Research Article Open Access

A Decision Making Tool for Hazardous Waste Landfill Site Selection

P. Pandiyan, A. Murugesan, T. Vidhyadevi, S. Dineshkirupha, M. Pulikesi and S. Sivanesan

Abstract

Problem statement: Continuous global environmental crisis and degradation has been a challenge for the sustainability of living on earth. This threat was posed by industrialization, high products need, urbanization and population growth activities. As a result, the hazardous waste generation has tremendously increased. Approach: Landfill was one of the positive approaches to handle hazardous waste generated in great quantity. The appropriate selection of landfill site played a major role to remediate the hazardous waste materials. Attributes to be considered for decision-making were selected based on literature, observations with weightage assigned to each attribute following the pair wise comparison method and sensitivity index on a scale of 0 to 1 based on attribute measurement. The attributes were then grouped and ranked following Delphi approach. Results: In environmental assessment, field based study of three landfill sites such as Melakottaiyur, Pachaiyankuppam and Gummidipoondi in Tamil Nadu, India were selected and the sites scored a Risk Index (RI) of 298.75, 369.05 and 408.25 respectively. In economical assessment, economic viability related attributes were analyzed and the three landfill site such as Pachaiyankuppam, Melakottaiyur and Gummidipoondi scored a RI of 86.1, 94.3 and 131.5 respectively. Conclusion/Recommendations: In environmental assessment the landfill sites were shortlisted. In order to achieve economic sustainability of the landfill, economic viability related attributes has to be analyzed with high priority and weightage in economical assessment.

American Journal of Environmental Sciences
Volume 7 No. 2, 2011, 119-124

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/ajessp.2011.119.124

Submitted On: 28 February 2011 Published On: 26 May 2011

How to Cite: Pandiyan, P., Murugesan, A., Vidhyadevi, T., Dineshkirupha, S., Pulikesi, M. & Sivanesan, S. (2011). A Decision Making Tool for Hazardous Waste Landfill Site Selection. American Journal of Environmental Sciences, 7(2), 119-124. https://doi.org/10.3844/ajessp.2011.119.124

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Keywords

  • Hazardous waste
  • landfill site selection
  • attributed score
  • decision-making
  • sensitivity index
  • Delphi approach
  • environmental assessment
  • economic sustainability