by a variety of criteria, such as wind power potential, land cover type, electricity demand, visual impact, land value, and distance from the electricity grid. The pair-wise comparison method in the context of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is applied to estimate the criteria weights in order to establish their relative importance in site evaluation. The overall suitability of the study region for wind farm siting is appraised through the weighted summation rule. Results showed that only a very small percentage of the total area of Lesvos could be suitable for wind farm installation, although favourable wind potential exists in many more areas of the island. Author Affiliation: Energy Management Laboratory, Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, Lesvos 81100, Greece Article History: Received 21 September 2009; Revised 14 April 2010; Accepted 14 May 2010