Landfill Site Selection in Trinidad & Tobago
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Over the last thirty years the island of Trinidad has utilized four (4) major landfills for waste disposal: * Beetham Estate Landfill – located in North-West Trinidad, size of sixty-one (61) hectares, * Guanapo Landfill – located in North-east Trinidad, size of seven (7) hectares * Forres Park Landfill- located in Central Trinidad, size of eight (8) hectares * Guapo Landfill, located in South-West Trinidad
The largest of these landfills, the Beetham Estate Landfill, is located on a swamp-type terrain in Trinidad’s north-western peninsula and serves the corridor of Chaguaramas to Curepe and also just north of Chaguanas. The Beetham Estate Landfill is described as one that has long outlived its physical capacity and expected life on the allotted site.
It has been established by the State that a replacement landfill site to the Beetham Estate Landfill is inevitably soon. The location of such a replacement site must be assessed carefully to ensure suitability and demand fulfillment. There are many existing methods used for determining the location and assessment of landfill sites involving time-consuming efforts, but within recent years the advancement in computer technology has enabled the process of finding a replacement site more efficient. New software may now be utilized to aid in site selection; such a system is a Geographic Information System (GIS).
The Geographic Information System (GIS) requires the user to input relevant spatial and geographic data for the proposed site which can be processed, manipulated, analyzed and displayed to determine the site’s validity. It is this capability of a GIS that makes it useful for our purpose, establishing of suitable sites that can serve as a replacement site for the Beetham landfill.
This assignment is focused on determining suitability of new landfill sites in Trinidad, particularly one that serves the needs of the north to north-western region of Trinidad and this analysis is
Over the last thirty years the island of Trinidad has utilized four (4) major landfills for waste disposal: * Beetham Estate Landfill – located in North-West Trinidad, size of sixty-one (61) hectares, * Guanapo Landfill – located in North-east Trinidad, size of seven (7) hectares * Forres Park Landfill- located in Central Trinidad, size of eight (8) hectares * Guapo Landfill, located in South-West Trinidad
The largest of these landfills, the Beetham Estate Landfill, is located on a swamp-type terrain in Trinidad’s north-western peninsula and serves the corridor of Chaguaramas to Curepe and also just north of Chaguanas. The Beetham Estate Landfill is described as one that has long outlived its physical capacity and expected life on the allotted site.
It has been established by the State that a replacement landfill site to the Beetham Estate Landfill is inevitably soon. The location of such a replacement site must be assessed carefully to ensure suitability and demand fulfillment. There are many existing methods used for determining the location and assessment of landfill sites involving time-consuming efforts, but within recent years the advancement in computer technology has enabled the process of finding a replacement site more efficient. New software may now be utilized to aid in site selection; such a system is a Geographic Information System (GIS).
The Geographic Information System (GIS) requires the user to input relevant spatial and geographic data for the proposed site which can be processed, manipulated, analyzed and displayed to determine the site’s validity. It is this capability of a GIS that makes it useful for our purpose, establishing of suitable sites that can serve as a replacement site for the Beetham landfill.
This assignment is focused on determining suitability of new landfill sites in Trinidad, particularly one that serves the needs of the north to north-western region of Trinidad and this analysis is
References: * “Fundamentals of GIS Lecture Notes”, Dr. B.Ramlal and Dr. E. Edwards. * “Preliminary Site Selection Report for the New Sanitary Landfill at the Savannah River Site (u)” by Savannah River Technology Centerm Environmental Sciences Section, December 1992. * “Landfill Site Selection by using Geographic Information Systems”, by Basak Sener, M. Lu¨ tfi Su¨ zen, Vedat Doyuran, November 2005. * “Landfill Site Selection”, by Jarrod Ball & Associates * “Landfill Site Selection by using Geographic Information Systems” by BAŞAK ŞENER, August 2004. * “Site Selection Study for a New Sanitary Landfill for the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Olongapo, Philippines”, by Scott Purdy and Francis Sabugal. * “An Introduction to Landfill Site Selection”, by Steve Last * “EPA Landfill Manuals Manual on Site Selection Draft for Consultation”, December 2006