GIS-based modeling for appropriate selection of landfill sites

This paper provides a macro-evaluation of a geographic information system (gis) criteria analysis model to select the appropriate landfill sites based on quality and quantity analysis. the qualitative analysis breaks down into three levels of evaluation. the 1st level is sustainability groups (environmental and socioeconomic),2nd level includes gis criteria,and 3rd level has classes for each criterion. the quality analysis provides three scenarios to reflect the importance of sustainability aspects. an analytical hierarchal process (ahp) integrated with gis data provides weights and scores for criteria and their classes. the rate of solid waste generation for kuwait has an average of 1.59 kg per capita per day. the quality analysis from gis-based modeling revealed that the sites were ranked as highly (>90%),moderately (50-90%),lowly suitable (< 50%),and unsuitable sites (0%). the results of the quantity analysis demonstrated that sustainable areas need between 3 and 18 km2 for landfills designed to last 20 years. two factors,landfill depth and compacted unit weight,were used to determine the area needed to design a sustainable landfill based on the rate of solid waste generated. the quality and quantity analyses of the three scenarios provided three significant sites (south of kuwait and one site north of kuwait). the remaining candidate sites were close to urban areas and major roads. the area needed per year for landfills designed for over 20 years ranged between 0.2 and 1.0 km2 based on the average compacted unit weight,8.26 kn/m3,and landfill depth variable.