Abstract:
The accelerated growth of human settlements has been resulting in enhanced waste
generation in the modern world. The improper waste disposal practices upswing
enormous harms on the environment. In order to get rid of this strategy,
sanitarylandfilling is one option. Landfill site selection is an extremely difficult task to
be accomplished because it depends on different factors and regulations. To ensure that
an appropriate site is chosen, a systematic process should be developed and followed. In
this study, a model was developed using the geographical information system (GIS) to
identify the potential landfilling sites. Seventeen criteria under three main aspects such
as environmental aspects, physical and social aspects and economic aspects were
considered. Distance from surface water courses, natural reserves, wetlands and water
supply sources, soil type, land use pattern, terrain, slope and rainfall were environmental
criteria. Distance from important buildings, culturally, historically and archeologically
interested places, tourist areas, town and village centers, railways and roads are criteria
under physical and social aspects. Distance from waste generators, roads and slope are
economic criteria. The suitability maps for landfilling in Kandy district were obtained
using the developed GIS model.Most of portion of suitable area is lies within the,Minipe
and Uda Dumbara district secretariat divisions according to the study.