Evaluation of Landfill Site Suitability Using GIS, Remote Sensing, and the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (AHP) Approach, Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract Determining a suitable location of landfill sites is a challenging and complicated process because it must consider social, environmental, and technical factors. This investigation used an integrated Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing, and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to find a suitable landfill site. Twelve factors, namely proximity to the river, road, residential area, groundwater depth, proximity to the borehole, slope, industrial area, soil, geology, land use/land cover (LULC), reservoir, and religious sites, were used in the present study as suitable site selection criteria. Each criterion was evaluated by experts with the aid of AHP and their suitability was classified by GIS. The final suitability map was produced by merging the weights of the criteria and the suitability of the factor maps. Four suitability classes (high, moderate, low, and unsuitable areas) were identified as a consequence of the AHP with GIS analysis, which represented 33.5 km2 (23%), 75.6 km2 (51.75%), 0.36km2 (0.25%), and 36.54 km2 (25%) of the total study area, respectively. Accordingly, three candidate landfill sites are suggested. The finding of this study indicated that the integration of GIS with AHP approaches is a promising option to obtain suitable landfill sites.