EVALUATION OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILL IN THE CASPIAN SEA COASTS: IRAN

Land disposal of solid waste in coastal areas is one of the concerns of officials for protection of environment. Geographical constraints as well as shortcoming in the municipal solid waste management are the main factors of environmental pollutions and natural resources destruction in these areas. This study has been made according to a new method for comparative evaluation of the current condition of the landfill sites aiming to recognize complexity and constraints of site selection, hygienic-environmental and socio-economic problems. In this study, 48 cities of the southern coasts of the Caspian Sea in Iran which are located at Gilan and Mazandaran Provinces are specified as the study area. Based on a new method of evaluation which is called Monavari 95 ,fifty three different parameters in three groups: physical, hygienic-environmental,capabilities and constraints in the landfill are reviewed. The results show that 87.5% of the study landfill sites are in unacceptable conditions due to observation of standards and criteria of this method. Final analysis of the conditions of these sites indicates that unsuitable site selection as the most important index criteria is related to the physical parameters. In current situation, lack of suitable regulations and criteria for site selection, design and operation of the landfills in the coastal areas in Iran is the main environmental problems of these sites

EVALUATION OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILL IN THE CASPIAN SEA COASTS: IRAN Keywords:

Solid waste landfill , evaluation , coasts of the Caspian Sea , Monavari 95 method