Waste Management and its Impact on the Environment

Landfills are the most common method for disposing of waste, but they present a number of challenges that political leaders and environmental managers must address. This study analyzes the atmospheric and hydrological effects of landfill sites and proposes a suitable location for a new landfill site in Los Angeles County. GIS and multi-criteria methods were used to analyze a number of variables in order to determine the suitability for an environmentally safe location for a new landfill. Nine factors, each with a unique map layer were used in the analysis, including current landfill sites, slope, forest, wetland, airport, road, highway, railway, and land uses. GIS was used to layer the raster based maps in order to create the final suitability map, which identified better suited and less well suited areas.