Potential Landll Site Suitability Study for Environmental Sustainability using RS-GIS & MCDA

Because of the increasing population and more waste generation, the area required for the disposal of MSW increases. Sanitary Landll is one of the important method used for the disposal of MSW. The problem faced during new landll sitting and availability of land is also increased simultaneously. Optimization of landll sitting shows the prime importance at the environmental, social, and economic levels. The present work is carried out for the Solid Waste Management plant of Nashik Municipal Corporation (MH) India. As the landll site is on the verge of the closure period, new landll sitting identication is essential with consideration of all criteria to reduce environmental degradation and improve the standard of living of people nearby vicinity. This study aims to identify potential landll sites for the year 2021 and the upcoming 25-year period, using a Remote Sensing (RS) - Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). Fifteen parameters were considered while selecting a potential landll site i.e., geomorphology, hydrogeology, distance to road, drainage, lineament, slope, LULC, distance to water bodies, population density used for AHP-MCDA. Airport, water bodies, road, habitation are used for restriction buffer analysis and aspect, while the wind rose diagram used for nal site suitability. The weights of the 9 parameters were obtained from a constructed AHP matrix with a consistency ratio of 0.05557.During the study restricted zones were omitted. Afterward, the threshold limit and selection criteria were used for potential site selection. The study revealed several potential landll sites and their suitability. Furthermore, the landll area required for upcoming years is calculated based on the projected population, and the result of the potential landll sites map shows the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results from this work showed the effectiveness of potential landll site suitability for Environmental Sustainability in the selection process.


Introduction
The generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) is increasing day by day, which leads to environmental degradation and pollution. In India approximately 1,36,000 tonnes of solid waste is generated per day and which has been forecasted to rise by 33% in the next 15 years (CPCB 2016). Due to the increased population and expansion of cities, the area required for the disposal of solid waste increases and results in a lack of basic infrastructure facilities for MSW disposal by Hannan et al. (2015). The management of solid waste is a di cult task for engineers, especially in urban areas. It includes social, environmental, and nancial aspects. The hierarchy of solid waste management includes prevention, minimization, reuse, recycle, energy recovery & disposal. Whereas disposal is the least favorable option for solid waste.
Mismanagement of municipal waste directly affects on the environment and human beings. Due to which the risk of pollution and human health adverse impact is increased. Most of the initiatives were taken for the reduction of waste at source and source segregation, but still, the problem is in handling and safe disposal up to the land ll site. Municipal solid waste is used for energy recovery, composting, etc, but the rejected material is sent for land ll.
Finding a new land ll is a crucial task. It involves various environmental, political, social, and nancial factors. Where one can use the pre-existing knowledge of geology, hydrogeology, waterbody, topography, sociology of the area? Apart from these, many criteria are to be considered in nding the ideal land ll location, hence becomes a tedious and di cult task.
The land ll identi cation method involves the conventional method using spatial data, GIS& MCDA techniques. It includes (i) setting up of locational criteria (ii) identi cation of search area (iii) drawing up a list of potential sites (iv) data collection (v) selection of few best-ranked sites (vi) environmental impact assessment and (vii) nal site selection and land acquisition. (CPHEEO Manual on MSW Management Rules,2016) Geographical Information System (GIS) based on decision analysis tools help in resolving the problem and suggests suitable sites through mapping. Application of GIS using spatial data, attribute data, and Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is being used by many researchers for analysis of the best possible sites of land lling. Feo & Gisi (2014), Gorsevski et al. (2012), Moeinaddini et al. (2010). MCDA is a sub-discipline of operations research that explicitly evaluates multiple con icting criteria in decision making, MCDM methods are convenient to decision-makers for giving the ranking or weights to the sites among the con icting sites. Commonly MCDM methods able to make the comparison against each criterion given in the legislations and assign the weights to the available existing sites.
MCDM techniques alone and in combination with other techniques have been used by many researchers for waste disposal sites using different criteria. MCDA methods used in the literature are the Analytic hierarchy process, Fuzzy logic, Dynamic modelling, Analytical Network process. A Few important methods are summarized by Gzogala & Rawlik (1989), Zeleny (1982, Gal et al. (1999) AHP technique was demonstrated by Everett et al. (1996) for MSW land ll site in Oklahoma. The author considered various factors of Hydrogeology/geology, land use, and proximity for decision ranking, and sensitivity was checked. Kontos et al. (2005)  A fuzzy technique in combination with AHP was used by Kharat et al. (2016) by considering environmental, technical, socio-political, and economic factors for land ll selection. Omar & Qdais (2006) demonstrated a fuzzy intelligent system in the capital city Amman, Jordan. Topography, geology, natural resources, socio-cultural, and economy, and safety factors were considered for land ll siting. The same technique was used by Gemitziet al. (2007) for the land ll sitting of MSW. The author considered physical and socioeconomic factors in the selection process.
Analytical Network process in combination with linear weight & ordered weight average was used by Motlagh & sayadi (2015). The author considered environmental & socio-economic factors and the ANP model was developed. The same method was demonstrated by Khan & Faisal (2008) with ANP super matrix approach and suggested the segregation of waste at the source, so that cost invested in land lls can be minimized and measured. Finally, the decision of stakeholders is very much important in land ll identi cation. In the future, it is very important to consider the technical & scienti c study involved in the methodology.
With the help of the RS-GIS and MCDA technique, the land ll site suitability was found for Nasik City (MH) India from the available suitable areas. As the land ll site of Nashik city was established in the year of 2000 and now is on verge of closure period by 2021. It is the need for Nasik city to nd the best possible land ll location for the future with consideration of all rules and regulations. The new land ll identi cation will help city planners in the future from a land acquisition point of view as well. The present study focus on nine thematic layers namely, geomorphology, hydrogeology, distance to road, drainage, lineament, slope, Land Use Land Cover (LULC), distance to water bodies, population density used for AHP-MCDA. For the better results four parameters airport, water bodies, road, habitation used for restriction buffer analysis and aspect. With consideration on account of the direction of the wind, the wind rose diagram was also considered for nal site selection. Several important mentioned factors were considered and thematic maps were developed with buffer zones consideration using overlay analysis in GIS. The weights were assigned to different criteria as per their relative importance of each. Based on RS-GIS & AHP technique, four land ll potential sites were identi ed and found the best possible land ll site.
The identi ed land ll site is as per the government rules and used maximum possible information.

Study Area
Nashik District is situated in the north-western part of Maharashtra, India, with a total area of 276.19 Sq.km. The city is the third most industrialized city in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune. The coverage of Nashik(MH) and Environs Villages is 905.157 Sq.km, which includes Nashik Municipal Corporation (276.19 Sq.km) and 73 Villages in a radius of 15 km. The location map of the study area is shown in Fig. 1. The study area has a population count for the census year 2011 is 18, 32,427 among which 15, 61,809 were residing in an urban area, and 2, 70,618 were in a rural area (census of India 2011), which is projected to reach 26, 90,352 by 2021. The city is located at 19°35' and 20°50' north latitude and between 73°16' and 74°56' east longitude. As per the Department of Survey of India, the city comes under toposheet numbers of 46-H, 46-L and 47-E, and 47-I.
At present approximately 550 to 600 tonnes of municipal solid waste is collected from 2.9 lakh households, 1806 hotels & restaurants, and 300 commercial establishments of 108 wards of the city through 200-225 GhantaGadi's. The projected quantity of MSW generation will be 1628 tonnes per day, henceforth total quantity generation 594220 MT per year up to 2031. Out of the generated quantity of MSW,89133 metric tonnes will be sent to a sanitary land ll. Endait & Patil (2020) showed the characterization of incoming Fresh MSW of Nashik city, which contains 11% of non-biodegradable components, and the remaining is categorized as easy, medium, and hard biodegradable components. In recent years there is a need of nding new land ll sites for disposal of MSW for Nasik city with consideration of environmental, social & economic factors.

Satellite Data & Software Used
Site suitability was identi ed using the primary & secondary data. primary data required for visual interpretation of satellite imageries and data preparation for LULC mapping using remote sensing data of Resourcesat-2A having 5.8 m spatial resolution, (Table 1.) Primary data procured from CartoDEM of 30m spatial resolution of BHUVAN geoportal, National Remote Sensing Centre,(NRSC) Hyderabad. Secondary data includes Geomorphology, Hydrogeology, and Lineament maps sourced from concern departments of the NRSC, and the windrose plot for Nashik city is sourced from Envitrans, which is processed according to the CPCB and US EPA. The ArcGIS 10.7.1 was used for the preparation of the LULC map, generation of thematic maps, proximity analysis, reclassi cation, weighted overlay analysis, and preparation of nal site suitability maps. The ERDAS Imagine 2018 software was used for image processing.

Methodology
Arc GIS was used for the preparation of thematic maps, which is followed by assigning a weight factor and weighted overlay analysis by Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), and nally, site identi cation was done. Figure 2 shows the schematic of the methodology followed in this study. Nine thematic layers namely, geomorphology, hydrogeology, distance to road, drainage, lineament, slope, LULC, distance to water bodies, population density used for AHP-MCDA. Airport, water bodies, road, habitation are used for restriction buffer analysis and aspect, the wind rose diagram for nal site selection.
Resourcesat-2A multispectral data of sensor LISS IV having 5.8 m resolution on a scale of 1:10,000, geocoded with UTM projection spheroid and datum WGS 84 zone 43 north received from NRSC's user order processing system. Data acquired on 06 August 2019 for the Rabi and Kharif season of 18 January 2019 and 18 October 2018 respectively. Satellite data is used for LULC data preparation and classi cation. Prominent features like Built-up, Agriculture, Forest, Wasteland, and Waterbodies were classi ed based on land use land cover classi cation used in NRSC's natural resources census project on LULC mapping of the entire country. The CartoDEM with 30 m resolution data is used to extract Slope, drainage density present in the region and aspect. In this study, DEM data is obtained from the NRSC's BHUVAN data portal. The base thematic maps of Nashik and Environ namely geomorphology, hydrogeology, lineament, and road was collected from existing data of the NRSC based on Survey of India, toposheet number (46H/12-46H/16 & 47E/9, 47E/13) which is on 1:50,000 scale.
The population for the year 2021 was estimated by the geometrical projection method. The population of 2021 was used to create a population density map in the ArcGIS environment. Proximity analysis is done for airport, road, water body, and habitation. Restricted maps were generated with the help of standard de ned by the Government of India's environmental agencies like the Central Pollution Control Board, Census of India 2011. The wind rose diagram developed for the wind ow and direction estimation; data required for generation is obtained from the Meteorological Department of India.
All base maps were converted into a raster with a common resolution of 5.8 m and then all the raster maps were reclassi ed according to the rank of the parameter in all layers. The solid waste potential sites were obtained by overlaying all the thematic maps in the weighted overlay analysis method using the spatial analyst tool in ArcGIS. During weighted overlay analysis, the percentage weights were given to all individual parameters of each thematic map, and weights were assigned according to paired wise consistent AHP matrix. Weighted overlay analysis along with the restricted layer gives the output as a potential land ll area, which further scrutinizes with threshold criteria based on score and area. Raster maps were reclassi ed according to the highly suitable, not suitable for dumping waste. The aspect layer and wind rose diagram used for the selection of the identi cation of potential sites for solid waste disposal. (Fig. 20) 4.1. GIS-based MCDA for Suitability Score Multi-Criteria decision analysis is a decision-making tool used for ranking. It is used to help in making decisions and gives the best to the worst ranking of actions. Stakeholders found a compromise solution in the eld of decision making. MCDA technique has been used in every sector. In every eld where we required deciding between the available alternatives, MCDA gives the best solution in assigning the ranking. Analytic Hierarchy Process, Fuzzy logic, Dynamic modeling, Analytical Network Process, Analytic Neural Network methods have been used by many researchers in Literature for land ll site identi cation. This paper focused on MCDA techniques with GIS -RS & AHP for land ll site identi cation of MSW.
The present study of land ll suitability, geomorphology, hydrogeology, distance to road, drainage, lineament, slope, LULC, distance to water bodies, population density parameters is considered for land ll site selection.SAATY scale was used for a rating on 1 to 9 scale and xed criteria & subcriteria based on their importance. Afterward, the thematic layer was prepared using the parameters for decision-making using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP).A score of 9 for the most importance and score of 1 for equal importance or least importance as per Saaty (2008), Kumar & Hassan (2013).

Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)
Thomas Saaty (1980) introduced the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). AHP analysis is used to build a hierarchy for the decision making analysis. Saaty has explained the pairwise comparison scale in numerical values from 1 to 9 scales. Where 1 is for equal importance and 9 is for extremely important. It shows higher weight gives more importance to the corresponding criterion. (Saaty 2008,Saaty 1980.After the pairwise comparisons, the overall weights are computed for each layer and then compared with every other parameter used by Kumar & Hassan (2013), Kaliraj & Chandrasekar (2015). The consistency index & consistency ratio was checked, to know whether the computed weights were consistent or not. The CR & CI value for the constructed matrix is calculated as follows: Saaty (1980) has shown that the consistency ratio should not be more than 10%. If it is more than 10% then the judgments need to be revised.

A criterion for an AHP analysis
A total of 15 criteria were considered while selecting a land ll site in the study area for Nashik and Environ namely geomorphology, hydrogeology, distance to road, drainage, lineament, slope, LULC, distance to water bodies, population density used for AHP-MCDA, while Airport, water bodies, road, habitation are used for restriction buffer analysis and aspect, the wind rose diagram for nal site suitability.

Geomorphology
This study map was taken from the NRSC data source by assigning the suitability scores 1 to 9 ( Table 2). The geomorphology map used in the study has been classi ed into six classes namely; moderately dissected, weathered, slightly dissected, waterbody, highly dissected, weathered-canal command, and undissected. Geomorphological features considered in the study that are directly linked to the groundwater percolation. It is an important factor in selection, for which highly dissected area is unsuitable and an undissected area is the most suitable for dumping solid waste. The suitability score for geomorphological parameters reveals that undissected areas having a high score of 9 and water bodies/weathered canal-command attained less score 1 (Fig. 3).  The geology map used in the study gives information about the in ltration rate capacity of the earth's surface. The study area covers three major lithological units as shown in Fig. 4, such as massive basalt, mixed basalt, and vesicular basalt. In ltration rate plays an important role in land ll suitability study, the rate of in ltration is high for mixed basalt while it is poor for massive basalt. Table 2 shows the massive basalt is highly suitable for site selection so that it has a high suitability score 9 and low score for mixed basalt 3, water body 1.

Distance to Road
The India road network data for highways, primary and secondary roads were selected for the Nashik city area to generate the distance to the road map. Disposal of waste in near to the roads can regulate the violation of laws, according to rules and regulations of the Central Pollution Control Board of India (CPCB 2003). As given by the CPHEEO manual, the construction of land ll sites should be 200m away from the national or state highway. By taking the buffer distance as consideration a minimum of 200m is taken as default for a not suitable condition for disposal of waste in the study area. Therefore, places away from the road network received a high score. Table 2 shows the land ll locations within 0-200m are not suitable with a score of 1 and the most suitability score of 9 was given to a more than 1000m of distance, Fig. 5 shows the results of distance to a road map.

Drainage Density
The study map of drainage density shows the stream channels present in the study area. The drainage density study gives information about the surface runoff, in this study Fig. 6 shows the drainage density map resulting from the CartoDEM imagery. The study area has a total length of the stream is 2379.55 Km and a total study area of 905.157 Sq.km, hence, drainage density for the total area is calculated (2.628 Km/Sq.km). Surface and subsurface formation in the study area from drainage density gives the information on surface run-off present in the region. Drainage density values of stream channels from 1-2, 1-3 km/sq.km have fewer chances of surface run-off while drainage density > 5 km/sq.km is having the highest value which tends to higher runoff present in the area. Potential drainage density areas in the study are not suitable for land lls while areas away from the drainage density are most suitable for the land ll site. In this study, a score of 9 for lesser drainage density and score of 1 for the higher drainage density as shown in Table 2.

Lineament Density
Surface fracture intensity can be quanti ed by lineament density. Figure 7 shows the lineament moments in the direction of NW-SE and NE-SW. It is well understood that less lineament density represents solid rocks with fewer in ltration rates, giving more chances of suitability for waste management land ll sites.
The present study area has less lineament density of 0-0.4 km/sq.km and the highest lineament density of > 0.8 km/sq.km. Figure 7 also shows northwest and southern parts of the study area have high to moderate lineament density. Table 2 depicts the weights of the lineament density, showing a suitability score of 7 for less lineament density and a score of 1 for high density.

Slope
CartoDEM satellite data has been used for the preparation of the slope map (Fig. 8). It has been classi ed into ve classes in degrees (0-2°, 2°-5°, 5°-10°, 10°-20°, > 20°). with a suitability score from 1 to 9 ( Table 2). The slope parameter plays an important role in the selection of suitable land ll sites. High excavation costs will be required for the higher degrees of slopes and the steep slope with an excess of waste leads to a landslide. The land ll site should be constructed on a at surface so that the at surface is most suitable for the study. A high degree of slope attained a suitability score of 1, and the atter area attained a suitability score of 7,9. 4.3.7. Land Use Land Cover (LULC) In the present study, Fig. 9 shows the LULC map of the Nashik and environs. LULC data prepared for the study by using LISS IV merged images of Resourcesat-2A satellite, having 5.8 m spatial resolution. LULC map has been classi ed into Built-up, Agriculture, Wasteland, Forest, and Waterbodies. Among the total area agriculture covered 49.88%, followed by wasteland 20.46%, built-up 17.74%, forest 6.07%, and water bodies 3.86% (Table 4). LULC data indicates the wasteland area is suitable for waste disposal. Table 2 shows the water bodies, forest, agriculture, built-up are not suitable for the land ll with a suitability score of 1 while the suitability score of 9 for the wasteland. Waterbodies network data used to prepare distance to water bodies map for land ll selection. Disposal of solid waste near to the water bodies can pollute surface and inland water bodies. Therefore, the buffer distance as consideration a minimum of 250m was taken as default for a not suitable condition for disposal of waste in the study area. Buffer distance 250m -500m was also taken as not suitable for more preservation of water body conditions. 500m -1000m were taken as moderately suitable and 1000m -1250m and above are taken as suitable for the disposal of solid waste in the site. Reclassify map of water bodies is shown in Fig. 10 4.3.9. Population Density In this study, Fig. 11 shows the population density map which was considered as the most important parameter in the land ll site selection. Population density map is generated with the help of Census India data. It de nes the population per unit area. The population of Nashik and Environ which includes Nashik Municipal Corporation and 73 surrounding villages in the study.Population density map generated for the population of 2690352 for the year 2021. The area covered by Nashik Municipal Corporation is almost saturated by built-up & habitation. Waste management sites within or nearer to these areas will be harmful to people and therefore, population density areas with less habitation are mostly preferred for land lling sites. The population density data are classi ed from a minimum of 250 Pop/sq.km and a maximum of above 3000 Pop/sq.km. Table 2 shows the most suitable area with a suitability score of 7, 9 for the least population density, whereas population density more than 3000 pop/sq.km has given the least importance with the suitability score of 1. Sites are away from the municipal corporation with the least density are considered unsuitable due to the expensive waste transportation, results are shown in Fig. 11

Airport
The airport restriction map was prepared according to the criteria given by the CPHEEO manual (2016).
Buffer analysis was carried out by using a distance of 7500m (Table 5) as shown in Fig. 12. The obtained vector polygons were converted into a raster format with a 5.8m spatial resolution. The restricted cell was assigned a value of 0, while a viable cell was assigned a value of 1. **All obtained restricted layers were merged into a binary mask layer of value 0, 1, having been combined using a raster calculator tool in spatial analyst. The restricted and non-restricted areas can be assigned a value of 0 and 1, respectively (Fig. 16).

Road
The Road network restriction map was prepared by considering a data of state highways, primary and secondary roads. Buffer analysis was carried out for the road network by using a distance of 200 m (Table 5) as shown in Fig. 13. The obtained vector polygons of roads were converted to raster format with a 5.8 m spatial resolution and the restricted cell was assigned a value of 0 to nullify the zone.

Waterbody
The waterbody network map was exported from the land use land cover map of the study area. The waterbody buffer analysis and restriction process are similar to that followed for distance to road network analysis. The present study area covers the reservoirs, rivers, lakes, canal, etc as the source of the waterbody. According to the solid waste management rules criteria given by the CPHEEO manual, the source of water and catchment area needs to be protected. To avoid the contamination, a 500m (Table 5) restricted zone was prepared for the waterbody network available in the study area. Figure 14 shows the waterbody restriction map in raster format with the available area for land ll suitability.

Habitation
The Habitation restriction process is based on the Population Density mapping, Fig. 11 shows a population density layer. Data were classi ed into a minimum to a maximum of population per sq.km of the area; a population maximum of above 500 pop per sq.km (Table 5) was restricted for the suitability. Figure 15 shows the most populated area of the Nashik and environs were restricted and another available area is for consideration. The Center of the city area is completely saturated and hence it is restricted for the analysis by assigning the pixel value of 0.

The Criterion for Site Selection
.5.1. Aspect CartoDEM satellite data used in digital elevation model tools to prepared the aspect map. Physical slope features and their directions were indicated by the aspect map data. Figure 17 shows the aspect map where at surfaces were in grey and its cell value will be -1. Slope directions measured from 0 degrees starting from the north in clockwise and it returns to 360 degrees north. The aspect map was classi ed into at surfaces and a total of eight directions and it indicated the south point of view. India completely lies in the north of the equator so that the present study area is located in the northern hemisphere, hence the radiance of sun rays higher on southern slopes. Land ll sites were selected in the directions to get the balance sun exposure so that the re incidents can also be controllable.

Windrose Diagram
In the present study, the windrose diagram for the year 2018 was considered for the visual interpretation and nal site selection. The windrose plot for Nashik city is freely available on Envitrans, which is processed according to the CPCB and US EPA Guidelines. The average wind speed of 6.9 km/h was analyzed and wind direction owing towards the West is determined. Figure 18 shows the wind owing towards the west with high speed and other direction observed at a calm position so that West direction is not suitable for the SWM land ll site suitability.

Results and Discussion
This study analyzed a total of 15 parameters in the selection of potential land ll sites; thematic maps like geomorphology, hydrogeology, distance to road, drainage, lineament, slope, LULC, distance to water bodies, population density used for AHP-MCDA, Airport, water bodies, road, habitation are used for restriction buffer analysis and aspect, the wind rose diagram for nal site suitability selection. GIS-MCDA techniques were used to develop the AHP comparison matrix for nine thematic parameters in the present study. The potential land ll site identi cation & its suitability were calculated using the suitability index. Table 3.shows the AHP comparison matrix and computed weights of each parameter. The consistency ratio of 0.05557 is obtained from the pairwise comparison matrix which is less than 0.1, so it was acceptable. In the AHP comparison matrix, population density, water bodies, and LULC criteria gave the most important to avoid the contamination by land ll disposal sites. Contamination of waste can cause air and water pollution that is not good for the health of human beings. The geomorphology map has given less importance with the obtained weightage value of 0.02015 and population density has a 0.30592 weightage with the most important in the AHP study. The restriction analysis is also carried out to get better and accurate results in case of sensitive areas like water bodies, habitation, airport, and road. Buffer analysis was done according to the CPHEEO manual of solid waste management rules by CPCB and MOEFC. The obtained vector polygons were converted into a raster format with a 5.8m spatial resolution. All obtained restricted maps were merged into a binary mask layer of value 0, 1. It has been combined using a raster calculator tool in spatial analyst. The restricted and non-restricted areas can be allotted a value of 0 and 1. A restricted map of selected areas was combined into the ArcGIS environment to generate the total restriction map of the Nashik and environs and the resultant map seen in Fig. 16. To prepared the solid waste management land ll suitability map, weights calculated for the nine thematic parameters were used in the GIS environment for weighted overlay analysis. Figure 19 shows the resultant land ll suitability map which has been classi ed into not suitable, less suitable, highly suitable. In the present study of Nashik and environs, due to the rapid urbanization & industrialization Nashik Municipal Corporation was mostly saturated, so that the suitable site area obtained in the suitability map of the study was away from the city area. Two threshold criteria were applied to the obtained result to identify the most suitable land ll sites in the present study. The land ll site area should be greater than 5 Ha and having weightage greater than the importance value 7. Figure 20 depicts the result of potential land ll sites map for the study area. The nal Suitability of sites were screened out by visual interpretation of selection criteria such as aspect and windrose diagram. The aspect map indicates the Nashik and environs area was located in the northern hemisphere and radiance of sun rays higher on southern slopes So, that the sites at North West and North East directions were more suitable, as it comes under considerable condition. While the wind rose diagram shown winds owing towards the west direction, hence sites available in the west direction were neglected. A set of four potential sites areas were identi ed (Table 6 and Fig. 20) as the most potential sites for Solid Waste Management. A land ll site that comes under the Four potential zones was classi ed into three categories; rank 1, rank 2, and rank 3. Rank 1 is found most suitable, rank 2 is moderately suitable, and rank 3 is less suitable. The results of the current methodology were useful in suitable SWM Land ll Site identi cation and ranking to the site.

Conclusions
The present study identi ed the potential land ll sites for Nashik and environs. Solid waste management land ll site for the upcoming years from 2021 onwards obtained by considering per capita waste generation. Geospatial technologies RS-GIS provides an optimum result to delineate the potential land ll sites in Nashik and Environ Villages within a 15 km radius. Thematic parameters used for the AHP-MCDA comparison matrix with their calculated weights help in accurate decision making. 15 thematic layers used in the study gave the best scienti c and impactful outcomes. The consistency ratio calculated for the AHP study was 0.05557 which was less than 0.10, which contributed to the precision of the selected technique. Integrated analysis of AHP-MCDA and restricted layers in the GIS environment proposed four potential land ll site areas around the study. Obtained potential land ll sites were mostly in the wasteland that was nearby to Nashik Municipal Corporation and away from the populated places, thus eliminating the risk of social con ict. The future scope will include an implementation of a land ll at the given suitable area after ground veri cation. Awareness and training program for solid waste handling/ disposal and Environmental Impact Assessment / Socio-Economical Assessment study for the potential sites needs to be done. Hence the identi ed land ll site as per the rules and regulations and the nal decision will depend on the stakeholders and related issues.

Declarations
Con icts of Interest: The authors declare that they have no con ict of interest.