Multi‐Criteria GIS‐Based Assessment of Landfill Suitability Under Hydro‐Environmental and Geo‐Ecological Constraints: A Sustainability‐Driven Approach From Edirne, Türkiye

ABSTRACT

Municipal solid waste management is a critical challenge in hydro‐environmentally sensitive regions, requiring complex evaluations for landfill siting. This study develops a risk‐informed Geographic Information System (GIS)‐based multi‐criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework for landfill site selection in Edirne Province. Edirne represents a highly constrained decision space due to its low‐lying topography, floodplain dynamics, dense river networks, and intensive agriculture. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), the framework integrates eight key criteria: flood susceptibility, river proximity, slope, elevation, land use/land cover (LULC), geological structure, soil characteristics, and accessibility. Results reveal that moderate suitability areas dominate the province (64.1%), followed by high (21.9%) and low (12.4%) suitability. Very high suitability areas are severely restricted, covering only 0.8% (52.3 km ² ) and emerging as fragmented patches where favorable conditions intersect. This spatial scarcity is primarily driven by critical environmental bottlenecks, specifically compatible LULC (0.4%), suitable geology (4.8%), and low‐permeability soils (3.9%), which collectively exert a strong spatial filtering effect. Ultimately, this structured GIS‐MCDA screening approach informs sustainable waste management planning in environmentally constrained regions. The severe limitation of highly suitable land demonstrates that conventional landfill expansion is spatially restrictive. The findings underscore the urgent need for strategies aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 6 and 11), emphasizing surface and groundwater protection, resource recovery, recycling, and a critical transition away from landfill‐dependent waste systems.