Selection of sanitary landfill site by integrated fuzzy AHP and GIS for Multan, Pakistan

Abstract

Sanitary landfill is a common solution for the final solid waste disposal in developing countries. The appropriate landfill location is a very complicated task, as the site selection process involves several factors and guidelines. In this study, suitable candidate landfill sites with minimum risks to public health and environment for the Multan District of Pakistan were identified by integrating the fuzzy set theory and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) within GIS. The socio-economic (i.e., distance to main roads, railway lines, airport, settlements and slope), ecological (i.e., distance to the protected area, distance to the source of surface water, groundwater level, soil type, and land cover type), and infrastructure (distance to tube wells and electric power lines) criteria were taken into consideration. In the fuzzy set, criteria standardisation was done by using different membership functions, whereas the weighting was performed using AHP method to determine the relative importance of the sub-criteria. The results showed that almost 8.5% of the total study area was the most suitable for landfills. After ground-truthing, the three best suitable landfill sites were selected across the district in terms of significant criteria.