Landfill site selection in India using analytic hierarchy and geographic information

Abstract

Landfills are used worldwide for disposing of urban wastes that cannot be economically recycled or incinerated. However, due to possible contamination and risk, the selection of landfill sites is a complex process. Various multi-criteria decision-support systems have been reported in the literature for such complex decision making. This paper reports on how the analytic hierarchy process and multi-criteria techniques were used to support a landfill siting decision in India. The input parameters were extracted from a geographic information system. By using these techniques, the ranking of eight candidate landfill sites for Sultanpur city was performed and landfill suitability indices for all sites were calculated to facilitate the decision.