Integrating GIS and multi-criteria decision analysis for landfill site selection, case study: Javanrood County in Iran

Abstract

The current study presents the integration of geographical information system (GIS) and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) for municipal landfill site selection, a case example in Iran. In the first step, useful criteria were determined based on the literature review, national standards and regulations, expert opinion, data availability and regional characteristics. Several criteria including distance from groundwater resources, distance from surface water, distance from urban and rural areas, distance from protected areas, land use, distance from faults, distance from roads and the slope were selected, and a hierarchical structure was formed for landfill suitability. The maps of the criteria were prepared using ArcGIS 10.2. Using different fuzzy membership functions, the maps were standardized. An AHP-based pairwise comparison was applied to calculate the weights of the parameters, and standardized maps were overplayed using the weighted layer combination approach to gain the landfill suitability map in the study area. The final map was assorted into four suitability classes, i.e., high, moderate, low and unsuitable regions. The result indicates that almost 92% of the study area is inappropriate and cannot be considered as landfill. The comprehensive field visits were performed to further assessment, and finally, three candidate sites were suggested. The result illustrated that an integrating approach of GIS and MCDA is effective in landfill site selection.

A GIS–AHP-based approach in siting MSW landfills in Lokoja, Nigeria

“…This result is in agreement with the studies of Allen et al [48] and Khan and Samadder [49] who affirmed that a distance greater than 1 km from main roads and highways should be strongly avoided while supporting their assertions that, landfill sites placed too far away from existing road networks most often incur expensive cost of constructing new roads and also increase the transportation and collection costs of solid wastes. A distance between 200 and 500 m from the main road is considered most suitable which is in tandem with the assertions made by Al-Anbari et al [50] and Karimi et al [51]. The potential landfill located in this suitable location ensures solid wastes are transported to site at reasonable cost.…”

Landfill Site Selection Using Fuzzy Logic & AHP & WLC (Case study: Razan city - Iran)

“…A significant factor that complicates the decision-making process is the global, political, and environmental crisis [3]. The literature on MSW landfill site selection methodologies [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12] is conceptually rich.…”

Combining GIS and Analytical Hierarchy Process for Landfill Siting, Study Area: Paveh County in Iran

“…To decrease the opposed impacts on the environment, it is essential to consider all environmental standards in selecting landfill sites. Further, economic and social items play a fundamental role in selecting landfill sites because of the commercial expense, just like the social protest [13,14,15]. The different environmental, economic and social factors make a complex operation in the selection of landfill sites, and it is hard to collect and analyze various parameters and perform the conclusion clearly [16,17].…”

“…[21]. GIS in the combination of multi-criteria analysis methods has widely been employed for landfill site selection different [14,22,23,24,25] as well as other suitability proposes containing the estimation of soil environment [26], groundwater pollution potential [27], and energy site selection [28].…”