Evaluation of national standards for locating industrial waste landfills using GIS

 The rise in wealth, improving living standards, increasing the rate of population growth, along with increasing the level of commercial and industrial activities in urban areas around the world, are the main reasons for the significant increase in solid waste production, including industrial waste. These wastes lead to the emergence of environmental and human problems and on the other hand, disrupt environmental security. Among the wastes, industrial wastes are highly important due to their high variability, and choosing a suitable location for the landfill site of these wastes is an effective means of controlling pollution from its source. There are many methods for waste disposal such as a sanitary landfill, combustion, recycling, recovery, reduction, and composting. But sanitary burial in a Landfill is an appropriate and acceptable option for disposing of industrial solid waste. Choosing the right place for a solid waste landfill is an effective means of controlling pollution from its source. The site selection process is one of the most difficult tasks related to solid waste management systems because it is subject to government regulations, municipal and government budgets, increasing population density, increasing environmental awareness, public health concerns, reducing the availability of suitable land for Landfilling and increasing political and social opposition to the creation of landfills. GIS is an important tool for identifying and selecting the right site and has a positive impact on time and cost management, as well as providing a digital database for long-term monitoring that is able to process complex geographic data and graphically display results. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the proper place for non-particular landfill of Birjand industrial park, based on the standards of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Ministry of Energy in the GIS environment. In this study, the best places in terms of environment, soils, geology, hydrology, hydrogeology, climate, infrastructure, and socio-social criteria. This study is able to provide a model while applying all standards of the country, to reduce the ecological risk. 

 For this purpose, 8 parameters including environmental, soils, geology, hydrology, hydrogeology, climate, infrastructure, and socioeconomic as the main criteria were examined in the form of 26 subcriteria. After identifying the criteria and the amount of restriction and prohibition for each factor, information was obtained by referring to the relevant organizations of each criterion. And the database is required by using GIS and Google Earth pro systems. Then, the limitations in each layer were removed using the tools in the GIS software environment. The remaining areas were standardized using layers defuzzification. Finally, the layers are integrated using the Rasters calculation tool, and the best area for the site construction of the waste landfill location was selected.

After combining the maps and applying the existing prohibition, four polygons in the north of the industrial park and a polygon in the south of the region were identified that there is no prohibition on the construction of a landfill place. Then the parameters such as slope, height, aspect, soil type, rainfall, land use, and vegetation map were applied as restrictions. After applying the restrictions in the region, only one polygonal remains in the northern part of the industrial park, which is proposed as a suitable area for the construction of a waste landfill. The area has less than 5% slope, its vegetation is poor and the moor region is considered. It is also not in the dominant wind direction of the region. This polygon distance to the industrial park is about 4 km. The overall area is 3 million square meters. With a field visit of the proposed polygon, the sigmoid sluice area, the bare lands, and the border of the hill was removed from an area of 3000000 m². And, only two polygons with an area of 467,000 m3 were reminded. According to the annual volume of waste generated in the region (2400 m²) and the lifespan of 20 years, the total volume of waste is equal to 48000 m². To bury this volume of waste, a land with dimensions of 300×80 m² with a depth of at least two meters is needed. According to the area of the proposed area, there are about 18 plots with a depth of two meters in the area that can be selected as a landfill.

The results show that attention to existing standards can be considered a tool for choosing the ideal site. This study is able to provide a model that, while using all national standards, also leads to an ecological risk. Finally, it is suggested that recycling produced per unit reduces waste production from origin. The stone powder prepared from the stone factories' wastes, re-separation of construction waste according to the size, and reuse of them in construction can lead to the recycling of most of this waste. It is essential to implement the proposed landfill as soon as possible, as they are now discharged without any management around, which has become a health and aesthetic problem and the area is becoming a dust source.