Site Suitability Analysis For Solid Waste Disposal In Enugu Urban Using Remote Sensing And Geographic Information System

ABSTRACT

Identifying solid waste disposal sites and appropriately managing them is a big task to many

developing countries. This is a critical problem in Enugu urban in particular. The existing site

in Enugu urban is not sufficient in its capacity and it is damaging the environment due to its

location, and the type of waste dumped, while the surrounding area is being irrigated. Due to

the expansion and urbanization developments in Enugu State, it badly needs to develop

controlled solid waste dumping site to prevent several contamination problems. This study

was conducted first, to assess the existing waste management strategies in Enugu urban; and

second, to find out the potential waste disposal sites in Enugu urban, using GIS and Remote

Sensing techniques. The objective of this research are (i) to generate a digital elevation model

of the study area, (ii) to create land cover classification of Enugu urban,(iii) to develop a GIS

model for the suitable sites, The data used are Landsat EMT8+ 30m and higher resolution

image 0.15m resolution and SRTM. Remote sensing data, with GIS spatial analysis tools.

Accordingly, site suitability maps for each of the factors were developed in a GIS

environment. Results indicate that 3 dumping sites were appropriate. This study indicated that

the application of Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing techniques are

efficient and low cost tools to study and select appropriate dumping site so as to facilitate

decision making processes.