Abstract
The large excess of solid waste generated in cities is a result of population growth and economic development. Properly managing this municipal solid waste (MSW) is a challenge, mainly in underdeveloped and developing countries where financial concerns are an added problem. From the environmental point of view, a major issue is properly disposing MSW taking into consideration a wide range of factors, and working with different spatial data. In this study, we used geographic information system (GIS) to perform multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) conducted by analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The development of the environmental impact susceptibility model (EISM) for municipal solid waste disposal sites (MSWDS) applied to the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil considered factors such as geology, pedology, geomorphology, water resources, and climate represented by fifteen associated sub-factors. The results indicated that more than 82% of Sao Paulo’s territory is situated in areas with very low, low, and medium environmental impact susceptibility categories. However, in the remaining 18% of the state land area, 85 landfills are located in areas with high and very high environmental impact susceptibility categories. These results are alarming because these 85 landfills receive approximately 17,886 tons of MSW on a daily basis, which corresponds to 46% of all municipal solid waste disposed in Sao Paulo state. Therefore, decision makers, urban planners and policymakers could use the findings of the EISM towards mitigating the environmental impacts caused by MSWDS.
Highlights
The rapid world population growth and economic development are causing changes in terrestrial systems that can have serious and lasting consequences
The literature review is divided into four parts: Section 2.1 includes the advantages of geographic information system (GIS) in environmental studies, Section 2.2 demonstrates the importance of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) applied to municipal solid waste issues, and Section 2.3 explains the use of analytical hierarchy process (AHP)
Through the development of the environmental impact susceptibility model for municipal solid waste disposal sites using multi criteria decision analysis and analytical hierarchic processes coupled with geographic information system, it was possible to identify the most and least environmentally susceptible areas using five environmental factors associated with fifteen sub-factors
Summary
The rapid world population growth and economic development are causing changes in terrestrial systems that can have serious and lasting consequences. Sanitary landfills use techniques and methods to better control environmental impacts and are commonly used around the world, in developed countries [4]. Examples include predicting generation and composition patterns of MSW [35] [36], improving MSW collection and transport [25] [37] [38] [39] [40], selecting locations for MSW transfer stations [41] [42], assessing groundwater vulnerability [43] [44] and impact [45] near a MSWDS, and identifying areas for siting landfills [46]-[60]
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