New methods for searching for waste disposal sites in the Chiang Mai-Lamphun basin, northern Thailand

The site-searching process for waste disposal sites should guarantee that the best suitable site to construct a landfill will be selected by means that are reproducible and of scientific character. A method to achieve this is described for the Chiang Mai-Lamphun basin, northern Thailand, using new techniques and methods. The process begins with the design of a map of potential barrier properties, which qualifies and displays each unit of the legend of a geological map that has a potential barrier property. The core of this site-searching process is a newly developed PC database. With this database, the lithological records of boreholes can be queried if they have potential barrier properties, and information on which class of properties they belong to and whether they form a geological barrier can be ascertained. These data are overlaid with the map of potential barrier properties to give a map of potential barrier rock. This displays all areas with a geological barrier, and its thickness at the well locations.