Sustainable landfill sites selection using geospatial information and AHP-GDM approach: A case study of Abha-Khamis in Saudi Arabia

Muhammad Arshad; Mohd Abul Hasan; Mohammed K Al Mesfer; Basem Abdullah Al Alwan; Mohamed Noor Qureshi; Moutaz Eldirderi

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16432

Sustainable landfill sites selection using geospatial information and AHP-GDM approach: A case study of Abha-Khamis in Saudi Arabia

Heliyon. 2023 Jun 1;9(6):e16432. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16432. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Authors

Muhammad Arshad¹, Mohd Abul Hasan², Mohammed K Al Mesfer¹, Basem Abdullah Al Alwan¹, Mohamed Noor Qureshi³, Moutaz Eldirderi¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, King Khalid University, Abha, Postal code: 61421, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Civil Engineering, King Khalid University, Abha, Postal code: 61421, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Industrial Engineering, King Khalid University, Abha, Zip code: 61421, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Social, environmental, and technical factors must be combined to solve the complex problem of ever-growing municipal solid waste (MSW) and minimize its negative impact on the environment. Saudi Arabia has launched a US$13 billion tourism strategy to transform the Asir region into a year-round tourist destination and has pledged to welcome 10 million local and foreign visitors by 2030. The estimated share of Abha-Khamis will increase to 7.18 million tons of household waste per year. With a gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 820.00 billion by the end of 2022, Saudi Arabia can no longer afford to neglect the issue of waste production and its safe disposal. In this study, to account for all factors and evaluation criteria, a combination of remote sensing, geographic information systems and an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was used to determine the best locations for municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal in Abha-Khamis. The analysis revealed that 60% of the study area consists of faults (14.28%), drainage networks (12.80%), urban (11.43%), land use (11.41%) and roads (8.35%), while 40% of the suitable area for landfill. Of these, a total of 20 sites ranging in size from 100 to 595 ha are distributed at reasonable distances from the cities of Abha-Khamis, which meet all the critical criteria for suitable landfill sites mentioned in the literature. Current research shows that the use of integrated remote sensing, GIS and the AHP-GDM approach significantly improves the identification of land suitability for MSW management.

Keywords: AHP-GDM approaches; Abha-Khamis; Geospatial techniques; Selection of landfill sites; Solid waste management; Tourist resort.