Evaluation of Landfill Sites as per Mysuru-Nanjangud Master Plan (2031) using Weighted Overlay Method in GIS Platform

Abstract

The Mysuru-Nanjangud Master Plan 2031 designed to drive urban expansion by incorporating 117 villages, creating new residential layouts, promoting IT-BT, industrial estates, satellite townships, tourism, a peripheral ring road and a proposed film city near Mysuru Airport. These proposals could significantly increase waste generation and strain the existing landfill plant at Vidyaranya Puram, which processes 200 tons per day, even though the current waste volume exceeds 500 tons per day. The purpose of this study is to identify decentralized landfill sites for Mysuru-Nanjangud Master Plan-2031 that are both socioeconomically and environmentally acceptable using Weighted Overlay Method (WOM) in a GIS platform. Thematic layers included lithology, geomorphology, soil, slope, Land Use Land Cover (LULC), rainfall, groundwater, drainage, and lineaments, which were prepared using toposheets and satellite images. The landfill suitability map was prepared by overlaying all essential thematic layers and assigning weights as most suitable, moderately suitable, least suitable, and unsuitable. The result suggests that 39.25 sq.km was highly suitable, 222.28 sq.km was moderately suitable, 239.29 sq.km was least suitable and 6.419 sq.km of the area was unsuitable. This study underlines the importance of GIS-based technologies in selecting suitable landfill sites, which is consistent with its primary goal of identifying optimal locations.