Журнал дистанционного зондирования и ГИС

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Site Suitability Analysis for Waste to Energy Facility in Onitsha North Local Government Area, Anambra State, Nigeria

Muhammad Isma’il

Onitsha North in Anambra State is an industrial and commercial city in south eastern Nigeria that is currently faced with twin problems of poor waste management and epileptic power supply. Exploiting the huge waste energy potentials in the area through Waste to Energy (WTE) technology is an efficient and sustainable waste management strategy that can be deployed in order to boost the energy supply mix in the area. However, the viability of WTE adoption has not been investigated, because the basic geographic information for exploiting WTE potential is presently lacking in spite of the huge potentials in the area. As a first and critical step to address this problem, this study combined Geographic Information System (GIS) and Multi-criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques to identify suitable sites for WTE facility in Onitsha North with a view to determining the viability of adopting WTE in the area. Relevant geographic factors were assigned weights using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and analysed using the Weighted Overlay method in ArcGIS environment to produce suitability map for WTE facility in the study area. Findings revealed various categories of suitability ranging from areas that are moderately suitable and marginally suitable to those areas that are less suitable and not suitable for siting WTE facility. The study has provided the basic information required for harnessing waste energy potential for sustainable development in Onitsha North. Lack of the basic information for implementing WTE technology has hindered the exploitation of huge waste energy potentials in the area. This study has shown that WTE can be adopted as an alternative efficient waste management strategy to provide alternative energy source for industrialisation and economic activities in the area. The combination of GIS and MCDA techniques has proven to be efficient in site suitability analysis; hence it can be applied in solving multi-criteria decision problems.