LANDFILL SITE SELECTION FOR MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT USING INTEGRATED GIS AND MCDA TECHNIQUES: A CASE STUDY IN SHASHEMENE CITY, ETHIOPIA

ABSTRACT Municipal solid waste disposal system in Shashemene city is an open dumping system. This disposal of solid wastes in unsuitable area has become a serious environmental risk and human health problem in the study area. Selection of appropriate landfill site is essential part of solid waste management practice to ensure sustainable environment, good health, and quality of life for the future. The main objective of this study is to select suitable landfill site for municipal solid waste that is economically feasible, environmentally sound and socially acceptable using geospatial methods. In this study, nine factors were considered based on literature review and experts opinion for suitable landfill site selection. These factors include distance to roads, distance to rivers, water wells, land use/ land cover, built up areas, soil type, soil permeability, geology and slope. The data sets were collected from both primary and secondary data sources. The required respective data were collected, stored and organized to a required form in GIS database for analysis. Municipal solid waste landfill suitability map for each of the factors was prepared in a GIS environment. The relative weights of importance of criteria MCDA (AHP) were determined on EDRISI Selva 17.0 software and then combined factors maps according to their importance to have an overall suitability map of the study area. The results of the analysis revealed that 53.12 hectare (0.31%) of the study area is highly suitable for municipal solid waste disposal, 1647.40 hectare (20.06%) moderately suitable, 1647.40 hectare (9.62%) less suitable, and 11983.52 hectare (70%) unsuitable for municipal solid waste disposal. Integrated GIS and MCDA techniques are important tool to identify suitable landfill site for municipal solid waste to minimize environmental risk and human health problems. 1