Alejandro L. Grindlay

Evaluation of a municipal landfill site in Southern Spain with GIS-aided methodology

Landfill siting should take into account a wide range of territorial and legal factors in order to reduce negative impacts on the environment. This article describes a landfill siting method, which is based on EVIAVE, a landfill diagnosis method developed at the University of Granada. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology is also used to generate spatial data for site assessment. Landfill site suitability is assessed on a scale based on territorial indices that measure the risk of contamination for the following five environmental components: surface water, groundwater, atmosphere, soil, and human health. The method described in this article has been used to evaluate an area in Granada (Spain) where there is a currently operating landfill. The results obtained show that suitable locations for the disposal of municipal waste were successfully identified. The low environmental index values reflect the suitability of this landfill site as well as its minimal negative impacts on the environment.

Economic and environmental review of Waste-to-Energy systems for municipal solid waste management in medium and small municipalities.

The application of Directive 2008/98/CE on Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) implies the need to introduce technologies to generate energy from waste. Incineration, the most widely used method, is difficult to implement in low populated areas because it requires a large amount of waste to be viable (100,000 tons per year). This paper analyses the economic and environmental costs of different MSW-to-Energy technologies (WtE) in an area comprising of 13 municipalities in southern Spain. We analyse anaerobic digestion (Biomethanization), the production of solid recovered fuel (SRF) and gasification, and compare these approaches to the present Biological Mechanical Treatment (BMT) with elimination of the reject in landfill, and incineration with energy recovery. From an economic standpoint the implementation of WtE systems reduces the cost of running present BMT systems and incineration; gasification presents the lowest value. From the environmental standpoint, Life Cycle Assessment shows that any WtE alternatives, including incineration, present important advantages for the environment when compared to BMT. Finally, in order to select the best alternative, a multi-criteria method is applied, showing that anaerobic digestion is the optimal solution for the area studied.

Territorial Transformation and Water Utilization: Hydrological Planning Scenarios in the Segura River Basin

Considering the particular climatic and water conditions of this semiarid region in southeast Spain, the hydrographic basin of the Segura river is a very dynamic territory. This is reflected in the important spatial transformation that it has undergone in the second half of the 20th century, entailing the expansion of irrigated surfaces as well as extension of urban areas, as well as the proliferation of golf courses over the past two decades. The progressive increase in demand owing to such intensive use of water resources is linked to a supply-oriented hydraulic policy, with major infrastructural actions that contribute to a substantial water deficit, as registered by the latest hydrological plan. Meanwhile, the urban supply of water was decisively resolved to make sources of water supply available; recently, thanks to the new desalinization resources and the ensuing guarantee of supply, water is not a limiting factor for urban development along the coast, as reflected in the local urban plan. The current implementation of the European Water Framework Directive stands as a radical change in the orientation of hydraulic policy. Strict environmental supervision, which translates as the maintenance of ecological flows and the restriction of uses, will give rise to planning scenarios within the new hydrological context that maintain a water deficit only with regard to agricultural consumption. Otherwise, in light of the new measures, sustainable water scenarios can be envisioned.

Integrating natural hazards in spanish and italian land use planning

The socioeconomic losses in Spain and Italy due to natural hazards are considerable. Most of them are related to a policy which is not sufficiently based on prevention. Spatial and town plannings are the most efficient and economic tools for natural hazards prevention, through prohibitions or restrictions. In Spain, the use of natural hazards maps, included in the Environmental Sustainability Assessment, and, in Italy, the Hydrogeological Assessment Planning, should contribute to minimize these losses. They should be confronted with town plannings for assigning a land use that must be coherent with hazard maps. Nowadays, because most of the Town Plannings are old; land use does not necessarily agree with the natural hazards maps. The Directive 2001/42/EC, or Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive, contributes to integrate natural hazards into the spatial and town planning, while Directive 2007/60/EC on the assessment and management of flood risks required Spain and Italy to consider floods in the land use planning. The Civil Protection Departments in Spain are contributing to design natural hazards maps that may be used for land use planning, while in Italy supervises the projects obtained from different River Basin Authorities (Autorita di Bacino) that has utilized the studies of regional Administrations and scientific research groups (University, CNR,…). This paper deals with the consideration of natural hazards in the Spanish and Italian spatial and town planning as a tool of prevention.

Legislation as a Tool to Mitigate Mass Movements in Spain

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the 1990–2012 period, there have been 57 deaths in Spain due to mass movements. The economic losses were estimated at about €180 million each year. Some of these losses have been related to violating the laws and/or the lack of risk-focused land use planning. In accordance with the provisions set out by the 9/2006 Spanish Strategic Environmental Assessment Act, an Environmental Sustainability Report is compulsory and must include a natural hazards map, as it is set out by the national Land Act (2/2008 Royal Legislative Decree). Although there is no natural hazards legislation in Spain, there is some sectoral legislation on several natural hazards but it does not specifically refer to mass movements. Despite most of these codes are mandatory, they are not usually enforced. However, Spanish legislation requires compulsory natural hazards reports in some cases but, unfortunately, there are no guidelines on how to conduct these reports.

A Methodology For The Optimal Siting OfMunicipal Waste Landfills Aided ByGeographical Information Systems

An inappropriate landfill site may have negative environmental, economic or ecological impacts. Landfill siting should therefore consider a wide range of territorial and legal factors to reduce such negative impacts as far as possible. This paper describes the application of an integrated system of landfill siting methodology. The methodology incorporates techniques from various scientific fields as well as GIS (Geographical Information Systems) to generate spatial data for the evaluation of the suitability of an area for optimal landfill siting. The resulting land suitability is reflected on a graded scale with several territorial indexes indicating the risk and probability of contamination for five environmental components: surface water, groundwater, atmosphere, soil and human health. The methodology has been applied to a site in Granada (Southern Spain).