Landfill siting was determined within Mafraq City, Jordan, through the integration of geographic information
system (GIS), weighted linear combination (WLC) analysis, and remote sensing techniques. Several parameters
were collected from various sources in vector and raster GIS formats, and then, used within the
GIS-based WLC analysis to select optimum solid waste disposal sites. Namely, urban areas, agricultural
lands, access roads, surface aquifers, groundwater table, fault system, water wells, streams, and land slope
were considered in this research. Also, the trend of urban expansion within the study area was monitored using
the Landsat data of 1989, 1999, and 2009 to support the selection process of disposal sites. It is found
that about 84% of the study area was within “most suitable” to “moderately suitable” classes for landfill sites,
while the rest of the study area was within “poorly suitable” and “unsuitable” classes. Based on the analysis
of Landsat satellite data the urban area was expanded of more than 240% during the last three decades,
mainly toward south, and southwest, except the villages near the existing disposal site, where the trend was
toward east and northeast. Finally, three sites were suggested as alternatives to the existing disposal site taking
into the consideration the environmental, biophysical, and economical variables applied in the GIS-based
WLC analysis.
between shelter and hospital, and employing the same
approach to generate the shortest path of fire station
and safe water source (FIG. 2a). The distance between