Application of ArcGIS and QFD-based model for site selection for bio-medical waste disposal

Abstract

With the increasing formalisation of the health sector in India, the bio-medical waste (BMW) disposal regulations are getting stringent and its implementation is being enforced strictly. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) created a healthcare crisis because of the highly contagious nature of the novel virus. Measures employed for the prevention and management of COVID-19 resulted in the generation of an unprecedented amount of BMW in Indian medical history. This BMW needs to be disposed of safely at a suitable site to prevent secondary infection and the potential spread of the virus in the environment. The selection of an appropriate site for BMW disposal requires comparing a wide range of social, economic and environmental factors corresponding to different site locations, which makes it a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. This study aims to solve the BMW site selection problems using a quality function deployment-based model that can consider both the subjective and the objective criteria, and evaluate them as per the user’s requirements. The proposed model is applied to evaluate the suitability of waste disposal sites in the city of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, India. At first, eight possible locations for BMW disposal are identified, while utilising geographical information system (GIS). Consequently, the developed model is applied to evaluate the identified sites, taking 18 relevant criteria into consideration. A software prototype is developed in Visual BASIC 6 to automate the entire decision-making process, further adding to the novelty of the work.

Sanitary landfill site selection using GIS-based on a fuzzy multi-criteria evaluation technique: a case study of the City of Kraljevo, Serbia

“…Geospatial technologies based on the use of GIS are highly applicable in the field of environmental science (Durlević et al 2021;Novkovic et al 2021;Valjarević et al 2021;Jangre et al 2022). Moreover, GIS and geospatial data provide appropriate presentation of results for research in the fields of geography and geochemistry (Gulan et al 2022).…”

Geospatial alternatives for quantification of bio-thermal influence zone in the vicinity of a solid waste dump

“…For many years, geospatial technologies such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)/drones, satellite remote sensing (SRS) and geographical information system (GIS) have been largely utilized in the field of waste management, such as monitoring the extent and magnitude of solid waste pollution around MSW dumping sites and its effects on human beings and natural environment (Jangre et al, 2022; Rowland and Omonefe, 2021). Drone and UAV-based sensing of waste disposal sites is an emerging technology that makes it one of the most promising geospatial data collection and diagnostic tools for the GIS community (Sliusar et al, 2022).…”

Site Selection of Medical Waste Disposal Facilities Using the Interval-Valued Neutrosophic Fuzzy EDAS Method: The Case Study of Istanbul

“…In a GIS-based study, a GIS, the best-worst method (BWM), and the measurement of alternatives and ranking according to compromise-solution (MARCOS) methods were used in a hybrid way to determine the best alternatives for the facilities where the waste generated as a result of medical activities was to be stored [24]. In a post-COVID-19 study, a GIS-based approach that considered social, economic, and environmental criteria, together with objective and subjective data, was proposed to determine the location of facilities since the disposal of increasing amounts of MW would have a positive impact on preventing new possible health problems [25]. In a study on MW disposal processes, [26], used multi-criteria methods to select the most appropriate furnace to be used in the process of burning waste generated by healthcare services.…”