Suitable Solid Waste Disposal Site Selection Using Geographical Information System (GIS): A Case of Debre Berhan Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

Siting solid waste disposal is an extremely difficult task mainly due to the fact that the selection process involves many factors and strict regulations. Nevertheless, if not systematically and scientifically sited and managed properly, it will result in environmental and socio-economic problems. The town of Debre Berhan is currently using dumping site that has not been selected by scientific study which is environmentally sound and socio-economically acceptable. The main aim of this study is to find the suitable solid waste disposal site by using the GIS-based Multi Criteria Evaluation techniques in Debre Berhan town. Factors such as slope, depth to ground water table, permeability of soil, land use/ land cover, proximity from roads, proximity from ground water wells, proximity from water bodies were used for selecting suitable solid waste disposal site within the study area. The factor maps were reclassified and standardized in GIS environment followed by preparation of their suitability maps. The relative weights of factors were estimated using Analytical Hierarchy Process and factors maps were developed by using GIS spatial operations. Weighted Linear Combination was also used to integrate the factor maps and produce overall solid waste disposal suitability map. The final solid waste disposal site suitability map prepared in four suitability rank such as highly suitable, moderately suitable, low suitable and unsuitable. The result shows that around 3.81% area is under highly suitable for solid waste disposal site, 47.91% is moderate suitable and 15.91% area is unsuitable for suitable for solid waste disposal site. The results indicates that the method is capable of identifying locations highly suited for suitable for solid waste disposal site.