Landfill site selection using analytical hierarchy process and GIS: a case study in Al-Zubair district, Basrah, Iraq

Al-Zubair district is located in the southwestern part of Basrah governorate and is considered the largest region administratively.Due to the rapid urbanization, rapid population growth, high waste productivity, and inexistence of landfills in Al-Zubair district, a sanitary landfill is needed to accommodate the produced solid waste and avoid any potential environmental problems.Hence, this study has been conducted to propose the best location for the sanitary landfill in Al-Zubair district and solve the waste problem scientifically, thus, a total of nine influencing criteria were adopted (water surface, agricultural lands, residential area, soil types, slope, roads, railways, power lines, and the oil fields) then processed using the Geographical Information System (GIS) to generate the map of suitability index and find the most candidate sites for the landfill based on the weights of criteria that derived from the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method.This study expected that the cumulative volume of solid waste through (2025-2050) would be about 18658259 m 3 , requiring a landfill's area of at least 9.33 km 2 to accommodate this volume.The most suitable candidate site for landfill was identified in the middle of Al-Zubair district with an area of 124.63 km 2 in a way safe enough from the restricted zones of all criteria reducing the aesthetic destruction, physical pollution, travel time, construction cost and demonstrating the ability to accommodate the cumulative solid waste even after 2050 sustainably.The prior advantages of the proposed landfill's location would benefit the solid waste management in the study area effectively and efficiently.