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Track: Environmental Management
Billie Dugger
Post, Buckley, Schub, & Jernigan, Inc.
1560 Orange Ave Suite 700
Winter Park, FL 32789
Telephone: 407-647-7275 xt216
Fax: 407-647-0624
E-mail: 11302@pbsj.com
Utilizing Geographic Information Systems for Assessment of Environmental Impacts of Solid Waste Disposal Sites in Northern and Central Thailand
Post, Buckley, Schub, & Jernigan, Inc., in conjunction with MACRO Consultants, Bangkok, Thailand, were contracted by the Pollution Control Department of the Kingdom of Thailand to assess the environmental impacts resulting from disposal at numerous solid waste disposal sites in the northern and central provinces of Thailand. The assessment was performed by first locating all of the sites, collecting data about each of the sites, developing an assessment criteria, and weighing the factors of the assessment criteria. Two phases of spatial overlay analysis were performed in order to rank the landfills according to the most serious conditions in order to give attention first to those with the highest potential for hazardous pollutant impact. The tasks consisted of first researching to find the locations of active and previously active solid waste disposal sites in northwest and central Thailand. The Global Positioning Systems (GPS) were utilized to digitally capture the general location and boundary of each
site. Approximately fifty-five sites were initially located. Assessment criteria for the fifty-five sites was established, and the necessary data to support the assessment was collected. Some digital data existed but most information was in hard-copy format and required conversion to a digital format in order to perform the ranking analysis. Based upon the criteria, the fifty-five sites were evaluated and reduced to fifteen sites determined to have the highest potential for impacts to the health of the public and environment. Conventional surveys were conducted at each of the fifteen sites and the landfill boundary data and topography were collected. Evaluation criteria were established for ranking the remaining fifteen landfills and data collected for the second phase of assessment. Three test wells were drilled around each of the sites so that more extensive data, such as hydrogeologic borings and water and soil samples, could be collected. The criteria was again weighted and the remaining fifteen
landfills were ranked according to potential hazard to the health of the surrounding population and potential for contamination. This final ranking of sites was provided to the client, Pollution Control Department, along with remediation plans for each of the sites.
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