Landfill site selection using GIS and AHP: a case study: Behbahan, Iran

Finding a suitable site to dispose solid waste is a difficult task for municipality because it is necessary to consider the different factors and criteria in the landfill siting process. In this study, in order to consider all parameters, a combination of Geographic Information System (GIS) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used for landfill site selection. For the purpose of making decisions in landfill site selection a hierarchy structural was formed and different parameters have been identified, including distance to groundwater, distance to surface water, sensitive ecosystems, land cover, distance to urban and rural areas, land uses, distance to roads, slope, soil type and distance to waste generation places. At first, the rating method was used to evaluate each criterion individually. Then, the relative importance of criteria to each other was determined by an analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) method was applied to evaluate the land suitability. The results showed that 38% of the study area have high suitability for land filling. Finally, five sites were a candidate for field investigation with more details.