Geospatial Assessment of Suitable Landfill Sites Location in Owerri

This study was done with the aim to map the present waste disposal sites in the city, to prepare a landfill suitability map of the area, to recommend the best and the most suitable locations to site the dump sites/ landfills based on a multi criteria decision making technique and GIS.

It was carried out in the city of Owerri, capital of Imo state, South Eastern part of Nigeria, from May to August 2016.

Data used in this research work were the coordinates taken at the existing landfill sites (Table 1), a Landsat 8 Satellite Imagery and a Shuttle Radar Topographic Mapper (SRTM). Arc GIS v 10.2 and Erdas Imagine 2014 were used to analyze the data. Selected criteria were mapped using the GIS technique and spatial analytic tools, then different constraint map layers were overlaid to obtain a potential suitability map.

The results showed ten proposed landfill sites at Awaka, Obinze, Amone, Okuku, Irete, Amaeze, Ihiagwa and Imeabam, with the site at Imeabam, being the most suitable.

A more efficient waste disposal system can be developed if GIS is used more in decision making as was illustrated in this research work.