suitable site determination for urban solid waste disposal using gis

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOMATICS AND GEOSCIENCES Volume 1, No 2, 2010

© Copyright 2010 All rights reserved Integrated Publishing services Research Article ISSN 0976 – 4380

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Suitable site determination for urban solid waste disposal using GIS and Remote sensing techniques in Kottayam Municipality, India.

Nishanth.T 1 , Prakash M.N 2 , Vijith.H 2 1 Department of Atmospheric Science, Kannur University,

Mangattuparamba, Kerala 2 School of Environmental Science, M.G University, Kottayam.

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Solid waste management is a global environmental problem in today’s world. There is an increase in commercial, residential and infrastructure development due to the population growth and this has negative impact on the environment. Urban solid waste management is considered as one of the most serious environmental problems confronting municipal authorities in developing countries. One of these impacts is due to location of dumping site in unsuitable areas. This paper deals with determination of suitable site for the disposal of urban solid waste generated from Kottayam Municipality and surrounding areas using GIS techniques.

Keywords: GIS, Remote Sensing, Solid waste management, Routing, MSW.

1. Introduction

The rapid growth of population and urbanization decreases the non renewable resources and disposal of effluent and toxic waste indiscriminately, are the major environmental issues posing threats to the existence of human being (Allen et al; 1997). The most common problems associated with improper management of solid waste include diseases transmission, fire hazards, odor nuisance, atmospheric and water pollution, aesthetic nuisance and economic losses (Jilani et al). There has been a significant increase in solid waste generation in India over the years from 100 gm per person per day in small towns to 500 grams per persons per day in large towns. Presently most of the municipal solid waste in India is being disposed unscientifically (Akolkar, A.B; 2005). Generally municipal solid waste is collected and deposited in sanitary landfill, such unscientific disposal attract birds, rodents and fleas to the waste dumping site and create unhygienic conditions (Suchitra, et al). The degradation of the solid waste results in the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and other trace gases. The unscientific landfill may reduce the quality of the drinking water and causes the disease like jaundice, nausea, asthma (MeBean, E. A et al; Amar M. Dhere et al; 1995). The present study intend to find out a suitable site for the disposal of urban solid waste generated from Kottayam municipality and surrounding areas with the help of Remote sensing and GIS techniques. Solid waste Management is a dilemma faced by the cities and towns in Kerala and finding a suitable landfill area is the serious problem faced by the urban centers in Kerala.



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1.1 The role of GIS in solid waste management

Remote sensing is one of the excellent tools for inventory and analysis of environment and its resources, owing to its unique ability of providing the synoptic view of a large area of the earth’s surfaces and its capacity of repetitive coverage. Its multispectral capability provides appropriate contrast between various natural features where as its repetitive coverage provides information on the dynamic changes taking place over the earth surface and the natural environment (Navalgund et al; 1983). Technological development in computer science has introduced geographic information system (GIS) as an innovative tool in landfill process (Kontos et al; 2003). GIS combines spatial data (maps, aerial photographs, satellite images) with the other quantitative, qualitative and descriptive information databases. This technology offers an analytical frame work for data synthesis that combines a system capable of data capture, storage, management, retrieval, analysis and display. When remotely sensed data are combined with other landscape variables organized with in a GIS environment provide an excellent frame work for data capture, storage, synthesis, measurement and analysis. For assessing a site as a possible location for solid waste land filling, several environmental and political factors and legislations should be considered (Savage et al., 1998). The GIS aided methodology presented here utilizes to create the digital geo database as a spatial clustering process and easily understood way for landfill process in Kottayam Municipality . 1.2 About the study area

Kottayam Municipality is a town located in the south central part of Kerala state. The municipality lays Longitudinal between 9 0 34 1 and 9 0 36 1 North and Latitudinal between 76 0 34 1 and 76 0 36 1 East. The total area of the municipality is 15.55km 2 . It has more than twenty thousand families as residents and a host of business and office establishments and educational institutions (Susy Abraham et al 2001). The boundary of the municipality is Aymanam and Kumaranellur Panchayath (North), Vijayapuram Panchayath (East), Nattakam Panchayath (South) and Thiruvarpu Panchayath (West). Kottayam municipality is the head quarters of Kottayam district; hence it has a large floating population also. As a result of all these factors lot of solid waste is generated in the town. The location of the study area is shown in the figure1.



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Figure 1.Base map of the study area.

2. Materials and Methods used for the study

The role of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in solid waste management is very large as many aspects of its planning and operations are highly dependent on spatial data. GIS is a tool that not only reduces time and cost of the site selection but also provides a digital data bank for future monitoring program of the site (Miles S.B et al; 1999). The methodology utilizes GIS to evaluate the entire region based on certain evaluation criteria for the analysis of landfill site suitability (Ozeair Abessi and Mohesn Saeedi; 2009). These criteria are grouped into two main categories including physical and social economical information. The criteria were selected according to study areas local characteristics (OzeairAbessi et al; 2009). The principal sub criteria that used for spatial analysis are lithology, geomorphology, slope, drainage, population, distance from major roads, distance from major streams and distance from drainage. The Criteria and sub criteria used in development of GIS database is shown in the table1. Table 1.The Criteria and sub criteria used in development of GIS database

Table 1: The Criteria and sub criteria used in development of GIS database

Lithology Geomorphology Slope

Physical Criteria

Drainage Population Distance from major roads Distance from streams

Social economical criteria

Distance from drainage

The geomorphological map was prepared from toposheet 58C/6 and 58C/10 with a scale of 1:50,000 and these was updated and georeferenced with the help of satellite image IRS



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1B. Various shape files were created and these were converted in to coverages for doing further works in Arc GIS 8.3. After converting the shape files in to coverages topology creation started. Topology is the mathematical relationship built between objects and it makes an explicit bond between geographic features in the data base. After attributing the data base map was created and there after various thematic maps like geomorphology, lithology, drainage, slope, streams, populations and road map were created and weightage allocate to them based on the key parameter. The weightage assigned for different themes are shown the table 2. For getting a suitable site for the disposal of solid waste 5 km buffer zones were created around the Municipality area. Various coverages in these themes were assigned a suitability score and converted in to raster format using Spatial Analyst in the Arc Map. The methodology of this study covers some sequential steps; the detailed methodology is graphically represented in figure 2.

Table 2: Weightage assigned for each theme.

3. Results

Drainage map of the study area is represents in figure 3. Lithology of the study area is gritty sandstone, garnet biotite gneiss, cordierite gneiss, brown sand, coastal sand, charnockite and sandy silt alluvium. Lithology map of the study area is represented in figure 3 and the suitability score is given in table3. The significant geomorphic units identified on the basis of their image characteristics at the study area include denudational hills, residual hills, denudational slope, flood plain and water bodies. Denudation hill is formed due to differential erosion and weathering so that more resistant formation or intrusion stands as mountains or hills. Denudational hill is exposed at the central part of the Kottayam municipality which is surrounded by denudational slope. Flood plain is found on the western part of the study area mainly Thiruvarpu, Kudamalur and partially Nattakam Panchayath. Residual hills are found as small isolated mounts in the eastern part of the study area mostly at Vijayapuram, Aymanam and Nattakam Panchayath.

Themes Weightage

Geomorphology 8 Lithology 8 Slope 7 Drainage 6 Stream 6 Population 5 Road 4



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Figure 2: Flowchart of the methodology adopted

. The flanks of the Denudational hills are called denudational slope made up of weathered products. These are sloping areas with rugged nature composed of rock fragments and unconsolidated weathered material of varying lithology. Geomorphology map is given in figure 5 and its suitability score is represented in table 4. Flood plains in the locations are usually characterized by thin cover of alluvium composed typically of sand and silt. During flood time water spills over river bank and the whole plain will be submerged under water. Slope class map of the study area and its suitability score are represented in figure 6 and table 5 respectively.



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Figure 3: Drainage map of the study area.

Figure 4: Lithology map of the study area.

Table 3: Suitability scores given for lithology

Type of Lithology Suitability score Charnockite 8 Cordierate Gneiss 7 Garnet biotite Gneiss 5 Brown sand 5 Coastal sand 1 Gritty sand stone 1 Sandy/ slit Alluvium 1



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Figure 5: Geomorphology map of the study area.

Table 4:.Suitability scores given for geomorphology

Type of Geomorphology Suitability score Denudational hill 7 Denudational slope 5 Residual hill 3 Flood plain 1 Water body No data

Figure 6: Slop map of the study area.



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Table 5 :Suitability scores given for slope

Slope in degree Suitability score 03 1 315 8 1525 7 2540 2 4087 1

According to 2001 census population in the Kottayam municipality is 1, 72,878 which is quite high as compared to its neighboring Panchayath. The population map and the suitability score given for population zone is given in the figure 7 and table 6 respectively.

Figure 7 : Population map of the study area.

Table 6: Suitability scores given for population (based on 2001 population)

Location Population Suitability score Thiruvarpu 13,074 8 Kudamalur 23,538 7 Pudupally 29,323 6

Vijayapuram 29,413 6 Nattakam 31,786 5 Aymanam 34,986 4 Kottayam 1,72,878 1



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Figure 8: Distance from drainage map of the study area.

Table 7: Suitability scores given for drainage

Drainage distance in meter

Suitability score

0500 1 5001000 3 10002000 6 20003000 7 30005000 8

Figure 9: Distance from major road map of the study area.



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Table 8:Suitability scores given for distance from Major Roads.

Road distance meter

Suitability score

01000 1 10002000 2 20003500 8 35005000 7 50007000 2

Figure 10: Distance from stream map of the study area.

Table 9:Suitability scores given for Distance from Streams.

Stream distance meter Suitability score 0500 1 5001000 3 10002000 6 20003000 7

Maps like distance from drainage, distance from major roads, distance from streams and their suitability scores are given in the figures 8,9,10 and table 7, 8, 9 respectively. After projection and topology creation all feature classes like geomorphology, slope, lithology, drainage, stream, population and road were converted to raster files and separate datasets were created using weightage and rank. For the analysis all the raster datasets for different layers having different score were over layed and the scores of each composite class were added using raster calculator tool of spatial analyst extension of Arc Map. The



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final scores were reclassified to generate the output map showing various classes of suitable site for waste dumping. The decision rules for finding suitable land area are given in the table10.

Table 10: Decision rules for finding suitable Land area.

Suitability class Criteria Highly Suitable Moderately Suitable Less Suitable

Geomorphology Denudational Hill Denudational slope and Residual hill

Flood plain

Lithology Charnockite and Cordierate Gneiss

Garnet biotite Gneiss and Brown sand and Sandy slit Alluvium

Coastal sand, Gritty sand stone and

Slope 3 0 15 0 and 15 0 25 0 25 0 40 0 0 0 3 0 and 40 0 87 0

Distance from drainage in meter

30005000 and 2000 3000

10002000 0500 and 500100

Population density

13,074 and 23,538 29,413 and 34,986 1,72,878

Distance from major roads in meter

20003500 and 3500 5000

10002000 and 50007000 01000 and

Distance from streams in meter

20003000 and 1000 2000

5001000 0500

4. Summary and conclusion

The outcome generated through the GIS analysis is discussed in this section. Total area in our project including buffer zone covers 24.61536 Km 2 . The results shows that 4.2909 km 2 area is very less suitable , 14.1833 km 2 area is less suitable, 3.90096 km 2 area is moderately suitable and 1.5824 km 2 area is highly suitable and 0.65773 km 2 area is very high suitable for dumping waste. Suitable area obtained in the analysis is shown in the following table 11 and the suitability map is shown in the figure11.



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Figure 11. Suitability map

Table 11: Suitable area analysis

Suitability Area in Km 2 Area %

Very High 0.65773 2.6820

High 1.58244 6.4287 Medium 3.90096 15.8446 Low 14.18333 57.6197

Very Low 4.29094 17.4250

Total 24.61540 100

High and very high suitable categories are found at the area between Manganam and Vadavathoor and also at Mulavattam. Determination of suitable sites for the disposal of urban solid waste is one of the major problems in developing countries where the industrial development is adversely affecting the environment. The main environmental issue which should be considered in disposal of hazardous solid waste is the location of its land filling. The proposed method may be used for site selection processes in other conditions and locations where the intensity of introduced parameters shows discrepancies.

Acknowledgements

This work is carried out under the consistent support of ISRO as a part of project sanctioned at the school of Environmental sciences, M.G University Kottayam. The



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authors express their deep sense of gratitude to M.G University Kottayam for providing all facilities to carry out this work.

5. References

1. Akolkar .AB., 2005. Status of Solid Waste Management in India, Implementation Status of Municipal Solid Wastes, Management and Handling Rules 2000, Central Pollution Control Board, New Delhi.

2. Allen AR, Dillon AM, O’Brien M.,1997. Approaches to landfill site selection in Ireland. Engineering Geology and the Environment. Balkema, Rotterdam pp 15691574.

3. Amar M Dhere, Chandrasekhar B Pawar, Pratapsingh B Pardeshi and Dhanraj A Patil, 2008. Municipal solid waste disposal in Pune city – An analysis of air and groundwater pollution Current science 95, 6,773777.

4. Jilani T,2002 .State of Solid Waste Management in Khulna City. Unpublished Undergraduate thesis, Environmental Science Discipline, Khulna University Khulna, pp. 2585.

5. Kontos THD, DP Komilis and C.P Halvadakis 2003).Siting MSW Landfills in Lesvos Island with a GISbased methodology. Waste Management and Research, 21(3), 262–277.

6. MeBean E A, Rovers F A and Farquhar G J, Solid Waste Landfill Engineering and Design, Prentice Hall, NJ, 1995, p. 380.

7. Miles SB and HO CL, 1999. Applications and Issues of GIS as Tool for Civil Engineering Modeling. J. Comp.City. Engrg. ASCE 13:144152.

8. Navalgund RR and Kasturirangan K, 1983. The remote sensing satellite – A programme overview. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. Engg. Sci. –Remote Sensing – III, 6, 313–336.

9. Ozeair Abessi, Mohesn Saeedi, 2009. Site Selection of a Hazardous Waste Landfill Using GIS Technique and Priority Processing, a Power Plant Waste in Qazvin Province Case Example. Environmental sciences,6,4,121134.

10. Savage GM, LF Diaz and GC Golueke, 1998. Guidance for Land Filling Waste in Economically Developing Countries. Washington DC, USA: United States Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, EPA 600/ R98040.



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11. Suchitra M, 2007. Outside: Burnt or buried, garbage needs land. Down To Earth, 15 March, pp. 22–24.

12. Susi Abraham and Madana Kumar CK, 2001. Minor water bodies in Kottayam Municipality area: A bio ecological study

suitable site determination for urban solid waste disposal using gis

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