Landfill Site Suitability Assessment Using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Butuan City, Philippines

Landfilling is one of the most effective and responsible ways to dispose of municipal solid waste(MSW).Identifying landfill sites,however,is a challenging and complex undertaking because it depends on social,environmental,technical,economic,and legal issues.This study aims to map the optimal sites that were environmentally suitable for locating a landfill site in Butuan City,Philippines.With reference to the policy requirements from DENR Section I,Landfill Site Identification Criteria and Screening Guidelines of National Solid Waste Management Commission,the integration of a Geographic Information System(GIS)model builder and Analytical Hierarchy Process(AHP)has been used in this study to address the aforementioned challenges related to the landfill site suitability analysis.Based on the generated sanitary landfill suitability map,results showed that Barangay Tungao(1131.42967 ha)and Florida(518.48 ha)were able to meet and consider the three(3)main components,namely economic,environmental,and physical criteria,and are highly suit­able as landfill site locations in Butuan City.It is recommended that there will conduct a geotechnical evaluation,involv­ing rigorous geological and hydrogeological assessment employing a combination of site investigation and laboratory techniques.In addition,additional specific social,ecological,climatic,and economic factors need to be considered(i.e.including impact on humans,flora,fauna,soil,water,air,climate,and landscape).

Site Suitability Evaluation for Sustainable Distribution of Hospital Using Spatial Information Technologies and AHP: A Case Study of Upper Egypt, Aswan City

Site selection for location of a hospital is one of the crucial policy-related decisions taken by the government. In upper Egypt, the cities suffer from a shortage and bad distribution of hospital site. The selection of the appropriate hospital site requires consideration of multiple alternative solutions and evaluation factor. We develop a Multi-Criteria Decision Support System (MCDSS) process that combines Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and use this process to determine the optimum site for a new hospital in the Aswan urban area. Based on actual conditions Aswan city, we used three main factors and seven sub-factors. The main factors are urban, environmental and economic factors. An application adopting AHP process was developed to calculate weights of every factor. Spatial analysis in GIS was used to overlay and generate factors maps and suitability evaluation map. All maps are classified from 1 (low suitable) to 5 (high suitable) using spatial information technologies. The candidate sites are divided by best, good and unsuitable hospital areas. Best hospital site represents optimal sites;good hospital site can be used as back-up candidate sites. The study was found that best area (S3) is about 30%, and most of these are located in the south part of the study area;good area (S2) is about 58%, and most of these are located in the central part of the study area;unsuitable area (S1) is about 12%, and most of these are located in the Eastern and Western parts of the study area. Finally, the study ends with an assessment of proposed sites.

Spatial Analysis and Modelling of Wind Farm Site Suitability in Nasarawa State, North-Central Nigeria

There has been an increasing global and local interest in developing renewable, clean, and cheap energy towards achieving Goal number 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). However, decisions involving suitable and sustainable locations for renewable energy projects remain an important task. This study employed Geographic Information System (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to spatially analyze and model wind farm site suitability in Nasarawa State. The aim is to integrate the environmental, social, and economic aspects of decision-making for identifying sustainable wind farm sites. The study distinguished between two sets of decision criteria: decision constraints and decision factors. The former defined the exclusion zones while the latter were standardized based on fuzzy logic to depict varying degrees of suitability across the State. The MCDA applied the weighted linear combination method, with relative weights generated through pairwise comparisons of the analytic hierarchy process to analyze three policy scenarios: equal weights, environmental/social priority, and economic priority scenario. A combination of resulting composite maps from the constraints and the factors gave the final suitability maps. The resulting suitability index (SI) for the respective policy scenario describes the degrees of suitability: Ideal locations were denoted by one (1) and the not suitable locations by zero (0), with values in-between depicting varying degrees of wind farm site suitability. Based on the SI, priority locations indicating areas with good prospects, in addition to the most suitable parcels of land, were identified and delineated. The composite decision constraint revealed that wind farm projects would not be viable in more than half (57.58%) of the State. Wind speed was the major constraint and accounted for the exclusion of 46.25%, with a mean fuzzy membership value of 0.2008 indicating low suitability across the State. Also, the average acceptable wind farm location for the three-policy scenario was 33.33% of the entire study area. Lafia, Obi, Keana, Awe, Nasarawa-Eggon, Wamba and Kokona LGAs were the identified priority Local Government Areas (LGAs). However, only Lafia, Obi, and Nasarawa-Eggon were consistent with changes in the policy objectives. All the priority LGAs have one or more of the most suitable parcels within their administrative boundaries except for Wamba. Despite the severe limitations of wind speed, substantial parts of Nasarawa State still provide great development potentials for wind energy. The “most suitable” locations in Lafia, Nasarawa-Eggon, and Obi LGAs should have first consideration for the development of wind energy in the State.

Suitability evaluation on marine ranching in Guangdong,South China

The ecological suitability of marine resources and environmental conditions for marine ranching in Guangdong,South China was evaluated.Niche theory was used to establish an ecological suitability evaluation model for marine ranching site selection,and suitability evaluation of marine ranching was conducted in.Results show that the ecological suitability index of marine ranching site selection was greater than 64.0 in 20 sites,including offshore Shantou Bay,offshore Zhanjiang Port,and Longdou Bay etc.,which are the priority areas for marine ranching.In other 13 sites,the ecological suitability index ranged between 8.0 and 32.0,including Houjiang Bay,Haimen Bay,and Jieshi Bay etc.,indicating the suitability for marine ranching.However,the ecological suitability index was 0 in Shantou Bay,Zhujiang(Pearl)River estuary,Huangmao Sea,Guanghai Bay,Zhanjiang Port,Qiongzhou Strait,and Anpu Port.These sites are thus unsuitable for marine ranching.This study provides a theoretical basis for site selection and planning of marine ranching in Guangdong Province.

Mapping the potential distribution suitability of 16 tree species under climate change in northeastern China using Maxent modelling

Knowledge on the potential suitability of tree species to the site is very important for forest management planning.Natural forest distribution provides a good reference for afforestation and forest restoration.In this study,we developed species distribution model(SDM)for 16 major tree species with 2,825 permanent sample plots with natural origin from Chinese National Forest Inventory data collected in Jilin Province using the Maxent model.Three types of environmental factors including bioclimate,soil and topography with a total of 33 variables were tested as the input.The values of area under the curve(AUC,one of the receiver operating characteristics of the Maxent model)in the training and test datasets were between 0.784 and 0.968,indicating that the prediction results were quite reliable.The environmental factors affecting the distribution of species were ranked in terms of their importance to the species distribution.Generally,the climatic factors had the greatest contribution,which included mean diurnal range,annual mean temperature,temperature annual range,and iosthermality.But the main environmental factors varied with tree species.Distribution suitability maps under current(1950-2000)and future climate scenarios(CCSM4-RCP 2.6 and RCP 6.0 during 2050)were produced for 16 major tree species in Jilin Province using the model developed.The predicted current and future ranges of habitat suitability of the 16 tree species are likely to be positively and negatively affected by future climate.Seven tree species were found to benefit from future climate including B etula costata,Fraxinus mandshurica,Juglans mandshurica,Phellodendron amurense,Populus ussuriensis,Quercus mongolica and Ulmus pumila;five tree species will experience decline in their suitable habitat including B.platyphylla,Tilia mongolica,Picea asperata,Pinus sylvestris,Pinus koraiensis;and four(Salix koreensis,Abies fabri,Pinus densiflora and Larix olgensis)showed the inconsistency under RCP 2.6 and RCP 6.0 scenarios.The maps of the habitat suitability can be used as a basis for afforestation and forest restoration in northeastern China.The SDMs could be a potential tool for forest management planning.

Development of a brownfield inventory for prioritizing funding outreach in Tucson,Arizona

Fear of liability from the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response,Compensation,and Liability Act(CERCLA or Superfund)has prompted developers to build preferentially upon undeveloped green space rather than potentially contaminated former industrial sites,leading to urban sprawl in the suburban areas while blighted properties in the urban core remain vacant.A brownfield is defined as a property in which the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance or contaminant poses a barrier to development.Agencies often create brownfield inventories by performing a site suitability analysis,using distinguishing features such as ecolo-gically and culturally significant areas or neighborhoods that need revitalizing.Pima County,Arizona and the Sonora Environmental Research Institute,Inc.(SERI)developed a brownfield inventory of the large,industrial area directly to the west of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.Because the brownfield target area has few residential neighborhoods and lacks the distinguish-ing features usually used in a brownfield site suitability analysis,the county and SERI used the official tax assessor database and 11 federal,state and county environmental databases to develop a brownfield inventory.The goal of the project was to prioritize properties that stood to benefit from the grant funding.The final brownfield inventory contained 531 parcels.