Suitability assessment using multicriteria spatial decision support system for the existing landfill sites of Chittagong City, Bangladesh

Solid waste management is a great concern in the urban areas of the developing countries. A sanitary landfill is an essential facility for efficient management of solid waste to control unpleasant odor, disease-spreading pathogens, and disposable mass. Chittagong, the second largest city in Bangladesh with an ever-increasing population, has three landfill sites within the metropolitan area. The sites are near the residential areas. The waste collection, transportation, and disposal techniques for landfilling are not well established in the city. As a result, solid wastes are randomly thrown into lowlands, rivers, streets, and open drains in an uncontrolled manner. Consequently, these waste deposits act as breeding ground of various disease vectors, such as rats, mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches, and pathogenic microorganisms. The leachate also contaminates groundwater due to improper linear design of the landfills. Therefore, the human health of the city dwellers is at risk due to the contaminated environment of the city. In the present study, the suitability of the existing landfill sites of the city has been evaluated using GIS-based multicriteria analysis technique. The importance of relevant parameters required for landfill site selection has been determined using multicriteria weighted average method. Then, the individual map of each parameter was created and overlaid all maps of different parameters to assess suitability of the landfill sites in terms of suitability score using ArcGIS.