Landfills site selection in southern cities of Khuzestan province with using fuzzy set and AHP method

Non-sanitary landfill of solid municipal waste and its negative environmental impacts have made traditional methods to be replaced by appropriate and scientific methods. One of the most important phases of sanitary landfill is selecting the best spatial location to minimize environmental, social and economic impacts. The purpose of this study is to determine the proper location for solid landfills in Khorramshahr, Abadan, Shadegan and Mahshahr cities. The effective criteria have been evaluated in three categories including environmental criteria (surface waters, coastal zones, sensitive and protected areas, faults, land uses, vegetation and climatic conditions), social criteria (settlements, commercial, industrial, tourism and historical areas, railways and airports) and economic criteria (access to road and landfill, and slope). Geographic information systems (GIS), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), and fuzzy logic have been used to analyze and integrate all criteria. The results showed that a large part of the area is inappropriate for landfill. In addition, the area is very sensitive to landfill environmentally and landfill site selection should be studied carefully. Finally, a map of suitable landfill sites has been prepared based on the fuzzy membership value that can be useful in municipal solid waste management in the mentioned cities.