Optimization of Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Site Selection by Geospatial Analysis in the Ranya District of Iraq.

Landfill siting is a major problem in solid waste management. Many aspects should be considered when selecting an appropriate site for a landfill in any particular region. In the current research, seventeen criteria were considered, including rivers, water bodies (lakes), geology, slope, elevation, power lines, groundwater depth, major district roads, archaeological sites, urban centers, infrastructure, villages, pipelines, quarrying, forests, aspect (wind), and agricultural areas. Several random open dump waste disposal sites are dispersed throughout the Ranya District, Iraq. This research employed the integration of a Geographic Information System (GIS) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to identify the optimal sites for the establishment of sanitary landfills. The seventeen criteria were mapped and assigned subcriteria within GIS software. Subsequently, the normalized weights from the AHP were identified for each measure to generate the final Land Suitability Index (LSI) map for the site. Consequently, approximately 0.34% of the entire study area, equivalent to roughly 2,396,000 square meters, is estimated to be suitable for locating a landfill. Additionally, the suitable sites were categorized into moderately suitable, suitable, and mostly suitable. The normalized weight analysis revealed that groundwater depth significantly influences the selection of the best landfill site [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]