Hazardous waste landfill site selection in Khorasan Razavi Province, Northeastern Iran

The disposal is the final step of any hazardous waste management plan. An inappropriate landfill site may have negative environmental, economical, and ecological impacts. Therefore, landfills should be sited carefully by taking into account various rules, regulations, factors, and constraints. In this study, candidate sites for hazardous landfills in the northeastern Khorasan Razavi province are determined using the integration of geographic information system and landfill susceptibility zonation methods. For this, the inappropriate areas were first removed from the model, and the suitability of remaining regions were evaluated using 15 different criteria in two steps. With this done, nine candidate sites were selected as the most suitable locations. Finally, the selected landfill sites were proposed based on environmental impact assessment (Leopold matrix) and economical studies. This study shows that Maasumabad, Kheirabad, Mayamey, and Yonsi are the best locations for the constitution of landfill in Khorasan Razavi province, respectively.