Optimum Site Selection for Waste Water Treatment Plant by Using AHP And Multicriteria Analysis in Case of Debre Berhan City

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Wastewater treatment plant is one of the most serious problems the world facing, the problem gets more serious in developing countries. The city of Debre Berhan is currently generating wastewater simply discharging on the road, open fields and waterway sites that has not been selected by scientific study which is environmentally sound and socio-economically acceptable. Hence, it is found necessary to study and select new wastewater treatment plant site for the city that is environmentally, socially acceptable and economically feasible. This study was conducted by using Geographic Information System AHP and multi criteria analysis technique for selecting suitable wastewater treatment plant sites. Factors such as slope, elevation (altitude), road networks, wind direction, soil types, land use/ land cover, proximity from roads, proximity from water bodies and distance from settlements were used for selecting suitable wastewater treatment plant within the study area. The factor maps were reclassified and standardized in ArcGIS environment followed by preparation of their suitability maps. The weighted overlay analyses of the final map with final weighted factor map were integrated and produced the final suitable wastewater treatment plant site map using ArcGIS Spatial Analyst tools as a result, 61.83ha (1.828%), 1525.05ha (26.7077%), 3957.75ha (69.31091%), 165.51ha (2. 8985%) of the total study area was found to be Unsuitable, Low Suitable, Suitable, Highly suitable for wastewater treatment plant siting, respectively. The area of very high suitability are preferable for wastewater treatment plant sites, because of their minimum effect on environment, public health and cost effective than other parts of the study area. Application of AHP technologies in the study area is not fully employed. In order to select suitable sites for the industry, the town administrators should focus on those important parameters by using AHP and GIS, Therefore, the study will help the concerned authorities to formulate their development strategies according to the selected suitable wastewater treatment plant site available to the area.