A SUPPORT TOOL FOR LANDFILL ASSESSMENT

United Kingdom
Partners

Cranfield University

Contact

Frederic Coulon
Cranfield University
College Road
MK 430 OAL

E. f.coulon@cranfield.ac.uk
T: +44 123 475 49 81

Visit: www.cranfield.ac.uk

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

There is currently no decision support tool used specifically for the assessment of landfill performance. The majority of tools focus on environmental risk management objectives in accordance with environmental regulation. However, shorter-term landfill performance is important for landfill operators to assess in order to achieve additional goals such as faster landfill gas emissions and reducing the post-closure monitoring period.

A decision support tool provides a robust, consistent, transparent and reproducible method for the decision making process. Multi criteria analysis is essential for the use of a decision support tool in a landfill situation due to the wide range of processes and parameters involved.

PROJECT GOALS

The aim of the research is to produce a decision support tool to assess the performance and management options for a landfill site or cell.

Specific objectives are as follows:

  • Provide a simple and understandable screening tool

  • Score a landfill site or cell on a site specific basis using a multi criteria analysis method

  • Provide a breakdown of landfill process parameter performance

  • Transparent method of calculation

  • Core data can be adjusted by the user

  • Give recommendations to improve landfill performance across parameters

The method used by Krajnc and Glavič, (2005) will be used to provide a mathematically transparent composite index score which tracks landfill (or landfill cell) performance over time. Furthermore, the analytical hierarchical process has been chosen as it provides a straightforward and fast method of calculating the relative weights of each parameter. 

FUNDING TYPE: Co-funded by EPSRC and Viridor
BUDGET: £ 40.000

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Location

Department of Materials Engineering
Kasteelpark Arenberg 44
3001 Leuven, Belgium