Land Suitability Assessment for Olive Mill Wastewater Disposal by Integrating Multicriteria Decision Support Tools

Abstract

Many on-site waste disposal systems fail regularly due to problems concerning suitable location and management. A potential environmental threat is inevitably propagated through on-site, off-site, downstream, soil surface and ground water pollution. Soil is a key component of land suitability for waste disposal. This paper presents a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) – based integrated multicriteria decision support system for evaluating the land suitability for olive mill wastewater (OMWW) disposal in the Mediterranean region. Two-scaled classification schemes are developed, the global scheme for Central and South Greece (scale: 1:30.000) and the local scheme for the study area in Xiromero, Aetolia-Acarnania Prefecture, Western Greece, scale 1:10.000. Constrains and factors are included into the spatial decision-making framework, where geostatistical and fuzzy set theory techniques, as well as Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) are appropriately integrated. Physical, chemical, and socioeconomic variables adapted to the Mediterranean soil conditions are incorporated as driving forces for the land suitability assessment and the produced maps reveal valuable results for final end-users, such as municipal authorities, agriculturalists, farmers and other national and local stakeholders.