Landfill Site Selection Using Geographic Information System and Fuzzy-AHP Model: A Case Study of Ilam Township, Iran

Landfill siting is a difficult, complex, and protracted process, which requires evaluating different criteria. A suitable site should be located to dispose the municipal solid wastes hygienically (sanitary landfill), which is one of the fundamental subjects related to the environmental stability of the human settlements. The aim was to select a suitable waste disposal area using fuzzy-Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) models.

To conduct this study, the information about elevation, slope, soil, drainage, vegetation, land use, population, and roads were produced and corrected in layers called shape files using the Geographic Information System (GIS) software. Finally, weights were applied in expert choice software by combining and overlapping information layers in GIS.

Based on the fuzzy-AHP model, 6 sites were identified as suitable areas for municipal waste disposal. Among the selected sites, one site was highly suitable, two were suitable, and three sites were moderately suitable. These areas with an area of 83.8 km2 are located along the west part of the city adjacent to the Iraqi border. The unsuitable sites for municipal waste disposal were located in the eastern and northeastern areas.

However, applying fuzzy-AHP model provides the necessary conditions for assessing effective relationships among discrete criteria. In the end, combining these models and their findings represented advantages of this kind of modeling and improved scoring in all of these pixels.