Siting Of A New Landfill For Solid Wastes In Tece Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia

Siting investigations were conducted to locate solid waste disposal landfill sites for an urban district of<br>600,000 inhabitants in an arid province to the west of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This paper presents the<br>systematic approach followed during the process of site selection as well as the preliminary studies achieved in the<br>first selected landfill site (Ma&an-l). This site represents a natural closure covered by alluvial deposits and<br>surrounded by a series of low to moderate relief hills from all sides. It has a small narrow outlet that drains towards<br>the main valley at the down stream part relative to the district. The surrounding hills are exposures of the<br>Precambrian basement rocks of mainly quartz diorite. The closure of the site is about 1.5 km long and 600 m wide.<br>The site was subjected to geological, hydrological, and ground geophysical studies that were primarily executed to<br>obtain the necessary information for subsequent engineering studies. These studies revealed that the location<br>satisfies most of the landfill siting considerations such as geologic and hydrologic conditions, surface water<br>hydrology, accessibility, location restrictions, available capacity, and other local topographic and environmental<br>conditions. In addition, the site acquires numerous natural geological barriers that can be effectively employed in<br>the engineering implementations. The paper provides an example for site selection of solid waste landfills in arid<br>regions.