Geospatial Analysis for Optimizing Disposal of Solid Waste

Solid waste management is a term used commonly for garbage management. Humans have been living in settled communities producing waste which need to be disposed and modern societies generate far more solid waste than early humans ever did. The percentage of Indias population living in cities and urban areas is witnessing a massive growth due to rapid urbanization. Waste disposal in most cities/towns in India simply involves collecting up the waste from different parts of the city into local dumps from where they are later collected and transported to the landfill sites or dumping yards for disposal. Indias per capita waste generation is so high, that it creates a crisis if the garbage is not collected on a daily basis, and disposed off regularly. Urban solid waste disposal has become a major concern in India and an efficient system for waste collection, transportation and disposal of this solid waste is a major requirement. Geospatial technology has become of pervasive use and has enough potential for developing a dynamic management of solid waste in India. The present study utilizes the geospatial techniques to find out the existing dustbin locations in Dehradun city and finding out the relationship between the total waste generated per ward in Dehradun to the existing population of the ward. Further, the number of dustbins available for every ward are evaluated and an analysis on the distribution of dustbins for every ward is presented suggesting the wards with shortfall of proper waste disposal units. The Population sweeper ratio was also analysed to understand the cleaning and waste collection pattern in the wards studied.