Potential Landfill Sites Research Articles

Geographical information systems (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) integration for sustainable landfill site selection considering dynamic data source

Landfill site selection is complex task in which many different factors need to be considered. The aim of this study is to identify suitable landfill sites for a 35-year period using a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). If an analysis is carried out to resolve a problem as it exists today, then the same problem will recur in the years to come due to changes in the input parameters. Future prospections should always be considered when using GIS with MCDA for the creation of mid- and/or long-term solutions. To assess the proposed approach, the city of Antalya was chosen for study, being the city with the highest population growth in Turkey. Twelve available parameters (i.e., digital elevation model, aspect, slope, temperature, precipitation, earthquake zones, distance to road, visibility from roads, distance to population density, geology, landslide density, and distance to fault lines), prepared through a series of GIS analyses, were used to carry out a landfill site selection. The weights of the parameters were obtained from a constructed Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) matrix, and the consistency index and the consistency ratio were recorded as 0.091 and 0.062, respectively. For the study, protection zones were omitted. The analysis revealed a number of potential landfill sites. Furthermore, the volume of solid waste for the next 35-year period was calculated using dynamic population data, and possible candidate sites for landfill were generated. The proposed approach can serve as a guide for future works.

GIS-based assessment of combined AHP and SAW methods for selecting suitable sites for landfill in Al-Musayiab Qadhaa, Babylon, Iraq

Selecting a landfill site is a difficult task because the process depends on many factors and restrictions. Landfill is an optimal solution for the disposal of solid waste in Al-Musayiab Qadhaa, which is located in the northern part of Babylon Governorate. At the moment, there is no landfill site in that area that follows the scientific selection site criteria. For this reason, in this research, fifteen variables were considered (groundwater depth, rivers, soil types; agriculture lands use, land use, elevation, slope, gas pipelines, oil pipelines, power lines, roads, railways, urban centers, villages and archeological sites) using geographic information system (GIS) to find out the best suitable landfill site. In addition, two methods of multi-criteria decision-making were used to derive weights for criterion’s maps on GIS to obtain potential landfill sites. The first method is analytical hierarchy process (AHP) which was used to identify the weight for each criterion from the matrix of pairwise comparisons. The second method was the simple additive weighting (SAW) which is a simple method to solve the problem of the selection landfill sites. After comparison of the results obtained based on combining two final maps resulted from methods of AHP and SAW using GIS environment to determine the pixels percentage of matching and non-matching for two maps, two suitable candidate landfill sites were identified that satisfy the requirements with an area of 7.965–5.952 km2. Area of these sites can accommodate the solid waste generated from the Qadhaa up to 2030.

Landfill site selection for municipal solid wastes in mountainous areas with landslide susceptibility.

Several cities across the world are located in mountainous and landslide prone areas. Any landfill siting without considering landslide susceptibility in such regions may impose additional environmental adversity. This study was aimed to propose a practical method for selecting waste disposal site that accounts for landslide exposure. The proposed method was applied to a city which is highly proneness to landslide due to its geology, morphology, and climatic conditions. First, information on the previously occurred landslides of the region was collected. Based on this information, proper landslide causative factors were selected and their thematic maps were prepared. Factors' classes were then standardized in 0-1 domain, and thematic layers were weighted by using analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The landslide susceptibility map was prepared afterwards. Unsuitable areas for landfill location were masked in GIS environment by Boolean method, retaining sufficient areas for further evaluation. Nine remaining alternatives were selected through comprehensive field visits and were ranked by using AHP. Consequently, 17 factors in three environmental, economical, and social perspectives were employed. Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the stability of the alternatives ranking with respect to variations in criterion weights. Based on the obtained landslide susceptible map, nearly 36% of the entire region is proneness to landslide. The prepared Boolean map indicates that potential areas for landfill construction cover 11% of the whole region. The results further indicated that if landslide susceptible areas are not considered in landfill site selection, the potential landfill sites would become more than twice. It can be concluded that if any of these landslide prone sites are selected for landfilling, further environmental disaster would be terminated in the future. It can be further concluded that the proposed method could reasonably well be adjusted to consider landslide exposure when siting a solid waste landfill.

Landfill site selection using combination of GIS and fuzzy AHP, a case study: Iranshahr, Iran.

One of the most important recent challenges in solid waste management throughout the world is site selection of sanitary landfill. Commonly, because of simultaneous effects of social, environmental, and technical parameters on suitability of a landfill site, landfill site selection is a complex process and depends on several criteria and regulations. This study develops a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) process, which combines geographic information system (GIS) analysis with a fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP), to determine suitable sites for landfill construction in Iranshahr County, Iran. The GIS was used to calculate and classify selected criteria and FAHP was used to assess the criteria weights based on their effectiveness on selection of potential landfill sites. Finally, a suitability map was prepared by overlay analyses and suitable areas were identified. Four suitability classes within the study area were separated, including high, medium, low, and very low suitability areas, which represented 18%, 15%, 55%, and 12% of the study area, respectively.

Landfill site selection using GIS technology and the analytic hierarchy process

Landfills are one of the most common ways of waste disposal. Selecting a landfill site is a complicated and long process that involves a legal framework as well as environmental, economic and social parameters aimed at reducing a negative environmental impact. The landfill site selection in the municipality of Nevesinje (Republic of Srpska), dealt with in this paper, was performed using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and GIS technology. Eight criteria were analyzed: geology, distance from settlements, distance from road networks, distance from water bodies, vegetation, slope, elevation and aspect. Relative weighting factors for each criterion were defined by applying the AHP and their linear combinations, with the range of each cell determined by the suitability index. The suitability index has been reclassified in five classes where 67% of the territory belongs to the restricted area, 11% of the territory has low suitability, 6.1% has moderate suitability, 5.9% high suitability, and 10% very high suitability. Two potential landfill sites are proposed, but before a final decision is made, it is necessary to analyze additional parameters.

Mapping potential landfill sites for North Sinai cities using spatial multicriteria evaluation

The exponential rise in the urban population of the developing countries during the past decades accelerated the urbanization phenomenon and the great need for solid waste management. This fact brought awareness of the necessity to develop efficient solid waste management systems in land use planning. Due to insufficient funds, poor planning and growing needs for solid waste management systems, many Egyptian cities dispose their solid wastes in open sites. In Sinai Peninsula, cities are located either on the coastal zones or in deserts. Motivated by the Government objective in developing the cities of Sinai, this paper tries to participate in finding a solution using a spatial multi-criteria decision support system for locating potential landfill sites for North Sinai cities. Criteria concerning three themes were combined to produce three scenarios. Environmental theme related to soil characteristics; permeability and groundwater as well as vulnerable land cover units, faults and streams. Economic theme includes slope, road network, and power lines. Social theme includes distance from airports, archaeology sites and land aspect. Prioritizing the weight of a specific theme or giving an equal weight to the three themes produced different scenarios. A suitability index map was produced for each case. Comparing the three suitability indexes; zones with the highest values were selected resulting in a set of candidate sites for each city in the investigated region. According to the characteristic of a location, a scenario could be preferred. More than an option resulted and are available to the decision makers according to their strategies and objectives.

Application of GIS/AHP in siting sanitary landfill: a case study in Northern Cyprus

The present study utilized a multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) method in a geographical information systems (GIS) environment to evaluate the suitability of potential landfill sites in Northern Cyprus. To determine the most suitable landfill site, one of the MCE techniques, called analytical hierarchy process (AHP), was combined with a GIS to examine 12 criteria: distance from waste generation centres; distance from roads; slope; distance from surface waters; distance from groundwater areas; distance from environmentally sensitive areas; vegetation types; soil productivity; soil permeability; distance from settlements; distance from cultural sites; distance from stone quarries. The relative importance weights of these criteria were estimated using AHP and criteria maps were developed by using GIS spatial analysis. At the final stage two different suitability maps were produced using two different groups of weights. The first group suitability map had 11 052 (ha) with high suitability class, whereas the high suitability areas decreased to 5982 (ha) in the second group. Moreover, the seven potential sites identified within the first group decreased to four in the second suitability map. However, potential sites such as Gungor, Degirmenlik, Kirklar and Cayonu had similarities with higher suitability values and these same locations were regarded as suitable according to the both first and second suitability map results.

Modelling landfill location using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA): Case study Bo, Southern Sierra Leone

Among the various approaches devised in managing municipal solid wastes, landfills remain the final destination of waste irrespective of the technology used in treating it. Incorrect siting of landfill sites could lead to environmental, social and economic cost; hence, appropriate techniques are required in the identification of potential landfill sites. In densely populated areas in Sierra Leone, there is often tension over the location of landfill sites, where ‘not in my backyard’ campaigns have sparked riots. This article presents a methodological framework for identifying municipal landfill sites in urban areas in Sierra Leone using Bo in Southern Sierra Leone as a case in point. This framework involves a multi-criteria GIS approach that blends two aggregation techniques: Weighted Linear Combination and Ordered Weighted Averaging. Key results show that 83.3% of the study area is unsuitable for municipal landfill.

Court Decisions, NIMBY Claims, and the Siting of Unwanted Facilities: Policy Frames and the Impact of Judicialization in Locating a Landfill for Toronto's Solid Waste

This article examines the use of litigation by political actors to contest unwanted environmental policy options on the basis of NIMBY claims. It analyzes the discursive frames employed by policy actors to explain how one community in Northern Ontario could reject a facility to receive Toronto's waste while another in Michigan could not. The article employs a case study approach to trace the process of judicial and tribunal decisions about these two potential landfill sites. The research found that the judicial policy frames can serve as a determinative of outcomes of siting decisions in subsequent institutional settings and that such precedents could be overcome only when opponents reframed the issues to align with the interests of all parties. The article concludes that the specific characteristics of each institutional setting in which policy disputes take place are an important factor to explaining policy change or stability.

Potentiality of clays in the Kharga-Dakhla land stretch as a natural landfill liner in a hyperarid region

Engineered landfill liner systems are expensive to install and represent a challenge to several developing countries. Alternatively, native soils, preferentially clays, can be used as cost-effective bottom liners. The purpose of this work is to justify the reliance on the ability of the clays at the Kharga-Dakhla land stretch, Western Desert, Egypt, to act as a containment and barrier for pollutants that might be generated in a landfill leachate. This is particularly valid in hyperarid regions where many environmental requirements for landfill liner design are relaxed, as precipitation is rare and percolation to buried wastes is practically absent. The availability of native clays and clay-bearing sediments in the study area, both on surface and subsurface, makes it a potential landfill site. Collaborating techniques have been used to determine the mineralogical, geochemical, and geotechnical characteristics of the sediments constituting the Quseir Formation (Upper Cretaceous). These techniques include x-ray diffraction analysis, differential thermal analysis, cation exchange capacity (CEC), swelling properties, Atterberg limits, porosity, and hydraulic conductivity. The obtained results indicate that the investigated clayey sediments are dense and compact. They have low hydraulic conductivity that ranges from 1 1010 to 4.96 1011 cm/s, with moisture content that does not exceed 7%. The swelling values of samples containing smectite range between 250 and 500%. The plasticity limit of the red clay (floor of the Dakhla Oasis) ranges between 11 and 18%, which indicates its suitability as a landfill lining material. Values for CEC are generally high and increase with increasing smectite content. It reaches as much as 69 meq/100-g sample, indicating enhanced ability for natural attenuation and can act within the containment system for metal pollutants. The obtained mineralogical, geochemical, and geotechnical data suggest that the studied clays can be used, effectively, as a viable alternative liner system for solid waste and/or secured landfills, replacing the costly state of the art liner systems. Satisfying siting criteria, the availability of the clays, and the easy way and their low cost of extraction provide a cost-effective solution to the problem of landfill lining in developing countries.

Court Decisions, NIMBY Claims, and the Siting of Unwanted Facilities: Policy Frames and the Impact of Judicialization in Locating a Landfill for Toronto’s Solid Waste

This article examines the use of litigation by political actors to contest unwanted environmental policy options on the basis of NIMBY claims. It analyzes the discursive frames employed by policy actors to explain how one community in Northern Ontario could reject a facility to receive Toronto’s waste while another in Michigan could not. The article employs a case study approach to trace the process of judicial and tribunal decisions about these two potential landfill sites. The research found that the judicial policy frames can serve as a determinative of outcomes of siting decisions in subsequent institutional settings and that such precedents could be overcome only when opponents reframed the issues to align with the interests of all parties. The article concludes that the specific characteristics of each institutional setting in which policy disputes take place are an important factor to explaining policy change or stability.

Landfill Site Selection by Integrating Geographical Information Systems and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis: A Case Study of Freetown, Sierra Leone

This paper presents an integrated approach for the identification of potential candidate landfill sites in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone via a two-stage analysis. In the first-stage analysis, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) techniques, Boolean Intersection and buffer, were used to identify areas restricted by rules and physical constraints, and therefore excluded from the study area. The second stage involved using factor criteria to identify candidate landfill sites in the area recommended for further study. In this stage, the geographical data were analyzed with the IDRISI32 software package. Pair-wise comparison was used to compare and assign weights to the environmental, economic, social, and transportation criteria for the selection of candidate landfill sites. The candidate landfill sites were then ranked by size.

Combining stakeholder analysis and spatial multicriteria evaluation to select and rank inert landfill sites

This paper presents a method based on the combination of stakeholder analysis and spatial multicriteria evaluation (SMCE) to first design possible sites for an inert landfill, and then rank them according to their suitability. The method was tested for the siting of an inert landfill in the Sarca’s Plain, located in south-western Trentino, an alpine region in northern Italy. Firstly, stakeholder analysis was conducted to identify a set of criteria to be satisfied by new inert landfill sites. SMCE techniques were then applied to combine the criteria, and obtain a suitability map of the study region. Subsequently, the most suitable sites were extracted by taking into account also thresholds based on size and shape. These sites were then compared and ranked according to their visibility, accessibility and dust pollution. All these criteria were assessed through GIS modelling. Sensitivity analyses were performed on the results to assess the stability of the ranking with respect to variations in the input (criterion scores and weights). The study concluded that the three top-ranking sites are located close to each other, in the northernmost sector of the study area. A more general finding was that the use of different criteria in the different stages of the analysis allowed to better differentiate the suitability of the potential landfill sites.

The Landfill Area Quality (LAQ) Classification Approach and Its Application in Isparta, Turkey

The amount of residential and industrial solid waste, and the need for landfill sites, is ever growing due to increases in population and industrial production. Landfilling is a widely used method for environmentally safe disposal of solid waste, and the selection of the most suitable landfill site is a very crucial decision. In this study, a new site evaluation method to determine suitable landfill sites, called Landfill Area Quality (LAQ), is introduced. This method is applied in two stages. First, several potential landfill sites, which are within legally permissible areas, are chosen by a general consideration of the relevant site properties. Then, the characteristics of these chosen sites are placed within three-dimensional evaluation spaces. These evaluative dimensions are (1) site suitability, (2) location factors, and (3) public acceptability, and each is defined by a combination of different criteria. The result of this re-evaluation, which provides valuable information to planning engineers and decision makers about the available sites, is reported to decision makers for the final selection. A detailed case study was carried out as part of a residential solid waste disposal project for the city of Isparta in Turkey, (population 150,000), and was very useful to planners.

Compliance factors within a GIS‐based framework for landfill siting

The complex process of siting landfills involves a number of stakeholders with varying perspectives and priorities. The constraints which must be met by any potential landfill site are numerous and diverse. In this paper a GIS‐based decision‐aid tool and framework are presented as a robust alternative for analysing large sets of complex data of varying nature in a quick and reliable manner. The approach devised is flexible. It allows the siting criteria, the associated importance factors, and site compliance levels, to be easily varied by means of drop‐down menus embedded in ArcGIS, to reflect local and regional priorities and concerns. The case of Lebanon has been used to illustrate potential uses of the tool and methodology, which could be implemented in any other context for which the base data are available. The necessary data coverages were obtained and/or developed from Lebanese country‐wide sources, coupled with field surveys. Two basic scenarios were simulated for demonstration purposes: the first incorporates an engineering and infrastructure compliance priority, while the second focuses on environmental concerns and associated indicators.

An expert system on site selection of sanitary landfill

It is desirable to encapsulate heuristic and empirical knowledge including hydrological and bio-geochemical considerations into the selection process of a potential landfill site. This paper delineates a prototype expert system, which has been developed using a commercially available microcomputer-based expert system shell VISUAL RULE STUDIO, for the selection of a landfill site. VISUAL RULE STUDIO acts as an ActiveX Designer under the Microsoft Visual Basic programming environment, with the hybrid knowledge representation approach under object-oriented design environment. The blackboard architecture, which is able to group all the knowledge together into an integrated system effectively, is adopted. The evaluation is based on the hazardous waste site ranking system recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency, adapted to Hong Kong conditions. Increase in efficiency, improvement, consistency of results and automated record keeping are among the advantages of such a system.

Prototype expert system for site selection of a sanitary landfill

It is desirable to incorporate heuristic and empirical knowledge including hydrological and bio-geochemical considerations into the selection process of a potential landfill site. In this article, a prototype expert system for the selection of a landfill site, with hybrid knowledge representation approach under object-oriented design environment in a blackboard architecture, is described. It incorporates an artificial neural network for training of partial hazardous scores and a fuzzy rule base for the representation of heuristic knowledge. The evaluation is based on the hazardous waste site ranking system recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency, adapted to Hong Kong conditions by incorporating the stipulation of some local regulations. It is shown to be a useful aid in assisting novice engineers in the selection process of a potential landfill site during preliminary investigation.

Application of electrical resistivity measurements to an evaluation of a potential landfill site in a karstic terrain

The proposed site for a new solid waste disposal facility was identified by a municipal government in a north Florida area characterized by Miocene Hawthorn Group sedimentary sequences and active karst development. An evaluation of the sinkhole potential and subsurface stability was conducted with a total of 300 electrical resistivity Wenner array sounding traverses with electrode spacings extending to 30 m. Data were interpreted to identify vertical sequences of the Hawthorn Group confining layer, and the underlying Ocala Limestone. Electrical evidence identified an intermediate, discontinuous limestone layer present in limited areas, but absent in much of the area investigated. No evidence was detected to identify breeches within the confining layer over the Floridan Aquifer within the Ocala Limestone. The data were combined with lithologic logs from deep boreholes to prepare a series of continuous and interconnecting fence diagrams to portray the geologic configuration throughout the proposed site. The results demonstrate the value of electrical resistivity measurements to augment borehole data in economical investigations of sinkhole potential in karstic terrains.

Consensus Oriented Public Relations As A Solution To The Landfill Conflict

The siting of landfills usually meets with the disapproval of residents living in the immediate proximity of potential landfill sites and frequently arouses public protest. Also in Austria, the public's readiness to safeguard their interests has been increasing, thus such conflicts can no longer be avoided. This fact raises the question among future landfill operators, as to how to react in such cases, and how a thus sensitized public can be dealt with. Seen from the viewpoint of communication, landfill operators must direct more attention to public relations. Within a research project at the University of Vienna, we have developed a public relations model which is intended to support a consensus between the landfill operators and the residents immediately affected by the operators' activities. The results prove that the so called "consensus-oriented public relations" approach is principally right. That is, those people who, due to our survey in the communities, could envisage a landfill site being installed, broadly agreed with the landfill operator on the levels of understanding provided by the model.

Consensus Oriented Public Relations as a Solution To the Landfill Conflict

The siting of landfills usually meets with the disapproval of residents living in the immediate proximity of potential landfill sites and frequently arouses public protest. Also in Austria, the public's readiness to safeguard their interests has been increasing, thus such conflicts can no longer be avoided. This fact raises the question among future landfill operators, as to how to react in such cases, and how a thus sensitized public can be dealt with. Seen from the viewpoint of communication, landfill operators must direct more attention to public relations. Within a research project at the University of Vienna, we have developed a public relations model which is intended to support a consensus between the landfill operators and the residents immediately affected by the operators' activities. The results prove that the so called "consensus-oriented public relations" approach is principally right. That is, those people who, due to our survey in the communities, could envisage a landfill site being installed, broadly agreed with the landfill operator on the levels of understanding provided by the model.