Landfill Sites Identification Using GIS and Multi-Criteria Method: A Case Study of Intermediate City of Punjab, Pakistan

Escalation in population over time triggered the abrupt exploitation of natural resources for human survival trough industrialization that ultimately caused splendid increase in the waste generation. This industrial development resulted in the migration of rural community toward urban areas. Management of urban waste is a great challenge for the urban administration. However, technologies have been developed to manage the waste in environmental friendly and sustainable manner. Sanitary landfill sites are one of the latest methods of disposing the municipal solid waste in an environment friendly and sustainable manner. Government and administrative authorities are adopting this technology for the management of urban solid waste. Present study is about identifying landfill sites for the Sahiwal city with an area of 1160 square kilometer and projected population of 1.57 million persons in 2016. Geographical Information System (GIS) is used for the identification of appropriate landfill site (LFS) that can fulfill the need of city in future and is selected based on the sustainable and eco-friendly criteria. The criteria are developed keeping in view the proximity from several land-use features i.e. water bodies, roads, settlements, agricultural land, bare land and existing disposal sites. The weights of the criteria are quantified using pair-wise comparison method in Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The weights are incorporated in GIS spatial data environment and are assigned to proximity threshold of each criterion. Ultimately a map for each criterion is developed highlighting suitable, least suitable, less suitable and un-suitable areas with respect to each specific criterion. These maps are spatially overlaid which result in a final map that identifies most suitable landfill sites for solid waste disposal. The five identified sites are then prioritized based on their distances from the city center and area available. All identified sites are on the bare land and contain considerable buffer from environmentally sensitive receptors.

Health Risk Assessment of Groundwater in Shigatse Landfill Site of Tibet

[Objectives]The research aimed to grasp environmental quality of groundwater in a landfill site,predict health risk of pollution factors to regional residents,provide scientific basis for landfill management,pollution prevention and control,and ensure safety of residents'drinking water supply.[Methods]Through on-site sampling of three groundwater monitoring wells at Shigatse landfill,and testing and analysis of conventional indexes and heavy metal elements,standard index method and comprehensive index method were used to evaluate environmental quality of groundwater in the landfill area.On this basis,a health risk evaluation model was applied to assess the health risk of residents in Shigatse landfill area.[Results]Comprehensive water quality was good in individual well of Shigatse landfill.Because NH_(3)-N and Fe in the monitoring well exceeded class Ⅲ standard of groundwater environmental quality in 2014,pollution of monitoring well was relatively heavy.The total carcinogenic risk of landfill groundwater for male and female was 1.855×10^(-6) and 2.238×10^(-6),respectively,exceeding the maximum acceptable level of carcinogenic risk for contaminants(1×10^(-6)).Cr^(6+)should be paid attention to.Moreover,risk value of health hazard for females was generally higher than that of males.The total non-carcinogenic risk values for males and females were 0.0577 and 0.0696,respectively,far lower than the non-carcinogenic risk threshold of"1".[Conclusions]The groundwater environmental quality of Shigatse landfill site was good,and it posed a little health risk to regional residents.

Microbial aerosol particles in four seasons of sanitary landfill site:Molecular approaches,traceability and risk assessment

Landfill sites are regarded as prominent sources of bioaerosols for the surrounding atmosphere.The present study focused on the emission of airborne bacteria and fungi in four seasons of a sanitary landfill site.The main species found in bioaerosols were assayed using high-throughput sequencing.The Source Tracker method was utilized to identify the sources of the bioaerosols present at the boundary of the landfill site.Furthermore,the health consequences of the exposure to bioaerosols were evaluated based on the average daily dose rates.Results showed that the concentrations of airborne bacteria in the operation area(OPA)and the leakage treatment area(LTA)were in the range of(4684±477)–(10883±1395)CFU/m^(3) and(3179±453)–(9051±738)CFU/m^(3),respectively.The average emission levels of fungal aerosols were 4026 CFU/m^(3) for OPA and 1295 CFU/m^(3) for LTA.The landfill site received the maximum bioaerosol load during summer and the minimum during winter.Approximately 41.39%–86.24%of the airborne bacteria had a particle size of 1.1 to 4.7μm,whereas 48.27%–66.45%of the airborne fungi had a particle size of more than 4.7μm.Bacillus sp.,Brevibacillus sp.,and Paenibacillus sp.were abundant in the bacterial population,whereas Penicillium sp.and Aspergillus sp.dominated the fungal population.Bioaerosols released from the working area and treatment of leachate were the two main sources that emerged in the surrounding air of the landfill site boundary.The exposure risks during summer and autumn were higher than those in spring and winter.

Landfill site selection using multi cr iter ia decision making: Influential factors for comparing locations

Although a lot of research has focused on energy recovery and recycling of valuable materials from wastes to reduce loads on landfills,landfilling is still an inseparable part of solid waste management.Since landfills potentially pose a risk to human health and the surrounding environment,landfill site selection is an important endeavor that has to be carried out with great care.Choosing a suitable location for landfills depends on several factors and is a complicated procedure.In this paper,a comprehensive review of landfill site selection methods,with an emphasis on multi criteria decision making(multiple criteria decision analysis)has been presented.Assessments indicate that the most frequently used methods are weighted linear combination(WLC),ordered weighted averaging(OWA),analytic hierarchy process(AHP),fuzzy analytic hierarchy process(F-AHP),TODIM,fuzzy TODIM,analytic network process(ANP),fuzzy-analytic network process(F-ANP),and grey systems theory,each of which is discussed.The most widely used factors for selecting a landfill site are groundwater depth,surface water vicinity,elevation,land slope,soil permeability,soil stability,flooding susceptibility,lithology and stratification,faults,land use type,nearby settlements and urbanization,cultural and protected site vicinity,wind direction,roads,railways,proximity to building materials,pipelines and powerlines,and proximity to airports.

Landfill Siting Evaluation Using GIS and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Method: A Case Study: Dammam Municipal Solid Waste Landfill

Waste landfills are a prominent global issue that does not concern a country without the other because of its long-term effects especially in the environmental aspect. As these pose an environmental threat to water, air and soil;and directly affect human life and health. Accordingly, this research uses the integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approaches to assess the location of the municipal solid waste dump in Dammam, which was established in (2000AD) twenty years ago, due to the lack of recent studies assessing the current status of the landfill and whether it is in a suitable location and keeps pace with the population and urbanization increase in the region. For this purpose, the researchers are using the tools and techniques of GIS to evaluate eight criteria on the study area. The required standards were directed to the landfill site and transformed into maps that represent the most important economic, social, environmental, geological, geomorphological and Public Acceptance standards. These standards have been processed using the tools of spatial and statistical analyses. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is implemented in geographical information system for building the suitable cartographic model, and thus allowed to determine the suitable degree of Dammam municipal solid waste landfill site in light of the study criteria. The study concluded that the current landfill site achieves a good degree of suitability, as it achieved 63% measured against the quality standards set by the study, and that the current landfill site conforms to most of the criteria in this study to a good degree. But it violates two standards, which are distance from wells standard and distance between landfill and the center of waste generation standard.

Bioaerosol emissions variations in large-scale landfill region and their health risk impacts

Landfills are widely complained about due to the long-term odor and landfill gas emissions for local residents,while the bioaerosols are always neglected as another threat to on-site workers.In this study,bioaerosols samples were collected from the typical operation scenes in the large-scale modern landfill,and the emission levels of airborne bacteria,pathogenic species,and fungi were quantified and co-related.The corresponding exposure risks were assessed based on the average daily dose via inhalation and skin contact.It was found that the levels of culturable bacteria and fungi in all landfill samples were around 33–22778 CFU/m3 and 8–450 CFU/m3,and the active-working landfill area and the covered area were the maximum and minimum emission sources,respectively,meaning that the bioaerosols were mainly released from the areas related with the fresh waste operation.Acinetobacter sp.,Massilia sp.,Methylobacterium-Methylorubrum sp.and Noviherbaspirillum sp.were the main bacterial populations,with a percentage of 42.56%,89.82%,70.24%and 30.20%respectively in total bioaerosols measured.With regards to the health risk,the health risks via inhalation were the main potential risks,with four orders of magnitude higher than that of skin contact.Active-working area showed the critical point for non-carcinogenic risks,with a hazard quotient of 1.68,where 80 m protection distance is recommended for on-site worker protection,plus more careful protection measures.