Abstract
Sustainable waste management, particularly in industrial areas, is one of the major challenges of developing countries. Among the important issues in the overall process of industrial wastes management is the necessity of suitable site selection for waste disposal. Considering the effects that the disposal sites exert on their surrounding ecosystem and environment, these sites should be located in places with the minimum destructive effects and the lowest environmental impacts. The aim of this research is to outline important criteria for industrial zone waste disposal site selection and to select optimal and proper disposal sites in the Salafchegan special economic zone. This region, as one of the most important industrial areas and closest to the country’s political–economic center, enjoys a privileged and unique position for producing, exporting, and transiting goods and products. There are various parameters involved in the optimal selection of suitable industrial waste disposal sites. In this case study, issues such as the depth of groundwater, distance from surface- and groundwater, access routes, residential areas, industries, power transmission lines, flood-proneness, faults, slope, and distance from gardens and agricultural lands were taken into account. Following selection and preparation of the maps related to the influential parameters, assigning weights was done through the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and using expert comments. At this stage, the maps and weights related to them were introduced into an index overlay model to obtain new maps from combining the influential parameters. Thereafter, the areas with the first and second priorities were selected and out of each one, four sites were suggested for disposing of industrial wastes. The sites with the first and second priorities were specified as A1, A2, A3, and A4 and B1, B2, B3, and B4, respectively. The area, groundwater depth, distance from residential areas, distance from the Salafchegan special economic zone, the direction of the predominant wind, and the land use of the selected sites were also investigated.
Highlights
The growth of population and in turn increased number of industrial units have resulted in a significant increase in the volume of wastes, especially industrial wastes
Considering the results obtained from the integration of factor maps (Figure 4) and the selection of two options, highly suitable and moderately suitable, as the first and second priorities, respectively, final selection of suitable sites for disposing of industrial wastes was performed
The first priority locations were specified as A1, A2, A3, and A4, while second priority areas were specified as B1, B2, B3, and B4
Summary
The growth of population and in turn increased number of industrial units have resulted in a significant increase in the volume of wastes, especially industrial wastes. One of the most important environmental challenges of many developing countries, including Iran, is disposing of hazardous wastes in a sustainable way with minimum undesirable effects on natural resources, especially water and soil. Starting from 1980, with recognition of the adverse effects caused by unsystematic disposal of wastes in the environment, industrial countries commenced the implementation of extensive regulations for controlling hazardous and toxic compounds. The first regulations related to controlling hazardous and toxic materials have been implemented in the member countries of the European Economic Community (EEC) as well as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 1987, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) approved the principles and policies of management of hazardous wastes, followed by signing the Basel Treaty (in Switzerland) to control international transportation of such wastes by 35 participating countries. There are various models and methods involved in waste disposal, where the final goal is to find the most suitable site that has the lowest environmental impacts on the natural environment surrounding the disposal zone [3]
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