Landfill Site Selection Using Spatial Information Technologies and AHP: A Case Study of Marageh, Iran

Insufficient garbage hygienic burial is a sign of lack of planning and economic efficiency and a warning to environmental issues. By rapid development of urban area, place of garbage burial is considered insufficient and it affects directly the expenditure in remote and small regions. Thus by this approach the present paper aims to localize the urban garbage burial in Marageh in mathematical situation of east 46 ̊07́ 46˝-46 43́ 33˝ and north 37 ̊00́ 52˝-37 ̊44́ 35˝. With high population, this city lacks healthy center for urban garbage disposal and this causes environmental problems. By using AHP and satellite images, field operations and sampling from case study area, different variables were evaluated in order to choose the best location for urban garbage lanfill. A map was prepared with raster format in GIS for each variable layer. All criteria were compared in pair and finally the map of suitable locations for urban garbage landfill were proposed. The results of analysis were categorized in five classified from significant to very weak, so that the region with 2972 ha of area as 1.36 percent of Marageh city is covered as the best location for hygienic disposal. Finally the field operations performed and the map was drawn in GIS showing that the favorable region liesnear the village Aghcheh Kohl, whose distance is 15 km from the city of Maragha and research priorities.