Assessment of Suitable Landfill Site Using GIS Based Multi – Criteria Decision Analysis: The Case of Ambo Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

New Site selection for municipal solid waste dumping is a difficult task that urban areas of the world particularly that of developing countries are facing. In Ethiopia solid waste disposing system is a serious problem in the urban areas including Ambo Town. Because most solid wastes are not dumped in suitable sites and has a problem of waste identification. The current waste disposal system for Ambo Town is open dump system as well as the site is causing social and environmental problems. The general objective of this study was to identify select suitable landfill site by using ArcGIS10.8 and multi-criteria of evaluation technique. The landfill site selection constrains including land use land cover, slope, well point, soil type, distance from streams/rivers, distance from major road, geology and socio-economic criteria (distance from nearby settlements, and center of the town, and size of site) are the determinant criteria to evaluate potential solid waste disposal site. The common methods conducted to data analysis are convert from polygon to raster, reclassify and the spatial model will involve geographic modeling functions and coincidence modeling and integration (weighted overlay suitability models) was computed in GIS and as well as creating land slope(counters) from DEM by using Global Mapper19. Analytical hierarchy process in which pair wise comparisons will also be used to determine the alternative in terms of each criterion is one of the most commonly used multi criteria decision modeling tools. The suitability option ranges, not suitable, less suitable, moderately suitable, and highly suitable according to criteria of this study. The results showed that, 314.9_ha (3.84%) of the study area was highly suitable, 6,472.1_ha (78.9%) of the area was moderately suitable, 1,410.7_ha (17.2%) less suitable and 2.5_ha (0.03%) of study area was not suitable for solid waste dumping site. The finding of the study indicated that 3 candidate solid waste disposal sites in relation to those evaluating criteria. By considering environmental soundness, economic feasibility and socially acceptance of the residents Site3 the best suitable solid waste disposal site and site 1and 2 were the second and third suitable site with their areas covering of 38_ha, 72_ha, and 192_ha respectively. Thus, the municipality may use the suitable sites identified for future solid waste disposa