An Integrated Procedure for Improved Solution of Landfill Siting Problems Part Two: Case Study

The paper presents a full-scale application of an integrated landfill siting procedure, which is able to introduce all criteria that affect the site suitability into the decision-making process. In the first step of this procedure, a GIS model, able to perform area elimination operations, was used for identifying 11 sites of adequate size that satisfied all tangible elimination criteria represented by thematic maps. In the second step, which involved site-specific GIS analysis and site inspections, 8 of the above sites were eliminated based on tangible criteria that could not be represented by thematic maps, mainly due to potential nuisance problems. In the third step, the cost of waste transportation to each of the remaining sites was calculated. In the fourth step, the ground was prepared for the consensual selection of one site by the Local Authorities (LAs) based of intangible criteria, including the sociopolitical ones. In the course of this study, data and information were generated that are useful for other study areas, and the advantages of the integrated procedure, notably ease of use, reduced subjectivity of results, and solutions that maximize the consensus of all parties involved, were verified.