Multi-criteria selection of waste transfer stations in the Kumasi Metropolis.

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Date
2015-03-30
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Abstract
Increase in the quantity of municipal solid waste generated as a result of population growth in most urban areas has resulted in the difficulty of locating suitable land areas to be used as landfills. To curb this, transfer stations, which are facilities located close to residential areas and are used to receive and hold waste temporarily until it is transported to distant landfills, all with the purpose of reducing waste transportation cost and environmental health implication, are used. KMA currently disposes off all its waste at the Oti landfill site which will be full to its capacity in no time and the problems associated with locating a new site for another facility within its catchment is anticipated due to the difficulty in land acquisition and recent public agitations. This research was carried out within the framework of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) incorporated into Geographic Information System (GIS). Geographic data such as coordinates of sanitary sites, geology, fault, water bodies, road, slope and urban areas were analysed using the spatial analyst extension in ArcGIS 10.0 software. Using the pairwise comparison method relative importance of each criterion was computed. A weighted linear combination method was used for spatial multi-criteria layer combination. The results of the research revealed that several communal sites within the study area have been encroached and struggle for space with human settlement. Four potential sites were selected from which two are located in Oforikrom sub-metro, one in the Bantama sub-metro, and the other in Asokwa sub-metro. The optimal sites cover a total land area of 2.044 km 2 which is approximately 1% of the total land area under study. The results suggest the concept of transfer station be incorporated into the land use/ land use planning and waste management system of the Metropolis.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Environmental Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of (Master of Science in Environmental Science), 2014
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