Technical Feasibility for Site Selection for Municipal Solid Waste Final Disposal in Chihuahua

Municipal solid waste (MSW) generation is a global problem affecting the environment and public health. The current landfill’s useful life is reaching its end, making new site selection a priority to guarantee proper MSW management. This research evaluated the suitability of the Metropolitan area in the Chihuahua, Aldama and Aquiles Serdan municipalities, through Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS) integrated with Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) and ascending hierarchical analysis integrated to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to determine potential sites for new Metropolitan landfill development. Results showed that 44.7% of the studied area presents a high suitability level, while 29.52% reaches a very high suitability level. These areas are located mainly in the north and center zones of the Chihuahua and Aldama municipalities, with some isolated Aq-uiles Serdan areas. The key criteria affecting the selection were: the airport distance, the land slope and proximity to the intermunicipal boundary, which allowed identifying sites with lower environmental impact and higher technical and economic feasibility. This study demonstrates SDSS and GIS are efficient tools to identify potential sites for new landfill location. The results highlight the importance of integrating technical, envi-ronmental, and social criteria in planning MSW