Application of a geographic information system and the method of analysis of hierarchies to assess construction sites for landfills for municipal waste in the Khabarovsk Territory

An integrated system for managing municipal solid waste at the regional level should be consistent with the goals of Russia's sustainable development. The key element of the system is the landfill. One of the most pressing issues in waste management is the choice of a suitable site for the construction of a landfill. This article presents the results of a study on the use of a geographic information system and the method of analyzing hierarchies to select a land plot for a municipal waste disposal site in the Komsomolsk cluster of the Khabarovsk Territory. Three land plots proposed by the municipal authorities for the construction of the landfill were studied using eleven evaluation factors. Evaluation factors were the population within a radius of 1.5 km, the presence of enterprises within a radius of 1.5 km, the population density in the service area, the distance to the boundaries of the settlement, the distance to the airport, the distance to water bodies, the current use of the land, the depth of the first aquifer, site slope, site area, distance to transport routes. As a result of the study, it was shown that the option of locating the MSW landfill in the Solnechny municipal district is the most preferable in terms of a set of evaluation factors. The worst option is the construction of a landfill in the vicinity of Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The study showed that solving the problem of taking into account socio-economic and sanitary-environmental factors when choosing a land plot for the construction of a MSW landfill requires a practical methodology that can reduce the subjectivity of a management decision. Satisfying the need for a methodology to improve the validity of management decisions when choosing the best places for the construction of MSW landfills is possible through the use of GIS technologies and a multi-criteria decision support system.