Exploring urban solid waste landfill sites for Arba Minch Town, Ethiopia: A suitability analysis employing geospatial technologies for sustainable urban development

Geospatial technologies were applied in this study to evaluate potential landfill sites to accommodate solid waste in the fast-growing Arba Minch Town, southern Ethiopia, by integrating multiple criteria, including environmental (slope, land use/land cover types, distance from streams/rivers, and distance from protected areas), social (distance from settlements), and economic factors (distance from road networks). Using several criteria, including land use and land cover, road network, land slope, stream, distance from settlement, and distance from protected areas, the weighted overlay analysis method was used to evaluate suitability. In this process, weights were assigned to the factors based on their significance in determining landfill site suitability. Following the overlay analysis, the weighted aggregation results revealed four levels of suitability for solid waste landfill sites in the study area: unsuitable, less suitable, moderately suitable, and highly suitable. According to this study, the majority of the area (48.6 %) is unsuitable for landfill sites, 24.6 % is less suitable, and 19.8 % is moderately suitable for landfill sites. Only 7 % of the total area is highly suitable for a landfill site, with the most suitable areas located in the northeast of town. In conclusion, this study proposes a practical solution to the problem of solid waste landfill sites using geospatial technology. The AHP-weighted GIS overlay yielded an overall accuracy of ∼8–10 % points better (97.6 % vs. 89.4 %) as well as producer and user accuracies of 97.3 and 97.9 %, respectively (vs. 88.5 and 90.2 % points) to produce more accurate, reliable, and compliant landfill siting. The results of this study show that the implementation of GIS with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method has the potential to select appropriate landfill sites for future use in the region. These findings provide geospatial insights for municipal planners and regional authorities to develop resilient solid waste strategies, thereby enhancing environmental sustainability and urban resilience in Arba Minch and similar towns in Ethiopia. • Overall 48.6 % area unsuitable, only 7 % highly suitable are located northeast direction. • Stakeholder cooperation needed for better waste management. • AHP-GIS integration effective for landfill site selection. • Study limited to non-hazardous waste; recommends separate hazardous waste sites. • Community awareness crucial for sustainable waste practices.