Abstract:
In the management of solid waste, sanitary landfill site selection is one of a significant issue, as
solid waste disposal site selection is intricate activity and needs attention to several settings like
societal, economic, geological and environmental matters. Selection of an appropriate waste
disposal site for solid waste management activities has a significant part in urban planning.
Locate the landfill site intends to get the locations that restrict risks to the environment and
community well-being. The present study was carried out in Debark town, Amhara region,
Northwestern Ethiopia by, using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) techniques, and
geographic information system (GIS) tools to recognize an appropriate solid waste disposal site.
The factors like distance from the (drainages, springs, lineaments, and roads), groundwater
level, lithology, land use/land cover, precipitation, soil types, elevation, and slope were
considered in the present study for the selection of suitable waste disposal sites. The abovementioned factors were prepared from the remote sensing data, secondary data, and field
observations. We mapped the above-mentioned factors through a series of GIS analyses in the
Arc GIS 10.6.1 environment. The selected factors and their feature’s weights and consistency
ratios were calculated and checked, respectively, by using AHP procedures. The calculated
weights of the thematic layers and its features were entered into the corresponding GIS files.
Finally, we got the solid waste disposal site suitability map using the weighted linear
combination method. The outcome of this study shows (2 km2 area) 2.50%, (3 km2 area) 3% and
(77 km2 area) 94.5% of the area are highly, moderately, and unsuitable, respectively for the
positioning of the solid waste disposal site in the present study area. The results of the present
may provide information to the administrators and planners of the Debark town to locate a
suitable site for solid waste disposal. The results of the present study show the effectiveness of
the GIS and AHP methods in solid waste disposal site selection analysis
