WEEK 7

Suitability analysis provides techniques relevant to the debate over landfill expansion in California. Such techniques can provide analysis of one single limiting factor, or incorporate a variety of factors involved into one layer. This technique can provide the physical limitations to expanding a landfill, potential human hazards that could ensue after expansion, and exposes limitations involved in spatial suitability anlaysis.

Suitability analysis through GIS can provide useful spatial interpolation of a potential landfill expansion in the Central Valley. Soil drainage, land cover, nearby streams, elevation, and distance to landfill can all be compared and contrasted against each other in deciding where to expand the landfill. In addition, these factors can be combined into one data frame, allowing decision makers to evaluate all factors over the same region. Other important factors, such as particulate and smog emissions, chemical leaching, and toxic runoff can be presented by using relevant buffer regions.

The health hazards can be analyzed with the use of buffering systems. Contaminant leaching of mercury, toxic waste, arsenic, and other harmful chemicals can be presented with the use of GIS. Furthermore, different buffers for specific chemicals over different time periods can be created, illustrating persons at risk based on the duration of exposure and chemical load. These buffers can provide minimum risk assessments due to the

Unfortunately, there are several problems that hinder spatial suitability analysis in a landfill expansion project. There is a subjective nature of factors, causing heated debate between economic, health, environmental, and aesthetic factors. The importance of one factor over another is subjective to each person’s perspective, and this also gives rise to questioning who makes the choices, and gives a party the power to expand a landfill to one person’s preferences over another’s.

Although multiple factors can be presented to aid in a solid, thorough analysis of the best-fit location of landfill expansion sites, some factors cannot be translated into spatial data. For example, a large majority of reformers will push for higher standards and improved quality of life with transparent and true data, but do not want the site anywhere near areas involved in these reformers’ daily lives (Not in My Backyard -NIMBY). Factors such as these cannot be objectively incorporated into GIS suitability analysis due to the arbitrary nature of this factor. Another factor that poses a problem are areas that are frequently visited. Although one's home may not be in a high-risk area, a home of a friend, family-member, or place of work may, making one highly vulnerable to a hazard regardless of home location.