Integrating GIS and fuzzy logic for urban solid waste management (a case study of Sanandaj city, Iran)

The city of Sanandaj with population of 340000 in 2003 produces 714 tons of solid waste per day. Waste dumping is the main method of solid waste disposal during the thirty past years. The conditions show that the present site is quite unsuitable because many principles and criteria for site selection are not considered. So in the near future, the severe environmental impacts will threats the health of Sanandaj's inhabitants. The research attempts to integrate fuzzy logic and GIS with the help of Remote Sensing in selecting the most suitable area for the waste disposal. In this study we georeferenced many data which ranges from physical to socio-economic to monitor the impacts of all different factors. Some of these factors are; distance from the legal limits of the city, distance from main road, airport, main urban utilities, other human settlements, surface water resources, wind direction, population density, gradient, fault line, vegetation cover and geology. The data and information has been integrated and then by using satellite images, three areas in the 20 km of north east of Sanandaj city were identified for the solid waste disposal.