OPTI-Site: Using A Raster Based Geographic Information Systems Approach to Identify and Critically Compare Potential Subpart C Coal Ash Landfill Sites

摘要

A changing regulatory environment has forced utilities to re-evaluate their coal ash management strategy. A shift from ash ponds and the potential non-compliance of legacy coal ash landfills is forcing the need for new dry ash landfill locations. Finding new, suitable locations is a complex problem that requires an evaluation of geology, ecology, land use, transportation, regulations, hydrology, etc. Many of these considerations run counter to one another, for example, a site ideal in terms of geology may be too far from the source, or be covered with wetlands. Managing these often competing issues is a spatial multi-criteria decision analysis problem tailor made for GIS.