Title: Selection of sanitary landfill site by integrated fuzzy AHP and GIS for Multan, Pakistan

Authors: Samra Fatima; Zulfa Hanan Ash'aari; Mohammad Firuz Ramli; Amir Hamzah Sharaai; Muhammad Nawaz Chaudhry

Addresses: Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia ' Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia ' Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia ' Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia ' Faculty of Basic Sciences, Lahore School of Economics, Pakistan

Abstract: Sanitary landfill is a common solution for the final solid waste disposal in developing countries. The appropriate landfill location is a very complicated task, as the site selection process involves several factors and guidelines. In this study, suitable candidate landfill sites with minimum risks to public health and environment for the Multan District of Pakistan were identified by integrating the fuzzy set theory and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) within GIS. The socio-economic (i.e., distance to main roads, railway lines, airport, settlements and slope), ecological (i.e., distance to the protected area, distance to the source of surface water, groundwater level, soil type, and land cover type), and infrastructure (distance to tube wells and electric power lines) criteria were taken into consideration. In the fuzzy set, criteria standardisation was done by using different membership functions, whereas the weighting was performed using AHP method to determine the relative importance of the sub-criteria. The results showed that almost 8.5% of the total study area was the most suitable for landfills. After ground-truthing, the three best suitable landfill sites were selected across the district in terms of significant criteria.

Keywords: multi-attribute decision making; multi-attribute decision-making; MADM; solid waste; site selection; suitability map; ground validation.

DOI: 10.1504/WRSTSD.2023.127263

World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, 2023 Vol.19 No.1/2, pp.149 - 169

Received: 17 Feb 2020
Accepted: 14 Mar 2021
Published online: 30 Nov 2022 *