Optimized Approach for MSW Landfill Siting Using MCDA and GIS

Landfill siting is a complicated landuse planning task. For optimized site selection, several environmental, technical, economical and socio-cultural criteria must be considered. This study presents a method for landfill site selection based on using the multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and geographic information system (GIS) combined with related experts opinions. The proposed method was then tested for siting of Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill in Marvdasht. In the intelligence stage of the decision making, based on sampling and questionnaire results of 40 experts in MSW domain, some evaluation criteria were determined. Suitable maps were then obtained and digitized to make a GIS database of the study area. In decision making design step, two stages were employed. In the first stage, 13 constraints based on Iran’s environmental protection organization were determined. The Boolean map of spatial constraint was obtained with AND operation. In the second stage, the suitable site that was obtained in the first-stage analysis was evaluated in details based on 16 factors. The criteria were standardized and then the relative importance weight of them was estimated with rank ordering method based on different expert’s opinions. The obtained results of firs step indicated that only 11.12 percent of the whole region is suitable for landfill siting. Therefore, shortage of land is an important limiting factor in the study area. The obtained results of second step indicated that almost 4.4 percent of the whole region can be considered as best suitable place for landfill site.