Solid Waste Disposal Site Selection Using Gis and Remote Sensing: for Mojo Town, Ethiopia
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Date
2016-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Identifying and managing solid waste dumping sites in an environmentally acceptable manner is one of the major issues facing municipal planners. Land filling is now becoming a common method of waste disposal in Ethiopia even though solid waste dumping is a serious problem in the urban areas because most solid wastes are not dumped in the suitable areas. Mojo Town has the problem of solid waste dumping site identification. The existing solid waste dumpping site for Mojo town is damaging the environment, especially the river called ‘Mojo River’ due to its location. This study was conducted to assess the existing solid waste management system of Mojo town and to select potential areas for suitable solid waste dumping sites using GIS and Remote Sensing, which are environmentally suitable. The main data used for this study were digital elevation model (DEM), ground control point (GCP) collected by ground point survey (GPS), Landsat image as well as interviews and some observations. The maps were prepared and overlayed as well as suitability analysis were done geographic information system (GIS) and multi criteria analysis methods. The final suitability map was prepared by overlay analyses on Arc map and leveled as highly suitable, moderately suitable, less suitable, and unsuitable areas of the study area were determined. The results indicate that 45.4% of the study area is unsuitable for solid waste dumping; 26.6% less suitable; 22% suitable; and 6% highly suitable. The suggested highly suitable areas for solid waste dumping sites fall on south west and west part of the town where there are least environmental and health risks. The GIS and remote sensing techniques are important tools for solid waste site selection. Hence, the capacity to use GIS and remote sensing technology for the effective identification of suitable solid waste dumping site will minimize the environmental risk and human health problems
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Geography and Environmental Studies