Wastewater treatment plant site selection using AHP and GIS: a case study in Falavarjan, Esfahan

This paper presents the criteria and applied methods in the screening of potential sites for the wastewater treatment plant of the Falavarjan district, northwest of Esfahan province. For this the nine parameters that were selected as main criteria, 7 parameters were considered to define the buffer zones in the natural and artificial terrains. At the first stage of the study, unsuitable zones were excluded and the weights of the main and subclasses were calculated using AHP method. Then, each parameter was mapped into a GIS system as an individual data layer. The final susceptibility map, which had been produced by overlapping all data layers, was divided into 4 categories. Then, the three top ranked areas were selected from the very suitable class. In order to locate the site with the minimum effect on the environment, the Leopold Matrix was used. Finally, area 1 was selected, by both TOPSIS and EIA, as the most preferable option for the construction of the wastewater treatment plant.