Do solid waste landfills really decrease the environmental value? The case of the Valencia Region (Spain)

The effect of municipal solid waste landfills over the surrounding environment is often understood to be highly critical, even greatly modifying the existing land use. However, objective evaluations of this environmental impcts are seldom being performed. This work shows results obtained when evaluating the land use change induced by MSW landfills applying the Weighted Environmental index (WEI). WEI is based on the use of GIS techniques accounting for different information sources (digital cartography, aerial photographs and satellite images). WEI assigns environmental values to land use based on the degree of anthropogenic intervention and its occupation surface.

A georeferenced multitemporal statistical analysis is performed considering the values of WEI previously assigned to every land use. The methodology has been applied to analyze the land use change near all the existing MSW landfills in operation of Valencia Region (Spain).  Data have been obtained from the Spanish Land Occupation Information System (SIOSE) public database and integrate the more recent GIS information about land use/land cover.