GIS-Based Simulation for Landfill Site Selection in Mekong Delta: A Specific Application in Ben Tre Province

The aim of this research is to develop a GIS-based simulation for selecting the most suitable site of solid waste landfill which could help to minimize harmful impacts to the environment and society in the extreme sensitive and complex delta by an integration of geographic information system (GIS) and analysis hierarchy process (AHP) and nine criteria (distance from surface water; depth of ground water table; distance from residential area, land use, distance from main roads, geo-environmental and geotechnical characteristics, distance from historical and tourism sites, and distance from industrial zones). Different from most of the previous studies on the landfill site selection, geology-related criteria including soil types/lithology, soil permeability, and soil depth/soil thickness (soil-structure), which are called geo-environmental and geotechnical characteristics in this research, will be carefully considered, integrated, and evaluated. The AHP was employed to determine the weight of each criterion based on pair weight comparison and its matrix, while a land suitability index (LSI) score was calculated to determine the most suitable site. Moreover, the suitability map was also created which indicated very advantageous, advantageous, rather advantageous, and disadvantageous areas in the study area for landfill siting. Finally, the developed model could be used for supporting planners, managers, policy makers, and local government to make decisions on suitable and effective planning strategies for landfill site selection and could be applied anywhere and especially in other deltas around the world.