Application Of Geographic Information System In Mapping Solid Waste Collection Points In New Owerri, Imo State

ABSTRACT

The unsanitary condition in which solid waste is temporarily dumped and disposed off has generated environmental concern through pollutions and health hazards. This calls for a need to map out suitable collection points and disposal point for effective and efficient management of solid waste to promote hygienic environment. This study is limited to the new Owerri inside Owerri municipal, Imo State. It focuses on site selection for solid waste collection having considered the existence of waste dumpsite at the eastern and northern part of the town. The data required were captured through scanning and georeferencing Owerri Street Guide map obtained from Imo State ministry of Land & Survey. The Georeferenced map was digitized using AutoCAD Land Development 2i. The digitized drawing was exported into Arc view 3.2a, where the layers were converted to shape files and then polygonized. Afterwards, attribute tables were created for each land use and finally, the required spatial analyses and queries were performed using the same Arc View 3.2a. Consequently, different the collection points were identified as points in relation to their coordinate values and layout. The respective coordinate values represent the locations specified by the Geographic Information Systems as well as the attributes of the points. Thus, in all the sited collection points, the distances to similar land use type are the same as stated in the criteria with respective distances of; road=10m, commercial land use=20m, public land use=40m, river >70m and residential land use=20m. Therefore, GIS offers solution in this regard as a decision support system for most suitable site selection.