Application of GIS and AHP Technologies to Support of Selecting a Suitable Site for Wastewater Sewage Plant in Al Kufa City

Abstract

Sewage water treatment before disposing of it in surface water is one of the most important steps in reducing pollution in these waters, which requires a high-capacity treatment plant for this purpose. Al Kufa city is one of the important cities in Iraq. The city faced a rapid growth of population. This situation creates big environmental complications and hazards. One of the biggest pollution issues in the city is the lack of modern and efficient Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP). The aim of this study is to find a suitable site for wastewater plant in Al Kufa city using remote sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) modern technologies. There are eight parameters considered in the analysis consists of residential area, sewage areas, roads, a slope of the ground, surface water (river), green areas, historical, and land use. In addition to that, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to apply the weights for each criterion and sub-criterion, to get the best result and find the ideal site. At the first place, about thirty-eight sites have been identified as suitable sites for wastewater plant throughout the study area which represented through a red region color in a satellite image with its' coordinate table. The best location will be chosen according to the required land area on which the project is to be built from thirty-eight locations. However, a complementary field study is critical to manifest the obtained results T with specialized engineers to find the most effective site for WWTP between these sites.