title: Planning for the closure of uncontrolled landfills in Turkey to reduce environmental impacts.
abstract: Landfilling is the most preferred solid waste disposal method in Turkey owing to both economic and technical reasons. However, beside the sanitary landfills there are also hundreds of uncontrolled waste sites located throughout Turkey, which are often left either abandoned or burning. Because there is a lack of legislative guidelines governing the closure and rehabilitation of these dumpsites, the municipalities that are responsible for waste management do not initiate the proactive strategies required for the closure of these sites. In this study, a method based on a multi-criteria analysis is conducted for different dumpsites in Turkey to evaluate the level of negative impacts on the environment. This method is based on the use of environmental indices for a quantitative assessment of the landfills, such as environmental interaction between the source and the receptors, environmental values of the receptors, and operational conditions. It was possible to assess the robustness of the proposed methodology since the pre- and post-groundwater quality monitoring data was available from the study sites that were closed and rehabilitated in 2014. The results of this study show that the method based on a multi-criteria analysis is an effective tool while in the preliminary planning stages of closure and rehabilitation activities of uncontrolled waste landfills.
authors.affiliation: Department of EU Investments, Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, Ankara, Turkey Department of Environmental Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey d.ergene@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Didar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ergene Şentürk
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Emre
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alp
mesh_terms: D002947:Cities; D004777:Environment; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D060587:Groundwater; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey; D064091:Waste Disposal Facilities; D014876:Water Pollution
keywords: Uncontrolled landfills; dumpsites; environmental impacts; rehabilitation; solid waste