Landfill site selection for municipal solid waste of Esfarayen city

Waste disposal under terrain is one of the most important strategies in the waste management process. Therefore, landfill site selection with the lowest negative environmental consequence has a vital role for urban planners. In this research as multi criteria decision making method using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in geographic information system (GIS) environment was applied to find the best landfill sites for Esfarayen city. 13 most important criteria (i.e., permeability, distance from fault, borrow materials, seismic activity, groundwater depth, groundwater quality, slope, rainfall, distance to drainage systems, wind direction, land use, proximity to waste production centers, and distance to roads) in four different groups were employed. Also, an environmental privacy layer was used to apply a buffer radius on risk elements in the study area. Based on AHP matrix results, land use and seismic activity had the highest (0.233) and lowest (0.013) weight, respectively and all of parameters had consistency index lower than 0.07. Finally, the study area was divided to 4 zones according to suitability for sitting landfill. The results show that most parts of the northern zone are located in inappropriate and relatively inappropriate zones, whereas the most parts of southern zone were detected as suitable to relatively suitable zones. Consequently, the best site was chosen based on environmental and operational stand point which has 40 hectares and located in south-west of Esfarayen city.