SITE SELECTION FOR WASTE DISPOSAL IN GIS ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

The proper waste disposal is not practiced as yet in many of the towns. Roorkee, being a sub-urban area, the condition is still worst (Besides Central Building Research Institute, National Institute of Hydrology, Bengal Sappers and Irrigation Research Institute). The University of Roorkee, Roorkee, is situated in this town, so it was thought proper to take up the waste (solid and liquid) disposal problem for such an area like the municipality of Roorkee and its surroundings, which disposes off waste for over 1 lakh people at present and is expected to dispose off waste for over 1.4 lakh people by the end of 2005. The present work demonstrates the use of GIS as a tool in selecting the best site for waste disposal in Roorkee. The work comprises of five steps, as given below: (1) Collection of various base maps, like boundary of the study area, road network, contour map, land use map and map showing different wards and existing sewers and other data, like census data, ground water level, current practice and site for waste disposal and information regarding amount of waste production. (2) Digitization of the above base maps in GIS environment. (3) Performing overlaying the base maps and finding out new data, like the distance between two points through the road network, etc. (4) Creation of databases for each site. (5) Development of a methodology to determine the best site for waste disposal. iii A preliminary site selection is done in which 8 sites (interpreted through a IRS-1C PAN satellite imagery at 5.8 m resolution, Dated April 1999) are taken. On the basis of different scores assigned to these sites, the best site has been identified. The site confirmation has not been accomplished due to non-availability of time and data since it requires public opinion, master plan and plans of the administration. ,The study, however, shows that GIS has a tremendous potential to create environmental database, which could be efficiently used to identify best waste disposal site on the basis of given criteria.