Sustainable waste-to-energy plant site selection by a hybrid method of geographic information system and evidential reasoning: A case study Guilan province

A new hybrid method of utilizing Evidential Reasoning (ER) approach and Geographic Information System (GIS) was applied to find the optimum location of a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) incineration plant in Guilan province. According to guidelines and prevailing conditions, thirteen criteria were analyzed and divided to three main sections of environmental, social and economic categories. Most of the data in the study were obtained from local organizations and satellite images. To weight the criteria, evidential reasoning was applied to aggregate the decision-makers’ opinions, and to find the potential sites; spatial analysis was done through the GIS. The result of suitability analysis indicates that about 0.07 % of total area of Guilan province is “the most suitable” region for the incineration plant and 0.05 %, 0.07 %, 2.77%, and 97.04 % are in the class of "suitable", "relatively suitable", “least suitable” and "limited". The areas with an area of larger than 40,000 m² which is the necessary area for a 9 MW incineration plant were classified as alternatives for incineration CHP plant locations (A₁-A₇). All the locations were investigated to be near rural areas, which might bring inevitable harm to the adjacent communities. Also, the low amount of “most suitable region” and “suitable region” foster a sense of concerns, which should be addressed by applying a sustainable approach for preserving the environment. The techno-economic analysis presented in this study indicates that the project is not economically beneficial at all.