Use of Decision Support Tools in Municipal Solid Waste Management (Case Study: Landfill Site Selection of Alborz Province)

Waste is natural consequence of living human communities and environmental hazards caused by environmental mismanagement of solid waste، one of the fundamental problems. In the past decades، exponential growth of urban population in developing countries and speed of urbanization phenomenon، necessity of sustainable environmental development and efficient management of waste has been established. The main goal of the current study is applying various spatial analyses، with use of geographic information system in order to optimum site selection with minimal environmental adverse effects for urban waste burial. Therefore، in first step، effective data Layers in determining of landfill of Karaj (like land use، streams، wetlands، roads، morphology، ground waters، demography، wildlife parks، soil) from data bases and organization was prepared. The second step، data layers (digital maps) was entered to soft ware of Arc GIS9. 2 and data base was created. In the third step، according to limitations، suitable areas، was extracted with using of GIS. Then these data was applied as appropriate options (input data) for AHP. In the next step for determination priorities of the remaining landfill options according to criteria is used by AHP. The results of this study are evidence that GIS and AHP provide performance tools for selection and priority of optimal landfill. Also in this study land slope and ground water have more important than other criteria and option 3 is most appropriate for landfill.