Comprehensive Spatial Criteria and Parameters for Sustainable Landfill Site Selection

Abstract

A landfill site is an important facility that must be occasionally evaluated when its demand gets high with the increment of generated waste. The task of selecting new landfill sites becomes difficult when there is a shortage of land and time available. It requires tedious planning decision about identifying the suitable sites. The complication will proliferate when there are various criteria that need to be apprehended. In Malaysia, the procedures for landfill site selection (LSS) is provided in the National Strategic Plan for Solid Waste Management (NSPSWM). It specifies the mitigation measures to be followed, but the restrictions on the appropriateness of suitable new landfill sites were not comprehensively deliberated. The criteria for the site suitability problem was not distinctly characterized as prescribed by the local Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) guidelines. The significance of selecting proper landfill sites must encompass the physical characteristics, environmental impact, economic and social acceptance for the necessity of the sustainability community life. From the works of literature, this study introduced seventeen (17) universally adopted spatial criteria categorized under the environmental, physical and socio-economic (EPSE) characteristics. They were successively assigned with the relative weights and standard parameters. The EPSE criteria can assist in improving the regulated LSS policy currently available in the local NSPSWM and EIA guidelines. This will ascertain that future landfill site will be sustainable, safeguard public health, ensuring minimal impact on the environment, and provide long term isolation of the solid waste deposited.