Geospatial Decision Support for Landfill Site Selection
Summary
Geospatial decision support for landfill site selection integrates spatial data, environmental criteria and stakeholder inputs to guide the planning of waste disposal facilities. By combining geographic information systems with multi-criteria decision analysis, practitioners can assess terrain, hydrogeology, land use, infrastructure and socio-economic factors in a single framework. Satellite imagery and remote sensing enable up-to-date land-cover mapping and urban expansion monitoring, while digital elevation models inform slope and drainage analyses. Expert knowledge is captured through weighting schemes such as the analytic hierarchy process or fuzzy logic, then applied to generate continuous suitability surfaces. Constraint layers, including protected areas, flood zones and cultural sites, are used to mask out unsuitable regions. The result is a ranked set of candidate locations that balance environmental protection, public health, logistical efficiency and cost considerations. This systematic approach reduces subjectivity, enhances transparency and supports scenario testing under evolving regulatory and climatic conditions.
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Geospatial Decision Support for Landfill Site Selection publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in geospatial decision support for landfill site selection across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Geographic Information System (GIS): A computer-based tool for capturing, storing, analysing and visualising spatial data.
Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA): A structured approach to evaluate multiple conflicting criteria in decision-making.
Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP): A pair-wise comparison technique used to derive weights for decision criteria based on expert judgement.
Fuzzy Logic: A method of handling uncertainty by assigning degrees of membership to data rather than binary classifications.
Remote Sensing: The acquisition of information about the Earth’s surface using satellite or aerial sensor technologies.
Weighted Linear Combination (WLC): An overlay technique that aggregates weighted factors to produce a composite suitability map.
References
- Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Site Selection Based on Fuzzy-AHP and Geoinformation Techniques in Asir Region Saudi Arabia. Sustainability (2021).
- Solid waste dumping site selection using GIS-based multi-criteria spatial modeling: a case study in Logia town, Afar region, Ethiopia. Geology Ecology and Landscapes (2019).
- Landfill site selection using a hybrid system of AHP-Fuzzy in GIS environment: A case study in Shiraz city, Iran. MethodsX (2019).
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