A GIS-based multi-criteria decision-making method for the selection of potential municipal solid waste disposal sites in Mersin, Turkey

Due to rapid urbanization and the resulting rapid population increases, an important problem for cities today is the elimination of solid waste or finding suitable places for waste storage. Municipal solid waste disposal (MSWD) site selection is one of the most important steps in urban waste management. Many criteria political, economic, social, and technological should be considered in this process. Geographic information systems (GIS) and multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) are tools that are superior to traditional methods in the planning phase of site selection studies. In this study, suitable MSWD sites were determined in Mersin (a Turkish province) based on GIS and the analytic hierarchy process, an MCDM method. Unsuitable areas in the study were removed at the beginning of the analysis. Eleven evaluation criteria were selected: elevation, slope, permeability, distance from lineaments, groundwater level, distance from rivers and water surfaces, distance from roads, distance from settlements, distance from protected areas, and land cover. Considering the evaluation and exclusion criteria, 19.12% of the study area was deemed suitable, and 80.88% was determined unsuitable for an MSWD site. An MSWD suitability map was created as a result of the study. The outcomes indicate that 80,377 ha and 83,022 ha of the study area were classified as high and very high suitability, respectively. Based on these results, we evaluate whether the locations of existing solid waste landfills are appropriate and propose alternative solid waste landfills for each district.