Musa Hussain

Landfill site selection using geographic information system and analytical hierarchy process: A case study Al-Hillah Qadhaa, Babylon, Iraq

Al-Hillah Qadhaa is located in the central part of Iraq. It covers an area of 908 km2 with a total population of 856,804 inhabitants. This Qadhaa is the capital of Babylon Governorate. Presently, no landfill site exists in that area based on scientific site selection criteria. For this reason, an attempt has been carried out to find the best locations for landfills. A total of 15 variables were considered in this process (groundwater depth, rivers, soil types, agricultural land use, land use, elevation, slope, gas pipelines, oil pipelines, power lines, roads, railways, urban centres, villages and archaeological sites) using a geographic information system. In addition, an analytical hierarchy process was used to identify the weight for each variable. Two suitable candidate landfill sites were determined that fulfil the requirements with an area of 9.153 km2 and 8.204 km2. These sites can accommodate solid waste till 2030.

Soil Characteristics in Selected Landfill Sites in the Babylon Governorate, Iraq

The Babylon Governorate is situated in the middle of Iraq. It covers an area of 5,315 km2 and has 2,092,998 inhabitants distributed throughout its five major cities (Qadhaa). Presently, there is no ...

Landfill Siting Using GIS and AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) : A Case Study Al-Qasim Qadhaa, Babylon, Iraq

The selection of a landfill site is considered as a complicated task because this process is based on many factors and restrictions. For Al-Qasim Qadhaa, which is situated in the southern part of the Babylon Governorate, Iraq, there is no landfill site in that area that conforms to the scientific criteria for selecting sites for landfill. For this reason, 15 criteria were adopted in this study (groundwater depth, rivers, soil types, agriculture lands use, land use, elevation, slope, gas pipelines, oil pipelines, power lines, roads, railways, urban centers, villages and archaeological sites) using GIS (geographic information system), which has a large ability to manage input data. In addition, the AHP (analytical hierarchy process) method was used to derive the relative weightings for each criterion using pair-wise comparison. To obtain the suitability index for candidate landfill sites, a weighted linear combination method was used. After combining these methods, two suitable candidate landfill sites, with areas of 2.766 km2 and 2.055 km2, respectively, were found to satisfy the scientific and environmental requirements. The area of these sites can accommodate solid waste from 2020 until 2030 based on the required area, which was 0.702 km2.

Chemometric Methods to Predict of Pb in Urban Soil from Port Pirie, South Australia, using Spectrally Active of Soil Carbon

ABSTRACT A total of 73 soil samples were initially analyzed for lead (Pb) concentration as an indicator of the environment impact of smelter activity in the Port Pirie, South Australia. Chemometric techniques were used to assess the ability of near-infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy to predict soil Pb using spectrally active soil characteristics such as soil carbon (C). The result indicated a strong linear relationship between log-transformed data of soil Pb and spectral reflectance in the range between 500 and 612 nm with R2 = 0.54 and a low root-mean-square error (RMSEv = 0.38) for the validation mode with an acceptable ratio of performance to deviation and ratio of error range (1.6 and 7.7, respectively). This study suggested that NIR spectroscopy based on auxiliary spectrally active components is a rapid and noninvasive assessment technique and has the ability to determine Pb contamination in urban soil to be useful in environmental health risk assessment.