Landfill Site Selection Using Spatial Multiple Criteria Evaluation in ILWIS

Introduction

Using land efficiently and in accordance with the site’s suitability for the intended purposes is a fundamental principle of sustainable development. Site suitability is a function of site conditions and other factors (environmental, socio-economic etc) . Carefully chosen selection criteria can efficiently screen the set of potential sites. Selection criteria focus on the task of choosing an appropriate and, ideally, the best site for a particular land use. This project deals with the use of Spatial Multiple Criteria Evaluation module in ILWIS software, as a decision support tool for identifying the suitable sites for landfill in the City of Ottawa.

Purpose

The goal of this project is to develop a tutorial that gives an overview of how to carryout Spatial Multiple Criteria Evaluation (SMCE) analysis in ILWIS using landfill site selection as practical example.

Methods

Spatial Multiple Criteria Evaluation

Spatial Multiple Criteria Evaluation (SMCE) is a method that assists stakeholders in decision making with respect to achieving a particular goal. It is an ideal tool for transparent group decision making, using spatial criteria, which are combined and weighted in line with the overall goal. For implementing the analysis in the City of Ottawa case study, the SMCE module of ILWIS was used. The input is a set of data that are the spatial representation of the criteria (used as factors and constraints), which are grouped, standardized and weighted in a criteria tree. The theoretical background for the multi-criteria evaluation is based on the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) developed by Saaty (1980).

Generalized procedure for conducting SMCE is shown below:

Figure 1:Generalized Procedure for conducting SMCE Analysis

Source:EL YOUNQUE Ecosystem Services

About ILWIS

ILWIS is an acronym for the Integrated Land and Water Information System. It is a Geographic Information System (GIS) with Image Processing capabilities. ILWIS has been developed by the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC), Enschede, The Netherlands. ILWIS 3.08.01, the most recent version is open source software and can be downloaded for free from 52 North. As a GIS package, ILWIS allows you to input, manage, analyze and present geo-graphical data. ILWIS uses vector and raster data, but most of the analysis is done in raster. This tutorial gives an overview of the steps required in carrying out SMCE analysis in ILWIS using landfill site selection as practical example.

Getting Started

Before starting the SMCE analysis, create your working folder and ensure all data needed for the exercise are in the folder.

Starting ILWIS

• Ensure that ILWIS is properly installed on your computer
• Locate ILWIS from the Program list and double click on the icon to launch the program.
• Once the software is initiated, ILWIS main page will open
• Use the ILWIS Navigator Tab to locate your working folder. The Navigator lists all drivers and directories.

Figure 2: ILWIS Interface

Importing shapefiles

1) Set Data path/project environment by clicking on Navigator button to browse to the working folder

2) Click File and navigate to import and via Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL)

3) Click Vector and change the format type to ESRI shapefile

4) Click on Input tab to choose the shapefile to be imported from the working folder

5) Give Output name and click OK

6) Repeat steps 1-5 to import other data into the ILWIS environment