Abstract:
In developing countries, the ever-increasing human population and the associated anthropogenic activities have accelerated the phenomenon of urbanization in the past decade. The rapid growth rates of the cities, combined with their huge population base, has left many cities of Pakistan lacking in basic infrastructure services like water supply, sanitation, sewerage and solid waste management. Solid waste dumping is a serious problem in the urban areas because most solid wastes are not dumped in the suitable areas.The need of the hour is to devise an efficient solid waste management system. Landfill incorporates an engineered method of disposal of solid waste on land in a manner that minimizes environmental hazards by spreading the solid waste in thin layers, compacting the solid waste to the smallest practical volume and applying a cover at the end of the operating day. The present study focuses on an optimized land use site selection and geographic information system based (GIS) overlay analysis. The most appropriate landfill sites have been identified for Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan. Thematic maps of the selected criteria were developed within the paradigm of standard GIS software. The main data used for this study were Landsat TM image with a spatial resolution of 30 m; ASTER digital elevation model (DEM) with 30 m spatial resolution and topographical map of the study area. The maps were prepared by overlay and suitability analysis of geographic information system (GIS), remote sensing techniques and multi criteria analysis methods. The final suitability map was prepared by overlay analyses on Arc map and leveled, as highly suitable, suitable and unsuitable regions of the study area were determined. The result reveals that 3.03% of the study area is highly suitable, 1.51% is suitable and 0.26% is very unsuitable.The GIS and remote sensing techniques are important tools for solid waste site selection. Hence, the capacity to use GIS and remote sensing technology for the effective identification of suitable solid waste landfill sitesthat minimize the environmental risk and human health issues.
