Monitoring the disposal wastes in the landfill sites is a goal to reduce the effects of wastes on the environment and public health.
During the development of any disposal site, a comprehensive monitoring system should be set up in order to monitor the
decomposition process, effects of the waste on the ground water, and any soil contamination. Remote Sensing and GIS techniques
have been used recently in waste disposal monitoring and management. In this paper, the use of multi-temporal Landsat satellite
images to monitor waste disposal sites have been investigated for the Trail Road landfill site in the city of Ottawa, Canada.
Atmospheric corrections are conducted on the Landsat images in order to derive the Land Surface Temperature (LST). To conduct
further in-depth analysis, the ground measurement data from the Trail Road landfill site are obtained from the municipal
Government. These data include the surface and ground water sample data, the landfill gas monitoring data, and the soil samples
acquired within and nearby the landfill sites. The relationship between the ground monitoring data and the satellite-derived
information are investigated. Preliminary findings indicate that a strong correlation between the LST and the amount of methane
(CH4) is observed in the landfill site. This gives an indication of the continuation of the decomposition process which produces
sensible heat flux. Further experiments will be conducted to integrate the surface water and soil samples with the satellite-derived
water and soil indices.