What is it about?
Environmental projects need decision-making that integrates environmental, socio-political, and economic factors. Finding a suitable location for a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) can be a complex and challenging task for the government department, as it requires consideration of numerous geographic factors and their interactions. The purpose of the work reported in this paper was to select an alternative WWTP site in the urban areas of Laghouat City by using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and geographic information systems (GIS).
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Why is it important?
The city of Laghouat, on account of its geographical position near M’zi wadi and its situation on extremely fat topography, is vulnerable to natural hazards such as unpredictable foods of M'zi wadi that pose a threat to life and property in the surrounding urban and rural areas. Flooding of M’zi wadi has impacted the treatment efficiency and performance of the existing WWTP several times. It is important to highlight in this context that the floods of 27 August 2015 caused a considerable amount of damage to the pipe which connects the WWTP to the sewage network. Because of this, the WWTP was inoperable for a period of 2 years, until 23 July 2017. During that system failure, untreated wastewater was dropped directly into the M'zi wadi.
Perspectives
This final suitability map provides a scientific basis for better urban planning and more effective decision-making in such arid areas. The proposed methodology can be replicated in other areas and can be extended to other similar places, especially in MENA countries, as well as for other cities in developing countries around the world.
Prof. Abdelkader Hamlat
University of Laghouat
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Multi-criteria decision-making approach for selecting an alternative wastewater treatment plant site in urban areas of Laghouat (North-Central Algeria), Euro-Mediterranean Journal for Environmental Integration, November 2022, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s41207-022-00333-3.
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