Optimum Municipal Solid Waste Disposal Site Selection Using Gis Based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis: A Case of Nekemte Town, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

Solid waste is a major global concern particularly in developing countries. Municipal landfill site selection is becoming the main challenge as a result of various factors. To make the site to be selected environmentally sound, socially acceptable and economically feasible, GIS based multi-criteria decision analysis ( MCDA ) method that has the capability to combine spatially referenced data with experts’ value judgment was used in this study. The analytic hierarchy process ( AHP ) was the major technique of MCDA used to derive the weights of the nine criteria considered – distance from road network, geology, distance from fault lines, soil permeability, slope, distance from rivers/streams, distance from lakes, distance from the built-up areas and land use/land cover types. After creating Multiple-ring Buffers for road network, fault lines, rivers/streams, lakes and built-up areas by reviewing various literatures, all the criteria were standardized by reclassifying them into suitability classes. The weights of the reclassified criteria were derived using AHP Pair-wise Comparison Matrix in Microsoft Excel and then combined together using the Weighted Overlay tool in ArcGIS to produce the composite suitability map of the study area. Accordingly, 0.43% and 0.02% of the study area are unsuitable and highly suitable, respectively. The remaining 41.64%, 51.12%, and 6.8% of the study area are poorly suitable, moderately suitable and suitable, respectively. The raster composite suitability map of study area was then converted into vector map to select candidate disposal sites. Accordingly, six candidate municipal solid waste disposal sites were selected, evaluated with respect to their area (size), distance from center and distance from the nearby built-up area. They were weighted with respect to these three evaluating criteria using AHP Pair-wise Comparison Matrix and finally mapped and ranked. The first, second and third ranked candidate disposal sites have an area of 46 ha, 29 ha and 35ha, respectively. The first and second candidate sites are located in Burka Jato sub-town, while the third one is located in Sorga sub-town. In order to reduce the adverse impact of surface water pollution in the downstream, runoff should not flow into and out of the MSW disposal sites. To minimize groundwater pollution, detailed investigation on sub-surface condition of the site should be made during design. Greenhouse gases collection should also be designed to reduce air pollution. Keywords: multi-criteria decision analysis; analytic hierarchy process; Pair-wise Comparison Matrix; Weight Overlay DOI: 10.7176/JEES/10-11-01 Publication date: November 30 th 2020