Application of GIS/AHP in siting sanitary landfill: a case study in Northern Cyprus

The present study utilized a multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) method in a geographical information systems (GIS) environment to evaluate the suitability of potential landfill sites in Northern Cyprus. To determine the most suitable landfill site, one of the MCE techniques, called analytical hierarchy process (AHP), was combined with a GIS to examine 12 criteria: distance from waste generation centres; distance from roads; slope; distance from surface waters; distance from groundwater areas; distance from environmentally sensitive areas; vegetation types; soil productivity; soil permeability; distance from settlements; distance from cultural sites; distance from stone quarries. The relative importance weights of these criteria were estimated using AHP and criteria maps were developed by using GIS spatial analysis. At the final stage two different suitability maps were produced using two different groups of weights. The first group suitability map had 11 052 (ha) with high suitability class, whereas the high suitability areas decreased to 5982 (ha) in the second group. Moreover, the seven potential sites identified within the first group decreased to four in the second suitability map. However, potential sites such as Gungor, Degirmenlik, Kirklar and Cayonu had similarities with higher suitability values and these same locations were regarded as suitable according to the both first and second suitability map results.