Long-Term Temperature Monitoring of a Municipal Solid Waste Landfill

This study was conducted to investigate heat generation in a landfill on a field scale, including the variation of temperatures. Data were collected at Stepanovice landfill in southwestern Czech Republic. Temperatures were determined over a monitoring period of 21 months. Mean annual value of the difference between outdoor temperature and temperature at a depth of 100 cm in the landfill body in 2012 amounted to 5.4 degrees C, and for the reporting period of 2013 it equailed 5.2 degrees C. No significant differences among measured temperatures were recorded at particular depths (50 cm, 75 cm, and 100 cm). Mean temperature at the surface of the landfill within the whole reporting period was 3.2 degrees C higher than ambient temperature (in the reporting period). This is explained due to the decomposition activity within the landfill site leading to the emission of warm gases. The results provide new information for the estimation of the selection of plant species suitable for reclamation, which have higher chances to tolerate the unfavorable conditions they would be exposed to a technically reclaimed landfill body.